Hawker Typhoon, Tempest, and Sea Fury

GTX · November 20, 2010, 02:29:05 PM

Drawing of Centaurus Tornado:

Regards,

Greg

The Wooksta! · November 22, 2010, 03:17:33 PM

Good luck with that Maintrack Centaurus Tornado. It's garbage. I had one to build for a mate and promptly realised it was unbuildable. The rear fuselage is all to cock and the master was based on ye olde Airfix kit. Maintrack was hit and miss. Some of the stuff was nice but much of it was shoddy.

I think you'd be better off with the Frog car door Typhoon, the Aeroclub upgrade and a Matchbox Tempest II engine as a starting point. Less work and quite likely a better resulting model.

Old Wombat · November 27, 2010, 06:55:51 AM

Just a reminder for you guys of the size of the real Sea Fury.

I worked on this beastie when I was in the RAN FAA in the early 80's (was posted to the FAA Museum for a while).
These aircraft were (are) BIG!

All the photo's I took of this aircraft appear to have been either destroyed or lost.

Plus a photo of what a Sea Fury looks like when things don't go quite right & a scaling shot, with pilots in front of aircraft.

kitnut617 · November 27, 2010, 07:05:29 AM

Quote from: The Wooksta! on November 22, 2010, 03:17:33 PM
Good luck with that Maintrack Centaurus Tornado. It's garbage. I had one to build for a mate and promptly realised it was unbuildable. The rear fuselage is all to cock and the master was based on ye olde Airfix kit. Maintrack was hit and miss. Some of the stuff was nice but much of it was shoddy.

I think you'd be better off with the Frog car door Typhoon, the Aeroclub upgrade and a Matchbox Tempest II engine as a starting point. Less work and quite likely a better resulting model.

My plans were to cut the forward fuselage off because of the huge bend in the rear fuselage and use an Airfix Typhoon, but the Frog/Frogspawn one would probably be better.

pyro-manic · November 27, 2010, 08:29:19 AM

Nice photos, Wombat - the Sea Fury is indeed a monster. I think half of the reason it's so imposing is the nose-high attitude it sits at, due to the tailwheel u/c. That Centaurus is held high up, and it's a big lump of metal. Same goes for the other Hawker fighters like the Tempest, and the big radial American machines as well.

sequoiaranger · December 29, 2010, 05:47:34 PM

The original Hawker Henley dive-bomber was a Hurricane-looking aircraft, only larger and two-seat. I updated it a little by adding "Tornado"/Typhoon/Tempest elements, as if the Henley evolved. It's the dive bomber what shoulda-oughta been in FAA inventory by the time the Bismarck sortied!

Weaver · January 17, 2011, 07:31:30 PM

Just some proof that the Typhoon was a slightly bigger monster:

Apparently this is the number of mechanics they had to take with them to keep each Sabre running....

The Wooksta! · January 18, 2011, 01:16:53 AM

As I've been rebuked, by 44-45, Sabre reliability was on a par with that of the Merlin. Once the erks were ordered to stop tinkering to get better performance, reliability shot up.

rickshaw · January 18, 2011, 01:19:33 AM

Quote from: Weaver on January 17, 2011, 07:31:30 PM
Just some proof that the Typhoon was a slightly bigger monster:

Apparently this is the number of mechanics they had to take with them to keep each Sabre running....

Seating must have been a bit tight....

kitnut617 · January 18, 2011, 07:25:20 AM

Quote from: The Wooksta! on January 18, 2011, 01:16:53 AM
As I've been rebuked, by 44-45, Sabre reliability was on a par with that of the Merlin. Once the erks were ordered to stop tinkering to get better performance, reliability shot up.

Not quite like that Lee, Napier were the ones that kept tinkering with the design trying to make a better engine instead of working out the bugs in the engines that were in production. When English Electric bought out Napier (in '42 I think), they ordered all development to stop and told the engineers to fix these bugs in the production engines. Which they obviously did considering the reputation the Tempest had ---
The timing also happens to be around the time De Havilland were told they weren't going to get the Sabre they wanted for the DH.101.

sequoiaranger · January 19, 2011, 10:25:10 AM

I've heard of "multi-place aircraft", but **56** (counted the figures on the Typhoon in that picture--boy, do I have way too much time on my hands or what?)??

Gondor · July 03, 2011, 12:29:41 AM

Can anyone tell me, or preferably show in picture or plan, the leading edge radiator arrangement for the Merlin 85 powered Fury as I am planning to build one and this piece of information is holding the build up.

Gondor

The Wooksta! · July 03, 2011, 06:26:16 AM

AFAIK, there wasn't one. It was an annular cowling similar to the Lincoln installation.

kitbasher · July 03, 2011, 08:29:28 AM

Quote from: The Wooksta! on July 03, 2011, 06:26:16 AM
AFAIK, there wasn't one. It was an annular cowling similar to the Lincoln installation.

And a very ugly looking machine LA610 was with it, but a handsome creature once it had a Sabre was fitted. See http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60204.

sequoiaranger · July 03, 2011, 08:51:05 AM

>Can anyone tell me, or preferably show in picture or plan, the leading edge radiator arrangement for the Merlin 85 powered Fury <

There *is* a small, leading-edge "scoop" of some sort at the wing root on the left side, POSSIBLY mirrored with something similar on the right side (right profile of linked photo--60204--not clear on what is at the wing root). NOT the typical coolant radiator, but...Carb intake? Small oil cooler?