yulzari
Staff Sergeant
As a different route to a better Sea Hurricane how about this. Has the space and larger wing area to lift more fuel off the deck and the airframe was used to test both the Griffon and the Vulture.
Build a better Sea Hurricane 1938 (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter fastmongrel
- Start date
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SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
This a Henly variant I've not seen.
Shortround6
Major General
Except in 1938-39 you have the Hawker version of the Fulmar. Wing is actually over a foot longer but exactly the same area, 342 sq ft.
It is about 1000lbs lighter when empty and around 1100-1200lbs lighter when loaded compared to a Fulmar but then the Henley III was a target tug and had no guns/ammo and only had 94imp gal of fuel.
If you have to wait several years for an engine it doesn't do you much good in 1938/39.
Now if this thing had been canceled outright and Gloster (actual production site) had built 200 folding Hurricanes with deliveries starting in 1940 you might have something
It is about 1000lbs lighter when empty and around 1100-1200lbs lighter when loaded compared to a Fulmar but then the Henley III was a target tug and had no guns/ammo and only had 94imp gal of fuel.
If you have to wait several years for an engine it doesn't do you much good in 1938/39.
Now if this thing had been canceled outright and Gloster (actual production site) had built 200 folding Hurricanes with deliveries starting in 1940 you might have something
It is hardly surprising that dimensionally the Henley and the Fulmar were so similar. Both had their origins in Spec P.4/34 for a light bomber. When the Spec for an "Interim" fighter arose in O.8/38, Fairey's starting point was its P.4/34 prototype which it modified by taking about a foot out of the wingspan, amongst other changes.
Fairey P.4/34 Fairey P.4/34 - Wikipedia
Fairey Fulmar Fairey Fulmar - Wikipedia
Commentry here on Henley and some reasons for building those 200 Henleys as target tugs.
dingeraviation.net
Production was from about Nov 1938 to June 1940 (so an average of about 10 per month). Initially that was alongside Gladiator II (270 built 1938/39 plus the 2 emergency batches of a total of 98 Sea Gladiators in Dec 1938-Feb 1939 intended for the FAA - 16 retained by RAF) and later Hurricanes. Gloster delivered 500 Hurricanes from Nov 1939 to April 1940 in its first contract, at an average rate of 3 per day.
Gladiator was still in RAF front line service in the Med and Middle East until mid-1941 due to a lack of Hurricanes. Any more Hurricane production availability would be going to them not the FAA. Priorities again.
Fairey P.4/34 Fairey P.4/34 - Wikipedia
Fairey Fulmar Fairey Fulmar - Wikipedia
Commentry here on Henley and some reasons for building those 200 Henleys as target tugs.
Hawker Henley target tug and dive-bomber.
dingeraviation.net
Production was from about Nov 1938 to June 1940 (so an average of about 10 per month). Initially that was alongside Gladiator II (270 built 1938/39 plus the 2 emergency batches of a total of 98 Sea Gladiators in Dec 1938-Feb 1939 intended for the FAA - 16 retained by RAF) and later Hurricanes. Gloster delivered 500 Hurricanes from Nov 1939 to April 1940 in its first contract, at an average rate of 3 per day.
Gladiator was still in RAF front line service in the Med and Middle East until mid-1941 due to a lack of Hurricanes. Any more Hurricane production availability would be going to them not the FAA. Priorities again.
Geoffrey Sinclair
Staff Sergeant
- 843
- Sep 30, 2021
Gloster factory output during Henley production run, 38 mark II allocated for Sea (interim) version but only 22 delivered to FAA
Above includes 39 Gladiator II produced for export August to November 1939, 15 Portugal, 18 Egypt. 6 Norway and 30 RAF order transferred to Finland.
As of end June 1944 there were 51 Henley with Fighter Command Miscellaneous or Storage Units and 5 more in other stores or under repair, 142 had been written off in the UK, 3 sent to the Admiralty, 1 was unaccounted for, total production 202 (2 prototypes, 200 target tugs).
| Month | Gladiator I | Gladiator II | Gladiator II Met | Gladiator Sea Interim | Gladiator Sea | Henley | Hurricane I |
Oct-38 | 4 | 2 | |||||
Nov-38 | 3 | ||||||
Dec-38 | 3 | 11 | 5 | ||||
Jan-39 | 13 | 11 | 5 | ||||
Feb-39 | 20 | 2 | 13 | ||||
Mar-39 | 4 | 42 | 17 | ||||
Apr-39 | 17 | 16 | 16 | ||||
May-39 | 47 | 4 | 17 | ||||
Jun-39 | 45 | 3 | 17 | ||||
Jul-39 | 39 | 18 | |||||
Aug-39 | 27 | 18 | |||||
Sep-39 | 19 | 21 | |||||
Oct-39 | 4 | 14 | 2 | ||||
Nov-39 | 7 | 8 | 13 | ||||
Dec-39 | 7 | 17 | |||||
Jan-40 | 7 | 9 | 34 | ||||
Feb-40 | 4 | 4 | 34 | ||||
Mar-40 | 2 | 2 | 56 | ||||
Apr-40 | 3 | 2 | 69 | ||||
May-40 | 79 | ||||||
Jun-40 | 144 | ||||||
Jul-40 | 120 | ||||||
Aug-40 | 140 | ||||||
Sep-40 | 2 | 132 | |||||
| Total | 4 | 261 | 7 | 22 | 60 | 200 | 840 |
As of end June 1944 there were 51 Henley with Fighter Command Miscellaneous or Storage Units and 5 more in other stores or under repair, 142 had been written off in the UK, 3 sent to the Admiralty, 1 was unaccounted for, total production 202 (2 prototypes, 200 target tugs).
