De Havilland Hornet
Encyclopedia : D : DE : DEH : De Havilland Hornet
The de Havilland Hornet was a development of de Havilland's classic Mosquito designed as private venture for a long-range fighter for use in the Pacific Theater in the war against Japan. Specification F.12/43 was written around the type. The Hornet equipped Fighter Command day fighter units in the UK and later was used with success as a strike fighter in Malaya.
The Hornet, D.H.103 in the company's internal numbering scheme, first flew in 1944 and remained in service until 1956. Powered by twin "slimline" Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, it was the fastest piston-engined fighter in Royal Air Force service. The Hornet has the distinction of being the fastest operational twin propeller-driven aircraft ever flown by any of the world's air arms and the fastest wooden aircraft ever built.
The Hornet was somewhat unusual in that it had propellers that rotated in opposite directions. To achieve this the engines were slightly different, hence the double Merlin marks of 130/131. The prototype achieved 780 km/h (485 mph) in level flight, which came down to 760 km/h (472 mph) in production aircraft.
Service
The Hornet entered service in 1946, mainly in the Far East, including action in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency.Variants
- Hornet F.1: Fighter
- 60 built
Specifications (Hornet F.3)
General characteristics
- Crew: one pilot
- Wingspan: 45 ft 0 in (13.72 m)
- Length: 36 ft 8 in (11.18 m)
- Height: 14 ft 2 in (4.3 m)
- Wing area: 361 ft² (33.54 m²)
- Empty weight: lb ( kg)
- Gross weight: 19,550 lb (8,886 kg)
- Powerplant: 2x Rolls-Royce Merlin 130/131 12-cylinder engines, 2,080 hp ( kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 472 mph (750 km/h) at 22,000 ft ( m)
- Rate of climb: ft/min ( m/s)
- Service ceiling: 35,000 ft ( m)
- Maximum range: 3,000 mi ( km)
Armament
- 4x 20 mm Hispano cannon (with 190 rounds per gun) in fuselage nose
- 2x 1000 lb bombs under wing, outboard of engines
- 8x 60 lb RP-3 unguided rockets
Notes
References
- Aeroplane Monthly June 2005, pg 68
External links
Related content
- Redirect
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.