The (almost predictable...) Hunter PR16

[NARSES2]

I sometimes get the impression that the young Mr Edwards was, occasionally, something of a larrikin.

Weren't we all?

Being brought up on a council estate in the 50/60's you had to be a bit of one to get on with the other lads of your age. Nothing serious, and my criminal record is for being "drunk in charge of a pair of feet"  . But the World was a different place back then and we were allowed, almost expected, to muck about a bit. If you went to far then retribution would come at school with the slipper. On a couple of occasions we were reported to school by some bystander because they'd recognised our uniforms and on reaching school had to contend with the charge of "dishonouring the reputation of the school" 

[Old Wombat]

Not saying I was an angel ... Ha! ... However, never got into anything serious but, back then, you got a caning from the headmaster if needed, a clip across the back of the head from the local constabulary & worse awaited when you got home* but, once it was done, it was done.

[*: No, I was never beaten or subjected to cruel/unusual punishment, my Mother occasionally used the wooden spoon, my Father would emulate the Police - a whack on the back of the head, until he & my Mother had a "disagreement" about that form of punishment, after which it was worse he never used physical punishment at all but, man, could he bring you down to size verbally without a single swear word involved - & English was his fifth(?) language (Czech, Slovak, German, Russian, English in that order, I think)].



Sorry, Kit, I was going to say more but I'll shut up & let the build discussion roll on!

[PR19_Kit]

Got the main decals on the PR16 now, just some stencils to add from the Revell sheet.



Type B roundels all round, to fit in the with IR Green finish. With just some tiny 544 Sqdn. crests on the fin.




The underside showing the HUGE serials under the wings that were common in the period.




The PR16's raison d'etre, the camera bays. The two normal F95 cameras right in the nose and the larger windows for the split optics Type B-2 camera further aft. The air conditioning intake for the Type B-2's electronics is visible on the starboard side of the nose.

[NARSES2]

Coming together nicely Kit 

[PR19_Kit]

Hunter PR16

The Ultimate Hunter

After the 1957 Defence Review had cancelled the Rolls Royce Thames engine, and with it any hopes of a production order for the very high performance, but singular P.1086 PR aircraft, Hawker Siddeley's design team sought to find a solution to the still outstanding problem of a replacement for the RAF's Meteor PR19 high altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The Meteor PR19 had been outstandingly successful in its career but only twelve of the very long spanned aircraft had ever been built, and the numbers of flyable examples had been dwindling for some time, reducing the RAF's capability in the somewhat specialised field that the PR19s excelled in.

As the PR19s had been designed and built by Armstrong-Whitworth at Baginton, Coventry, the design data for the ultra long and efficient wings used by 'The Ultimate Meteor' were available to Hawker's Kingston Design Office as A-W was part of the Hawker Siddeley Group, and a design based on a similar but slightly smaller wing of some 78 ft span was put together, but using a Hunter fuselage. The RAF's requirements for such strategic reconnaissance tasking included a two man crew and so the forward fuselage was based on that of the T7 trainer. In addition the nose camera bay of the FR10 tactical reconnaissance version was grafted onto the front of the hybrid Hunter design with the result being tendered to the Ministry of Defence as a lower cost solution to 'The P.1086 Problem'.

The primary 'weapon fit' of the Meteor PR19 had been the HiAc camera with its 36 inch lens, and over time this had been replaced by the Perkin-Elmer designed 'Type B' camera of a similar focal length, but while the Type B would easily fit into the immensely long camera bay of the P.1086, it certainly wouldn't fit into the nose of the proposed Hunter PR variant. The Americans had run into the same problem when trying to squeeze both the HiAc and the Type B into anything other than a U-2 or an RB-57F and approaches had been made to Perkin-Elmer to produce a shorter, yet just as capable camera.

These studies resulted in the 'Type B-2' variant that used folded and split optics to produce similar images but in a split format. The resulting images were logged to an on-board computer, together with input from the aircraft's navigation system, to produce a database of position and frame number for each split image. This data, together with the images, could then be restored once the carrying platform had returned to base. While the Type B-2 was shorter than its older brother, the required electronics took up considerable space and in the Hunter's nose this was in short supply. Accordingly the 30 mm ADEN cannon of the fighter variants was removed in toto and the space was used for the electronics, not that there would be much need for 4 x 30 mm cannon while flying at over 60000 ft on a PR mission. This entailed some extra cooling capacity and a small intake on the starboard nose fed the larger air conditioning pack that this required. Two of three F.95 cameras installed in the standard FR10 nose were retained, and could be used operationally as the crew desired, but most of the PR work was carried out using the Type B-2 fit.



The capabilities of the proposed Hunter variant proved of great interest to the MoD and the RAF Reconnaissance Office, and a contract was placed with Hawker for three prototypes, all of which were converted from already built Hunter FR10s. Rolls Royce were contracted to produce a special high altitude version of the well tried Avon engine and this resulted in the Avon 400 series, which could produce a thrust of some 12500 lb thrust dry and 15000 lb with afterburner engaged, all this at the 65000 ft. cruise altitude required by the new aircraft.



The performance of the three trials prototypes exceeded all expectations, and the new Hunter PR16, as it had been designated, proved capable of cruising effortlessly at 65000 fit and with the aid of its afterburner to climb to nearly 75000 ft if need be. The image quality produced by the Type B-2 camera was also exceptional and the split optics system proved to be faultless in use. Accordingly a production order of a further 22 aircraft was placed with Hawker-Siddeley, all of which were to be upgrades of existing FR10s then under construction.



By mid 1961 the production aircraft were coming off the Kingston production line, with the immense wings being trucked down from Armstrong-Whitworth's Baginton site, having been built using many of the same production jigs as were used to build the PR19's wings many years before. Luckily the A-W factory management had foreseen the likelihood of such a requirement and had stored the jigs and press tools against such an event. Originally finished in then then standard RAF PR scheme of PRU Blue undersides and Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey camouflage with Type D red-white-blue roundels, the initial tranche of PR16s went to form a new squadron, 544, which stood up at RAF Marham initially. 544 had been in action for the latter half of WWII, mainly flying PR Mosquitoes of various Marks over Germany, but also operating detachments of other types, such as Wellingtons and Marylands, in the Mediterranean theatre. 544 stood down on 1945 after VE Day, but was resurrected to work up the new, long spanned Hunter.



Originally it was intended that 13 Sqdn would convert to the Hunter PR16 once its twin engined Meteor PR19s had reached the end of their service life, but the RAF's original high altitude snooper aircraft seemed to bear a charmed life and through a series of upgrades still carried on into the late 70s. As a result 544 Sqdn. took over the new Hunter's operational tasks and backed up 13's operations with the PR19s. The remaining Hunter PR16s were formed into an OCU to convert crews onto the esoteric flying techniques required to get the best out of the new type. This was 238 OCU, the unit just having stood down from training would be Valetta crews, a rather extreme change of purpose! 238 OCU re-formed at RAF Coltishall, just to the south of the other PR16s based at Marham, and the two units worked together for quite some time.



544's operations have always been clouded in secrecy, naturally, and even the aircraft's performance figures have never been officially released, but from the sparse information available it would seem that while hardly supersonic, the PR16s showed a much higher speed potential than their Meteor predecessor, while maintaining a similar altitude and range performance. Unlike the Meteor's, the PR16s never carried IFR probes in service, although the three prototypes, which spent most of their lives at RAE Boscombe Down, were all fitted with Harrier GR1 removable probes at various times. The PR16s taskings were mainly tactical in nature, rather than the purely strategic tasks carried out by 13 Sqdn. As their potential targets were in Eastern Europe it was decided to move 544 Sqdn. as far east as possible and still stay within close range of the UK for support purposes. So during mid-1966 544 moved across the Channel to RAF Gutersloh, the nearest RAF base to the Inner German Border, joining 19 and 92 Sqdns. Lighting F2As which were on permanent QRA tasking at the station, and replacing 20 Sqdn's Hunter F6s on site.



In line with 2nd TAF's rulings at the time, the upper surfaces of the PR16s were repainted in an all-over Dark Green coat, while retaining their PRU Blue undersurfaces, and carrying Type B two colour roundels in six positions. The only codes carried were very small letters on the forward nosewheel door, making identification of individual aircraft very difficult at ground level, if not impossible, apart from the black serials on the rear fuselage. Despite this official 'anonymity', most of the PR16s still carried their enormous 36" underwing serials, although these were removed later on in the type's service at Gutersloh.

544 remained in place after the departure of their dark green colleague's Lightnings almost until the station closed in 1993 returning to their old home in Norfolk to disband in 1990, most of the Hunters were then dispersed across the UK becoming extremely large gate guardians, were many remain today.

[NARSES2]

Come out well Kit 

[rickshaw]

Interesting, we now know what came after the Meteor.  Any mysterious phone calls yet, Kit?   

[Steel Penguin]

predictable,  hmm yes,   but as awesome as its predecessors 

now all we need to do is baffle the normal's, as normal   

[zenrat]

 

[Old Wombat]

Nice work, Kit!

[Gondor]

Another great Kit bash 

Gondor

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Well thought out & very elegant!

[Tophe]

Oh, I have seen this great model while I visited the Finished Entries page, while the Notify tool has failed to make me come here again to see.
Well, this model is very impressive, and so perfect it seems to lack whif fantasy (so much true, it seems, simply unknown, probably because secret like the U-2) but that is even better for realists, I understand. Congratulations for this victory over failing parts and all.

[Tophe]

This bad picture was found at the airport in a suspect suitcase. Officially, this is not a photograph of a Twin-Hunter with the largest span of the whole Hunter family, no, this would be a trap to fool Soviet spies. Who knows?

= link http://www.kristofmeunier.fr/r_HunterPR16z.jpg

[kitbasher]

Big wings!

Good one, Kit 👍