General Aircraft Hotspur
Encyclopedia : G : GE : GEN : General Aircraft Hotspur
- ''This article is about a World War II glider. For the British World War II fighter, please see Hawker Hotspur.
History
The use of assault gliders by the British was prompted by the use by Germany of the DFS 230, which was first used in May 1940 to successfully assault the Eben Emael fort in Belgium. Their advantage compared to parachute assault was that the troops were landed together in one place, rather than being dispersed.The Hotspur was small, seating only 8 troop seats, the more famous Horsa was much bigger and, while the Mk1 was intended for combat use, the Mk2 was intended for training duties only.
The Hotspur Mk I had a hinged upper fuselage section, designed to allow the rapid exit of the onboard troops. The Hotspur Mk II had clipped wings and a larger cockpit canopy, making it more suitable for training flights. Cabin doors replaced the hinged fuselage section. The Hotspur Mk III was used as a training version.
A Twin Hotspur was also produced, where two airframes were joined by a wing stub, allowing 16 troops to be moved. The craft was not developed further.
Combat History
There is no record of the Hotspur being used in combat as the larger glider types overtook them in functionality.On training operations they were usually towed by Miles Master Mark II aircraft.
A reproduction of a Hotspur Mk 2 can be seen at the Army Museum of Flying at Middle Wallop in Hampshire.
Specifications (Hotspur Mk 2)
Related content
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.