I like this little plane, the protoype proposed for the same role that was eventually fulfilled by the Boulton Paul Defiant.
An article details this one and only plane’s history in the May 1991 issue of Aeroplane Monthly, but it gives no firm detail of what happened to it. It had a forced landing on 12th of Feb 1942, there was no fire, the pilot was unhurt and the engine was designated repairable. The article simply states “However it was apparently thought that the effort was unjustifiable and K8309 disappeared from the scene.”
A pity it wasn’t kept by Hawkers simply for nostalgia’s sake. I think it’s great, a cross between the Hurricane and the Typhoon, with a turret to boot! And obviously it’s name derives form the popular boy’s adventure comic of the time!
By: JDK - 7th April 2004 at 14:35
Indeed. And the Henley and Hotspur were very similar designs.
The original idea was for the Henley to be a dive bomber, and IF the Allies had air superiority in 1939/40, and IF they’d been trying to fight W.W.II instead of W.W.I would have been Britain’s Stuka. Now there’s a thought.
The hard pic looked like:
By: 682al - 7th April 2004 at 13:45
That’ll be a Hawker Henley? Originally intended as a light bomber along the lines of the Battle, but rejected and converted for target tug use instead.
By: JDK - 7th April 2004 at 11:28
I was saving this for a mystery aeroplane quiz, but here it is anyway.
From a film from the excellent www.britishpathe.com website. 1629.09 is the film’s reference. This is just one shot in it.
Cheers
By: Eric Mc - 7th April 2004 at 11:25
I think that the Rolls Royce “Whizzer” woukd have been a good name, but not the Rolls Royce “Chips”.
There was also a comic called “Battle” which no doubt inspired Fairey.
By: JDK - 7th April 2004 at 11:17
The Rolls Royce Bunty was a jet engine which never left the hangar because it had a bad self image.
By: Eric Mc - 7th April 2004 at 09:46
Although Viz did get some aviation fame during Gulf War .
There I was thinking that the top execs at Rolls Royce were avid comic readers. To be honest, I always wondered why the Rolls Royce Bunty and Judy were never proceeded with.
By: Arthur - 7th April 2004 at 09:15
So Viz didn’t exist back then yet? I would have liked the Blackburn Buster Gonad, or the Fairey Fat Slag.
By: mike currill - 7th April 2004 at 09:11
In the case of Rolls Royce the names have nothing to do with comics. Their piston engines were named after birds of prey and their jets were named after rivers
By: Eric Mc - 7th April 2004 at 08:00
As was the GAL Hotspur.
British aircraft and engine builders were obviously comic fans judging by the names they gave their aircraft and engines –
Armstrong Siddeley “Jaguar” (Jag)
Armstrong Siddeley “Tiger”
Hawker “Hurricane”
Napier “Lion”
Vickers “Valiant”
Rolls Royce “Eagle”
Handley Page “Victor”
Luckily, they didn’t appear to read the Dandy or Beano.
By: Papa Lima - 7th April 2004 at 07:59
Notes from my personal database (of first flights), source “The British Fighter since 1912” page 270:
“Only ever fitted with wooden mock-up turret instead of planned Boulton Paul power-operated version.
When production (to be by Avro) cancelled, rear cockpit was faired over, delivered to RAE. Written off after a forced landing at Yateley Common, Hants., February 12, 1942.”
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April 7, 2004 at 7:54 am