Enter the Huntress *** FINISHED ***

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DavidWomby
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Enter the Huntress *** FINISHED ***

Post by DavidWomby »

In 1953, the UK cancelled a supersonic Hunter successor. The Hawker P.1083 would have been roughly in the same class as the F-100. It would have had an after-burning Avon and a new, more swept and thinner wing. The logic for the cancellation was that a new class of Mach 2 fighters were already in development, so a slower aircraft would have been just a short-lived interim solution.

Hawker had several other design studies in the early 50s for evolving the Hunter too. Most notably: the P1090 with P1083 wings and a Gyron engine, the P1091 delta wing, the P1100 with original planform Hunter wings but thinner and a reheated Avon, and the extreme P1097. They also had a design for trainer Hunter with tandem seating.

In 1957, the UK Defence review, believing ground to air missiles would soon provide all UK air defence, cancelled all supersonic aircraft projects including the EE Lightning despite its advanced stage of development. Worse, the MoD ordered the destruction of all prototypes, tooling and mock-ups. In one fell swoop, the UK was left with no new fighters in the works and reliant on subsonic Hunters and Javelins for air defence.

The US government was appalled at this action by its main ally but the US aerospace companies rejoiced because by early 1959, the RAF had won the battle to convince their masters that reliable ground to air missiles were at least a decade away and a supersonic interceptor was required for UK air defence. McDonnell quickly proposed the F-101, Lockheed offered the F-104 and North American proposed the F-100. It looked like the UK would soon be flying one of the US Century jets when suddenly Sterling fell dramatically against the US dollar ruling out any large foreign expenditures.

All their early 50s studies proved to have been a valuable investment when Hawker grabbed their chance and proposed a relatively inexpensive supersonic development of the Hunter using much of their earlier design work. After an acrimonious debate in the House, the government passed the Emergency Defence (Air) 1959 Act and, after a Herculean effort by Hawker and its suppliers, the prototype Hawker Huntress made a spectacular debut at Farnborough 1962.

The first RAF batch of 200 started reaching squadrons in late 1963. As the 60s passed, the Huntress was also ordered by several smaller NATO countries and others air forces who had previously acquired Hunters. It was a major export success for the UK air industry. The RAF started to transition the Huntress to a ground attack role as the F-4 Phantom came into service in the late 60s and the final RAF Huntress left service in 1982. The Huntress soldiered on in front-line service with smaller air forces around the world until 1999.

Model to follow.............

David
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general rocket
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by general rocket »

Intrigued.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
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Old_Tonto
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by Old_Tonto »

Very intrigued. :lol:
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Martin R
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by Martin R »

Another cracking back story!
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Kevan Bailey
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by Kevan Bailey »

Agree with you there, Martin. Oh, and I hope you didn't mind me nicking your Heinkel.

Stop rubbing it in about the £ to $ exchange rate, David!
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

To whet your whistles, here are the design studies that contributed to the final design of the Huntress.

The P.1083

Image

The P.1090

Image

The P.1091

Image

and the P.1100

Image

Hawker needed to minimize modifications to the Hunter tooling so as to keep down costs, risks and also to provide for a short development timeframe. This eliminated the P.1091 delta and the P.1090 which would have required a significant redesign of the Hunter rear fuselage to take the larger diameter Gyron engine. Fortunately for Hawker, the Avon had evolved considerably since the original 1953 P.1083 design and was producing over 15,000lb with reheat.

The next design decision was focused on the wings.

David
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

So here's the candidate bits for the build so far. An Airfix Hunter (although depending on a few things, I may substitute a Frog or Matchbox one) and a Maintrack conversion set to make the P.1083.

Image

Image

I also have to hand the Maintrack conversion set to make the tandem two-seater that one is designed to be used with the Matchbox Hunter but I think this build will be a single seater.

Image

As indicated in the previous post, the Huntress will have a reheated Avon but I may alter the exhaust a bit. I'm not sure I like the sloped end of the fuselage on the Maintrack resin part.

I'm still deciding about the wings. I'm not crazy about the 'thin 50 degree swept wing'. I think the added power of a later model Avon and the need for wing hardpoints may make me stick with some subtle variation of the original Hunter wing.

Whatever else happens, I think it will have a more pointy radome and a couple of Firestreaks.

David
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fredk
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by fredk »

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with
Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

Some of the challenges Hawker faced in developing the Huntress:

To get the power they needed, Rolls Royce reverse licenced the Svenska Flygmotor RM6B afterburner design used in the Draken, improved it a bit, and that took the engine to 16,000lb with reheat. This required Hawker to fit a wider rear fuselage and small extension. So they adopted the rear fuselage planned from their P.1083 design.

Image

(Bet you've never seen such a de-tailed Hunter before, eh? :lol: )

The Hunter intakes were not a good configuration for supersonic flight. They adapted the revised intakes from their P.1090 design.

The improved air to air radar required a new radome (adopted from the P.1100 design).

Range was going to be a challenge. So they extended the fuselage to provide more tankage behind the cockpit. This extended fuselage plus the slightly redesigned rear fuselage and the higher speeds required a change to a larger fin/rudder and all-moving tailplanes.

Image

I opted in the end to use Frog FGA9 as the base kit. I'm not really sure why. The fuslage has been assembled and the fin, tailcone and nose are cut off. I have a replacement fin in mind. Meanwhile I am working on ways to make the new intakes.

The wings are still a question mark. I may adapt the Hunter wings and see how they look. If it doesn't look right then I can put on the P.1083 wings instead.

I must admit here that I am getting a lot of help on this from my best friend. We've been friends and fellow modellers since 1968. He's a prominent aviation journalist, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and actually worked in the Hawker design office in Kingston for a while (albeit many years after the era of this Huntress). He's my encouragement but also helps me with technical questions I have on the feasibilty of changes I want to make. Mind you, he also says, correctly, that I am over analyzing this for a whif.

David
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by JamesPerrin »

Lots of ideas flowing around I'm intrigued seeing how they coalesce.
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

Here's some more progress today. Two half sections of plastic tube are glued into the rear fuselage so that the extended nose will stay aligned with it. The nose is just pushed on for now. I will probably do just a 2foot extension.

I'm not glueing the nose on until I've worked out how I will do the intakes. Also visible is the first part of the tailpipe extension.

Image

David
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by fredk »

There's a lot of plastic being re-arranged here.
Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Its not just how good your painting is, its how good the touch-ups are too.
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

Playing with intake shapes. Starboard one is kind of like a Draaken. Port one is slightly bigger than a Hunter with more rounded outer corner and a splitter plate

Image

I haven't decided yet.

David
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DavidWomby
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by DavidWomby »

I've decide the oval intakes are too un-Hunter. So it will be the Hunter shaped ones but larger and looking a bit like those planned for the P.1090.

I bought an old mould Airfix A-4 SKyhawk at a show a couple of weeks ago for $2. It will provide the enlarged fin.

Image

I may increase the sweep of the trailing edge a bit more.

The fuselage is now assembled with its tailpipe, pointy radome and a 2' 6" extension just behind the cockpit. When it's all dried, I'll take some pics and then it will be the start of PSR time.

David
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Re: Enter the Huntress

Post by Old_Tonto »

Excellent bodging Young man.
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