The recent mention of the
Sea Hornet in the newspaper article that I featured in the blog entry about my seventieth birthday took me back to my early childhood, when I had the opportunity to see an RAF
Hornet at close quarters. I think that it was being used as a instructional airframe at an RAF training school that I visited in the company of a relative who was in the RAF, but as I was about six or seven at the time, I cannot be absolutely sure of the location.
An even more tenuous link to the
Hornet and the
Sea Hornet is the fact that my maternal grandfather worked for de Havilland just before the Second World War, and had he not been called up (he was an NCO in a Territorial Army unit of the Royal Artillery), it is likely that he would have been involved in their construction.
The
Hornet was designed in the period between the de Havilland
Mosquito going into full-time production and the preliminary work on the jet-propelled
Vampire fighter. The design drew heavily on the experience gained in the design the
Mosquito, and used a similar balsa/plywood sandwich construction method for the fuselage and upper surface of the wings. The lower surface of the wings was clad in aluminium, as were the ailerons and horizontal tail.
The aircraft was powered by two slimline type 130 and 131 Merlin engines. These were unusual as they were designed to rotate their propellers in different directions. When looked at from the front, the 130 was fitted to the port wing and turned anti-clockwise, and the 131 was fitted to the starboard wing and turned clockwise. This was done to counteract the torque effect of having two propellers turning in the same direction, a problem that had affected the
Mosquito.
RAF Hornet
A total of 209
Hornets were built and operated by the RAF, mainly in the Far East in support of counter-insurgency operations during the early years of the Malayan Emergency (1948 to 1960). They proved to be excellent ground-attack aircraft, with a good reliability record and long endurance. A number of
Hornets performed photo-reconnaissance duties, although the ones sent to the Far East retained their armament, unlike those that remained in the UK, which were unarmed.
Fleet Air Army Sea Hornet
The Fleet Air Arm used a total of 174
Sea Hornets, initially as long-range fighter escort and strike aircraft but later for photo-reconnaissance and as night fighters. In the former role they were unarmed, but in the latter role they retained their gun armament and were equipped with an ASH radar. The Sea Hornet was modified so that its outer wings could be folded, and the airframe was strengthened and equipped for launching by catapult as well as being fitted with an arrestor hook.
The
Hornet F.3's characteristics were:
- Crew:1
- Dimensions:
- Length: 35ft 6in (10.82m)
- Wingspan: 45ft (14m)
- Height: 14ft 2in (4.32m)
- Weight: 11,292lb (5,122kg) (empty); 15,820lb (7,176kg) (gross); 18,250lb (8,278kg) (maximum take-off when carrying with 2 x 200 gallon drop-tanks
- Powerplant: 2 x Rolls-Royce Merlin 130/131 (left-hand and right-hand rotation) V-12 liquid-cooled piston engines, 2,070hp each powering a 4-bladed de Havilland constant-speed propellers (left-hand and right-hand rotation)
- Performance:
- Maximum speed: 475 mph at 21,000ft (6,400m)
- Cruising speed: 270 mph at 20,000 ft (6,100m)
- Range: 1,480 miles
- Ferry range: 2,600 miles
- Service ceiling: 41,500ft (12,600m)
- Armament: 4 x 20mm (.79in) Hispano Mk. V cannon (with 190 rounds per gun) in lower fuselage nose; 2 x 1,000lb (454kg) bombs under the wings; 8 x 60lb (27kg) RP-3 unguided rockets
