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#3569371 - 05/08/12 01:39 PM Hawker Storm, a what if for Ray and others. By A1_Phoenix  
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 7,365
Stratos Offline
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Stratos  Offline
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Amposta, Spain
The Storm is a full production model after Specification F.7/30 (de facto wiping out the Gladiator from History).. instead using Goshawk engine and 4 Mg's, Hawker choose a radical new concept: monoplane, heavily armed doubling the Air Ministry request, and playing "all in" with the new RR PV-12 engine (we may imagine the Merlin project started 1 year earlier than real timeline).

Prototype flew on February 1934, with great risks for an hopefully high-care tuned PV-12 (the company rejected to use Goshawk as proposed for first trials, was valued too much complicated and not enough powerful), but Lady Luck decided to behave good with Hawker and Rolls Royce and the roaring monoplane impressed so much RAF observers and full priority was immediately given to Camm's design.

With R&D on durability heavily funded by Air Ministry, the engine soon reach production status as RR Merlin B, and in June 1935 the plane officially became operational in RAF as - starting the "windy" names tradition - Hawker Storm Mk.I "By A1_Phoenix OLD PROFILE, WILL BE UPDATED WITH NEW NAME IN FUTURE"



After 200 Mk.I, production changed to Mk.Ib (or Mk.II, maybe I'll update my profiles..) with enclosed cockpit and Merlin C engine, accepted by RAF in February 1936.





Production was greater than the RAF's capacity to introduce the new aircraft and in 1937 the government gave Hawkers the clearance to sell the excess to other nations: Yugoslavia, Poland, Belgium (these three even started a limited licensed production) but also Greece, Finland, Turkey, Argentina, China..



Maybe 50 (both Mk.I and Mk.Ib) flew with Republican markings over Spanish skies, becoming fierce and almost unbeatable opponents even for nationalists 109D, but progressive lack of spares grounded the "Tormentas" before the end of war..



Surpassed by more modern planes, after 4 years as ruler of Empire's Skies the superiority of Storm quickly faded away, and by 1940 only few of them were in active service, but many Axis pilots still fell down after misjudging the Spatted Wonder..

By the way, immediately after Mk.Ib introduction the design was reworked again by Sidney Camm: retractable undercarriage, straight wing to simplify production, raised fuselage between cockpit and tail to regain stability after spats removal; so many changes that was considered a new model, and from 1938 slowly reequipped Storm squadrons.. of course, it was the Hurricane..

What if story and profiles by A1_Phoenix of SAS1946. Original post available here:

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,21214.0.html

Last edited by Stratos; 05/08/12 02:09 PM.

-Sir in case of retreat, were we have to retreat??
-To the Graveyard!!

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#3569837 - 05/09/12 09:28 AM Re: Hawker Storm, a what if for Ray and others. By A1_Phoenix [Re: Stratos]  
Joined: Mar 2006
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Col.J.D.Landers Offline
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Col.J.D.Landers  Offline
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London, England.
The Storm looks very Stuka-esque!

Interesting looksee Stratos.

Col.


“The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.” - Sherlock Holmes
#3571882 - 05/12/12 10:23 PM Re: Hawker Storm, a what if for Ray and others. By A1_Phoenix [Re: Stratos]  
Joined: Jul 2002
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PeterMBooth Offline
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Pontypridd, South Wales,UK
Hi Stratos,

Very interesting. Putnams book on Hawkers does confirm that in August 1933 they were looking at a so called "Fury Monoplane" with a fixed undercarriage and a Goshawk engine but only 4 guns - a year later they switched to the RR Merlin and a rectractable undercarriage and thus the Hurricane was born. At about the same time R J Mitchell at Supermarine was looking at a Goshawk powered monoplane fighter with a fixed undercarriage and surface evaporation cooling known as the Type 224. This had "Stuka like" cranked wings and was actually built but proved unsatisfactory so they progressed to what became the Spitfire.

Now if you really want a "what if" scenario, here is one to think about. What if Reginald Mitchell had not died of cancer in 1937 and his heavy four engined bombers( variously the type 316/317 and 318) had gone into production. The Type 317 was theoretically faster than the Lancaster with a higher ceiling and nearly as good a bomb load - much better than the Stirling but the two prototypes were destroyed by bombing in 1940 and production was cancelled. Suppose it had flown and after appropriate modifications had proved successful. It would have entered service alongside the Stirling in 1941 predating the Lancaster by at least a year, allowing the RAF to commence considerably heavier raids on Germany much earlier.

Of course, to really set up an interesting scenario we need to also consider what would have happened if the chief of the German Air Staff Generalleutenant Walter Wever had not died in June 1936 and the two bomber prototypes ordered under his "Langstrecken-Grossbomber" or "Ural Bomber" programme had not been subsequently cancelled by his successor Kesselring together with Goering who were more interested in cheaper "tactial" bombers such as the He 111. Initially in Poland and France they were proved right but by the time they attacked Britain they were showing the need for heavier longer-ranged "strategic" bombers and it really came home to roost when Germany attacked Russia and the factories were relocated to the Urals. Ok, the Do 19 and the Ju 89 as built in 1936/7 needed more powerful engines and armament but I believe that the German aircraft industry could have brought them up to a reasonable standard by 1940/41. Instead, the only "strategic" bomber the Luftwaffe ever had was the He 177, which would have been pretty good with 4 seperate engines but with the 2 "paired" ones was a disaster and by the time that was fixed they had lost interest (same problem with the Avro Manchester).

Just a thought,

Pete





With increasing age should come wisdom and tolerance, but as the saying goes, "there is no fool like an old fool" as I prove regularly!


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