Sea Hurricane with folding wings ?

fastmongrel · Aug 3, 2012

A few recent threads about naval fighters have got me thinking about the Sea Hurricane. I know there was no production of a proper naval variant but was there ever any prototypes built with folding wings and full naval gear. If there was a proper naval prototype who built it and who would have been main production factory, I imagine Hawkers wouldnt have had any spare staff or production capacity. Would the work have been farmed out to a smaller company like Miles, Westland or god help us Blackburn.

How competitive would a mid war SeaHurricane be if available in good numbers with the latest low alt versions of the Merlin.

R Pope · Aug 3, 2012

A folding wing Sea Hurricane was designed, but never built.

RCAFson · Aug 3, 2012

fastmongrel said:
A few recent threads about naval fighters have got me thinking about the Sea Hurricane. I know there was no production of a proper naval variant but was there ever any prototypes built with folding wings and full naval gear. If there was a proper naval prototype who built it and who would have been main production factory, I imagine Hawkers wouldnt have had any spare staff or production capacity. Would the work have been farmed out to a smaller company like Miles, Westland or god help us Blackburn.

How competitive would a mid war SeaHurricane be if available in good numbers with the latest low alt versions of the Merlin.

The HSH Mk 1B was a "proper naval variant" but the HSH II with the Merlin XX and the four cannon wing was even better. The problem for the FAA is that their yardstick for naval fighter performance, was the Me109F, G and Fw190. This doomed the HSH from further development and lead to the Seafire. AFAIK, there was a mockup folding wing HSH design, but it was not proceeded with.

I would opine that a HSH with a Merlin 24 and folding wings would have outperformed anything the IJN could have come up with until 1944. Fitting the Merlin XX,or 45 into a Fulmar would have raised its performance to competitive levels with other 1942 naval fighters as well.

Jerry W. Loper · Aug 3, 2012

If the Sea Hurricane had remained in service longer, I suppose it could have handled German aircraft it was likely to meet in the air. There were superior German single-seat fighters like the Me-109F and Me-109G and the FW-190, but considering they were short ranged, I dunno how likely a Sea Hurricane would be to encounter one. I suppose a purpose built Sea Hurricane would have had a performance similar to a Hurricane IIa, b, or c, which would have been plenty for, say, an FW-200.

renrich · Aug 3, 2012

The Hurricane modified with folding wings would have had extreme difficulty coping with the Zeke in 1942. The Zeke would have had better range, better maneuverability, better climb, better speed and acceleration and would have been a better deck landing AC. The Hurricane would have terrible in a ditching. The only way the Hurricane could have competed with the Zeke would have been using team tactics like the US did with the F4F4.

RCAFson · Aug 3, 2012

Jerry W. Loper said:
If the Sea Hurricane had remained in service longer, I suppose it could have handled German aircraft it was likely to meet in the air. There were superior German single-seat fighters like the Me-109F and Me-109G and the FW-190, but considering they were short ranged, I dunno how likely a Sea Hurricane would be to encounter one. I suppose a purpose built Sea Hurricane would have had a performance similar to a Hurricane IIa, b, or c, which would have been plenty for, say, an FW-200.

The RN had to operate in the Central Mediterranean, to support the invasions of Sicily and Italy and they had to plan for the inevitable clash between the FAA and the Luftwaffe, which unlike previous operations included direct tactical support of the invasion forces and shipping, against frontline Luftwaffe fighters. This directly lead to the development of the Seafire LIIC, which was optimized to oppose low level Fw190 fighter bombers.

Sea Hurricane with folding wings ?

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fastmongrel

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R Pope

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RCAFson

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