Was a DH Hornet prepared for Air Racing?

There was a Hornet entered into the 1949 National Air Race at Elmdon.
PX386 flown by a R.W Jamieson/G.H Pike. Race number 84.
Also in this race were a BP Balliol, Short Sturgeon, Firebrand, two Spitfires, Sea Fury, Vampire, Hawker P1040, DH 108, Short Sealand plus numerous light aircraft of the day.
At the same event was another race the R AuxAF Squadron race involving a Vampire and five Spitfires.
Some event, eat your heart out Reno.

I wish I could have gone to see it as I was only living 3 miles away at the time, but I was only 6 weeks old ! I know poor excuse
Inconsiderate parents.

There is a great photo of the event showing many of the entrants including the Hornet on the apron at Elmdon in the now defunct quarterly publication Vintage Aircraft editor by Gordon Riley No 16 April 1980. Great magazine, sadly didn’t last long.
I would scan a picture but do not have scanning facilities.
Anybody out there have a copy that they could scan?

No, we never talked about it. I only knew that in his earlier years–I knew him in the 1970s, when he owned a large bush/airline operation based in Resolute–he’d flown a Hornet doing aerial mapping. So if this was the only Hornet operating in Canada, it had to be the one Weldy flew.

If you’re interested, you can read a lengthy Flying Magazine article that I wrote about Weldy here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=AMAfhgODz60C&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=weldy+phipps&source=bl&ots=0dVMhBZ5NU&sig=2SopHpDWcU4lpBswOCKf18PitAo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhmu7-tv_TAhVHSyYKHebACNQ4ChDoAQgqMAI#v=onepage&q=weldy%20phipps&f=false

Hi Stepwilk,

That’s interesting to hear your friend used to fly CF-GOU.

Did he ever pass onto you his experiences of flying it? I’d be interested to hear.

There was one Sea Hornet TT193/CF-GUO being operated in Canada, initially for cold weather trials, and latterly as a privately owned aerial mapping aircraft.

My late friend Weldy Phipps used to fly that Hornet.

Thanks for the link Ben,

I know they had Hornet spares years ago, as I bought them! So, maybe more have turned up within the former Airsam parts??

Hi DC, different tangent but although none are listed Aerovintage have a ‘Sea Hornet Spares’ section – maybe worth a call if you havent already! http://www.aerovintagespares.com/avspares/Sea_Hornet.html

ATB TT

Hi blackjet604,

Searching through the Flight Global Archive, if you read on in subsequent issues you will see the DH Hornet F3 was withdrawn from the NZ race. The statement from the initial article: “Several Hornets are privately owned in North America” is incorrect, and is probably an extrapolation from the single Sea Hornet CF-GUO/TT193 that was being operated as an aerial mapping aircraft.

Quite which Hornet F3 was intended for this race is not stated, but you are probably correct in saying it would have been a UK-based DH company prepared airframe, used for promotion. The year 1953 is pretty late in its service life, and the demand for all available airframes by the RAF to be sent to Malaya at the same time, may have meant none were available?

“The New Zealand Race
THE London-to-Christchurch (New Zealand) Air Race is now less than a fortnight distant. The contest will be started from London Airport at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday, October 8th, by H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester.
When the entry-list was first published, seven months ago, there were 19 nominations—13 in the Speed Section and six in the Transport Handicap. Since then there have been one or two changes and—as in all events of this kind—the inevitable withdrawals. An American entry, the F-82 Twin Mustang to have been flown by Maj. H. I. Hill and Mr. J. L. Dyer, was replaced some weeks ago by a B-45 Tornado, with the same crew, and since then the Royal Aero Club—who are responsible for the organization at this end—have been notified that the B-45, in turn, has been withdrawn. Another non-starter, not altogether unexpectedly, is the channel-wing Custer Executive, which made its first flight as recendy as July 13th; it was to have competed in the Transport Handicap. Other withdrawals, notified earlier, have been the Danish F-84G Thunderjet, the U.S. entry of a D.H. Hornet F.3 (to have been flown by “Slick” Goodlin), and the Spitfire 24 entered by the American Aircraft Corporation; the last-named aircraft crashed, killing P. D. Freytag, who was to have flown it in the race. There are rumours, incidentally, that the Australian Commonwealth-Mustang (F/L. Whiteman) is an unlikely starter. There now remain nine entries in the Speed Section and five in the Transport Handicap. The R.N.Z.A.F. Hastings arrived in this country on September 11th, landing at Lyneham after an uneventful journey from New Zealand. The pilot, W/C. R. F. Watson, said that they had experienced most unusual met. conditions of a head-wind of about 35 knots all the way—”If somebody can produce the same wind-direction for the race we shall be very happy.” The Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant crew have to pack a considerable training schedule into the time remaining. One of the main objects, say the makers, will be to observe fuel consumption and performance in detail; a number of full-load take-offs and landings will be made, and the results gained will be a guide to the take-off performance in the warmer, thinner air at Karachi and toe Cocos Islands. During these nights, also, various “domestic” details will be examined, such as the best way to feed the crew, who will be wearing oxygen masks for much of the race-flight. The Valiant will fly m three stages, London-Karachi (4,192 miles), Karachi-Cocos (3,255) and Cocos-Christchurch (4,929)—12,376 Ac maiH-The RAF – Canberras are to make a five-stage flight.
Of the Viscount’s prospects in the Transport Handicap, Vickers admit that in a world-spanning race of this kind their entry of an aircraft designed for medium-stage work cannot hope to receive the handicap allowance necessary to give it victory. Never-theless, they expect it to give a good account of itself and to demonstrate turboprop reliability. Full arrangements have been made for spectators; of these we shall publish particulars, including admission prices, etc., in a
race-guide—giving full details of entries in next week’s issue.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHjyuhIVM1M

That beautiful aeroplane would have “made a decent” anything

A quick look in Peter Lewis’ book “British Racing and Record Breaking Aircraft” has a Hornet F3, PX305, flying from Gibraltar to Bovingdon on September 19 1949 in 2hrs 31min 36 sec at an average speed of 435.871 mph to set a Class C1 record. That’s pretty fast so the Hornet could have made a decent racer.

I once had a copy of “Racing Planes Guide”. I seem to recall that this contained a picture of a Hornet carrying a racing number, but I am not absolutely sure.

Hi Air Ministry,

“Naaah, that’s just a twin-engined Chipmunk!”

There’s definitely a family resemblance. Now that’s a homebuild-Chipmunk conversion I’d like to see!

David,

Thank you for the reply. I don’t think now that it was an exported plane, but an attempt to perhaps uphold British honor against the possible F-82 record setter from 1947. It seems that the F-82 entered could have been the same plane as the record setter, although I think everyone looked at the DC-6 and eventually saw that grand lady couldn’t be beat. I wonder if DH took on the project with “Slick”‘s promotion or if it was the other way around? ….A shame there are none left….Thank you for your efforts to bring one back!

F-82 Info…

“On 27 February 1947, P-82B 44-65168, named Betty Jo and flown by Colonel Robert E. Thacker, made history when it flew nonstop from Hawaii to New York without refueling, a distance of 5,051 mi (8,129 km) in 14 hr 32 min using 1,816 US Gallons of fuel. To this day, it remains the longest nonstop flight ever made by a propeller-driven fighter, and the fastest such a distance has ever been covered in a piston-engined aircraft.”

Incidentally that is an 872 minute flight at 5.79 miles per minute, or 347.54 mph average…at 2.78138 miles per gallon…or 2.0817 gallons per minute. Meaning each Merlin engine consumed 1.0409 Gallons per minute at that speed. The engines apparently were V-1650-23 and 25 engines of which only 40 were made of each type. Simply an amazing flight.

Absolutely beautiful machine.

Naaah, that’s just a twin-engined Chipmunk!

What, with Merlins….??!!!!!!

Naaah, that’s just a twin-engined Chipmunk!

Every time I see the Hornet I wonder what we might have seen had the jet not arrived when it did.

Hi blackjet64,

There is a small grain of truth in this. There was one Sea Hornet TT193/CF-GUO being operated in Canada, initially for cold weather trials, and latterly as a privately owned aerial mapping aircraft.

I’ve not managed to get the complete picture, but either Mr.Goodlin was unable to purchase TT193/CF-GUO due to it being in use at the time, or by then it had become unservicable due to lack of spares.

In any case, this was the only Sea Hornet in Canada, and it never became a racer.

Closer to home in the UK however, one Hornet F.3 PX386 was indeed prepared as a racing aircraft for the 1949 King’s Cup. I researched and provided the scheme (with assistance from Mark Gauntlett) for this rather splendid die cast 1/72 desk top model a couple of years ago.

I was reading an old Bill Gunston book last evening, it it he said no Hornets or Sea Hornets existed.

As a racing plane…it would be sort of a latter-day DH Comet.