Warbird Information Exchange

Love that Hawker stuff...

It's more than possible that one of the eight or so surviving Tempest IIs could fly again...depending on where it's based, maybe using one of the many "retired" Centaurus 18s out of Fury projects now Wright-powered; or a late-mark Centaurus as once fitted to Jim Mott's Fury racer; or an R3350 in an installation similar to that in most Furies now.

The Typhoon, on the other hand, could probably only be returned to flight as an externally-faithful "lookalike" (think Jurca Spitfire or FW190), with something besides a Sabre for power. One crazy idea: find a pair of wrecked Ferrari 512s, and couple their boxer-12 engines one atop the other for an H24 layout. You'd get a savage howl similar to the Sabre's from a layout like that, and probably close to 1000hp on what would be a far lighter airframe than an actual Typhoon. But it'd be hideously costly...I'd bet we'll see a Tempest fly someday, but never the Tiffy!

S.

I recall reading in "Typhoon and Tempest at War" that some reliability issues with the early Typhoons were later attributed to the fitters modifying the settings in one of the engine control "boxes" to produce considerable amounts of boost at low/cruising revs. This apparently grenaded the engines quite well, and the "boxes" were thereafter sealed in some fashion to prevent tampering of the fixed settings.

I'm sure they meant well.....

Somehow somewhere there's enough parts to get another one back together, but back into the air is another matter. As a wiseman once said, the impossible just takes longer, and costs more. There is a complete example extant, engines are available, and airframes can be built...

greg v.

Or... one could go the P-51/Piper Enforcer route. Think of a brand new Typhoon 1B, accurate in every detail... with a 5000hp Allison 501-D22A hanging on the front end!!

(Sorry - I saw one this morning being built up at work and the mind got to wandering!)

Dan

Dan--

Interesting idea. Reminds me of a flight I took once in an Embraer 120 Brasilia from Toronto to Thunder Bay; I was seated abeam the engines, and as we hummed along, with mind wandering as I looked at the cowling I realized it bore a surprising likeness to the front end of a Typhoon.

PW120-engined neo-Tiffy, anyone?

S.

Actually, it would look at home on the snout of a Barracuda, or a Firefly, or of course a Lancaster.....perhaps two on a mod'd Lanc airframe to make a Manchester?

cheers

gv

Great thread, guys, I agree it's been interesting. Some observations.


Maybe, but no-one's aero industry was very efficient prior to W.W.II except ~um~ Nazi Germany's. The US aero (rather than car) industry was not the giant we saw in W.W.II.

But it's certainly fair to say, I think, that British production was more skilled hand building of batches than mass production.

Hawker were more production focused than Supermarine in 1939, while by the end of W.W.II all British manufacturers were as efficient as they ever were going to get. One of Hawkers' big achievements was taking the Hawker Hart structure and making a high speed fighter out of it. Without Joe Smith 'productionising' the Prototype Spitfire into the Mk.I history might've been very different.


Certainly a view I've often heard in Australia and Canada, where engineers are familiar with both US and UK machinery.

Not as off the wall as it's been suggested actually. First, the Sea Fury and Tempest fuselage is essentially similar (and in width) to the Typhoon's. A Typhoon with a R3350 would look like this:



A Tornado (essentially a Typhoon) airframe wedded to a Centaurus. (Note the thick wing).

But as Richard said earlier, it won't happen in the UK, as major mods like a new engine type are a no-no.


Maybe. On the other hand it was a powerful engine which was hard even to keep online in wartime military use. Just the concept of trying to get one or two working in civil hands for entertainment value... It would be nice, but the zeros in short run costs and lotsa questions over operating parameters...



Prototype Tornado, first Radiator position, a la Hurricane..



Hawker Tornado, later radiator.

Interesting model summary here, for those that want more of a type rundown:
http://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2005/ ... yphoon.htm

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

As an aside, there is a reason why the Tornado and Typhoon were considered different aircraft despite the only apparent difference being the engine...

It can be seen from James' second pic that the engine sits above the wing centre section.

The Sabre being two flat 12s stacked one above the other was a relatively shallow engine but the Vulture being an X was a lot deeper so needed a different fuselage to get it to fit.