weapons connector

it certainly is a weapons connector was used on pretty much everything from hawker biplanes to typhoons and beyond. If it needs a new home i need some for my Hind. Let me know what you want for it?

hawker construction philosophy

Hawkers could certainly have used welded steel fueselage construction. The reason that they chose to use, what is viewed as today as an overly conplicated contrauction method, was to fascilitate easy maintenance. If a fueselage tube was damaged it was a relatively easy process to remove it and replace it. Not only that this could be accomplished almost anywhere with a very limited tool kit. The same can not be said for welded construction. Imagine operating in north africa in the middle of no where and needing to reapair an aircraft that required welding. It is easy to think of the contruction method when viewed from the luxary of a modern well equiped workshop.
The proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating. You only have to look at the record of the Hawker Hurricane. It operated in every theatre of operations during World War II with distinction. This was unmatched by any other allied aircraft due to it rugged contruction and its relative ease of maintenance. So i would hope you would agree there is method in Sir Sidneys madness!

mug shot

Yes very remiss of you!;) Unfortunately that one didn’t have a data plate. They were fitted either to the woodwork or the lower control panel. It is also possible that it was one of the ones that was delivered directly from hawkers. I have been unable to find any information about serial number for them so it is possible that they did not have data plates.

Hi Alex,
Judging by the markings that the survivors have been found with. The markings that the ex RAF machines were delivered with were just painted over. Lots of the stencilling is still in place. All definately remained silver dope with other markings applied. I have researched the eight Hinds that were originally sent and have not been able to find any reference to any serial numbers that may have been applied. I think the chances of finding a picture of any of the aircraft in Afghan service are pretty slim as the Taliban destroyed any photos and documents. A few Brits were involved in training the Afghans and Rolls Royce were involved at fairly early stage also. In 1946 a MKVIII spitfire was flown from India to Kabul with the hope of selling them to the Afghans. Unfortunately they opted for Ansons. Any or all of those may be sources of info and pics. I would have thought that Hawkers would have taken pictures for their archive. I have seen several pics of persian Hinds etc so i would imagine somewhere those pics exist.
I can certainly fill in some info regarding the RAF machines that were sent pm me and let me know what you need. regards Pat

it is NOT poli charki it KMTC military scrap yard off the jalalabad road i think we are both talking about the same place the confusion seems to lie in the location of poli charki. Poli charki is in a completely different direction!

Afghan yard pics

here are the pics as promised 😀

hi yes afghanistan not coli charki the aircraft is a hawker hind. I have a pic of what i think is a mig 17 and some very beaten up russian hind d’s i will dig them out