Hurricane G-AFKX question

Your nose is wrong in side view for this one aircraft: G-AFKX had the nose widened to match the diameter of the Rotol spinner, which had been sized for the Spitfire. See the side view photo in post 6. When this spinner/prop was fitted to other aircraft there was a step down as shown in your plan views, because the standard Hurricane nose was retained. Your side views show the later Rotol spinner designed for the Hurricane, which was eventually fitted to late Mk.Is and subsequent marks, on that standard nose which again is wrong for this single aircraft.

Thanks Graham, I’m aware of the differences in the drawing, just using it to get the lettering laid out. I’m building a model of this aircraft using an ancient 1/24 Airfix kit I picked up in the 70’s, and I’m not planning on changing the nose; in fact I had a friend spin me a solid aluminum spinner for this project in the early 90’s, and I gave him a drawing for a Mk II unit! So the inaccuracies will be legion by the time I’m done. Oh not to mention I’ll be keeping the metal wings. But it will look nice!

cheers & thanks

GV

Your nose shows the standard design. On G-AFKX the nose diameter was increased to match the diameter of the Rotol spinner, which had been sized for the Spitfire. See the side view photo in post 6. When this spinner/prop was fitted to other aircraft there was a step down as shown in your plan views, because the standard Hurricane nose was retained. Your side views show the later Rotol spinner designed for the Hurricane, which was eventually fitted to late Mk.Is and subsequent marks, on that standard nose which again is wrong for this single aircraft.

Ok think I’ve got the artwork ready for the decal printer, mind giving me your thoughts on which upper wing variant to go with? Not sure how the lettering is supposed to be spread out.

cheers

greg v.

K5083 – prototype

Over on Pprune,mil. forum,`Right time ,right place`,there is a photo of an early Hurricane with fabric covered wings,last two serials are `83`

This is probably a loooong way off the track with reading old lettering on photos etc buuuut might give you an idea of the technique.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1094798/pg1

thanks for all the info!

here’s one for you sleuths….. G-AFKX carried a data-block of sorts on the port side rear fuselage; so far I have made out what I think the top three lines of text say, but cannot figure out what the lower two sections of text might be. It seems there’s two groups of text, two stacked lines each, under the main three top lines. Chief designer and chief pilot’s names perhaps? Telephone numbers? Some reference to the “aerodrome: Brooklands”. Looks like perhaps the bottom right hand word could be Weybridge? So maybe Surrey is in there someplace as well? I managed to find a few period documents that might help. Or not…

Anyways any help most appreciated. It helps of you stand a ways back from the monitor when trying to discern what the lettering is btw.

cheers

Greg V.

Re the Langley Defence Hurricane I notice that in online photos showing the close up of the nose artwork that underneath the forward cockpit area it appears as though it had night exhaust deflectors fitted at some stage I assume as you can see a row of what look like rivet holes?.

As the Merlin 45 was a single stage single geared Merlin, like the original Mk.III, then that’s another hint that it wasn’t the same aircraft as the Langley Hurricane. Though of course it would be possible to put the shorter engine into a Mk.II airframe – as was indeed done once for 880 Sq on HMS Indomitable – it must have been rare.

G-AFKX was based on Mk.I airframe (contrary to the usual photo captions) originally allocated serial L1606 and I believe a replacement L1606 was built, because it seems to have the shorter wing root fairing associated with the shorter Mk.I nose. It should, on the other hand, have had a performance similar to the Mk.II, as G-AFKX had by 1941 been fitted with a Merlin 45 engine and metal wings.

It would seem not, as this would require a new fuselage as well as a new wing, to cope with the Merlin XX. Presumably it would also have been listed amongst those aircraft converted from Mk.I to Mk.II standard: memory suggests that none were of such an early build standard.

I believe that a serial has been suggested for the Langley Hurricane, though I don’t recall which. Could this have been featured in the AFAIK section of Air Britain, or on their website?

There is definitely something under the nose on the Langley pic.

Better photo of the nose here:

http://www.worldwarphotos.info/wp-content/gallery/uk/raf/hurricane/Langley_defence_Hurricane_Mk_IIB.jpg

Need to remember how many rivets on a mk I panel v a mk II

[ATTACH=CONFIG]250958[/ATTACH]

Could G-AFKX be the Langley Defence Hurricane?.
Image taken from Aircam Aviation Series No.24

It is difficult to be certain from the photo, but could this aircraft have had its non-standard nose ring replaced in its final state? Originally the nose ring was a one-off designed to match the diameter of the early Rotol spinner.

As I had the book out[ATTACH=CONFIG]250953[/ATTACH]

Cool, thanks for the info Dave.

There is a picture taken ‘in the second half of 1943’ of it in Day Fighter camouflage, but with G-AFKX marked where the serial would be on a service aircraft. It was published in Gordon Swanborough’s ‘British Aircraft at War 1939-1945’ (The book version of the Air Pictorial series)

Quite a fuzzy pic, so you can’t really tell what wing it has, but if pushed I’d say metal, as the landing light looks a little further outboard

G-AFKX was ex L1606 and I believe still in use in 1943. AJJ has one photograph of it.

http://www.ajjcollection.co.uk/AFAA.HTM

Ok, it took me a decade but I contacted David at AJJ… turns out they had three pics of G-AFKX, two of which clearly show the black civil reg (black was noted on the back of one of the photos) on the underside of the wings. There are no shots showing the topside of the wings, but I’m going on the assumption that the civil reg was there as well. I asked David if I could post the pics here but there’s some issue with 3rd party websites etc. Sorry gents.

All the pics are of the aircraft still in it’s fabric wing phase, and clearly show no trace of gun ports or ejection chutes, plus an early pitot under the wing as well as early tailwheel leg and windshield.

cheers

gv

excellent Gents, thanks for all the responses, and the pic is great!

So can I correctly assume then that this machine went back to the RAF (or RN) at some point with metal wings, which were installed after its time spent as a Hawker test machine?

I have seen a couple of different versions of the civil reg from a few different sources; were they blue or black?

cheers, and thanks again!

greg v.

P.S. Pardon my ignorance, but what does “WFU” stand for? (edit: got it, “withdrawn from use”; I was thinking in terms of RAF acronyms…)

G-AFKX

Was this the machine known as the langley defence hurricane!!!