Hurricane prototype?

[simonpg]

This is a photo taken by my father in about 1934. He took it at Hendon airport in Middlesex (now Heathrow I think), and says it was a plywood prototype of a Hurricane. My father is 90, but his older memories are still quite good. However I would like to know if it is a Hurricane, and also whether it could be a plywood prototype?

My father was a member of the Blackheath model flying club in Surrey in the 1930/40s. In 1939 he was in the British team for the King Peter Cup. The photo is part of his collection of photos from his model flying days.

Simon
Tasmania

 

[The Basket]

Looks like K5083 which would be the Hurricane prototype. I wouldn't date it 1934 but rather 1935.

The photo is lacking but I am trying to see the struts on the tail.

Raf Hendon and Heathrow are not the same.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool pic.

 

[stona]

That is a Hurricane and is indeed the one and only prototype. It's construction was almost identical to the service version,partly aluminium skinned but largely fabric covered wood and metal frames so not strictly speaking plywood.
A picture taken at Hendon would probably be later 1936/7.The prototype first flew on 6/11/35 and a lot of testing took place at Martlesham Heath (not far from Ipswich in Suffolk).
Your dad did well to get a snap of Britain's most advanced fighter prototype,I doubt photography was encouraged!
Here's a couple of official pictures.

Cheers
Steve

 

[The Basket]

Does anyone have a date when the struts were removed?

 

[simonpg]

Thanks everyone for the input, and for the explanation photos Steve. Dad would have been at Hendon as part of his activities with model flying. Just happened to be there on the right day. As pointed out it is clearly K5083, so dad still has his marbles, just a bit awry with the year.
Thanks again
Simon

 

[vanir]

At that stage it was called the Fury Monoplane. An infamous detail was the plywood wings. Hurricanes later switched to metal skinning, but early production used plywood skinning.

 

[Edgar Brooks]

At that stage it was called the Fury Monoplane. An infamous detail was the plywood wings. Hurricanes later switched to metal skinning, but early production used plywood skinning.

No, they didn't, the wings, on the early airframes, were fabric-covered (there's one hanging in the Science Museum, in London) over alloy ribs, with a metal-covered centre-section. Some of the fuselage decking, behind the cockpit, was wood, but that was all. Also, the Hurricane was only known as the "Fury Monoplane" at the very beginning, when it was to be powered by the Goshawk, and retained a fixed undercarriage; by 1934, now to be powered by the Merlin, and with a retractable u/c, it became the "Interceptor Monoplane."