JDK's famous pointless quiz - fabric covered.

[JDK]

As requested, here's another. Usual rules (especially the one that says Mike can't play, because he knows the answer, and I know he knows, etc...) warm feeling to the winner, etc.



It's rare.

[Dave Homewood]

Pure guess here, RE.8 at Duxford?

[JDK]

Pure guess here, RE.8 at Duxford?

Nope!

[TAdan]

Stranraer at the RAF Museum in London? (Although on second thought that aileron looks way to small...)

[JDK]

Stranraer at the RAF Museum in London? (Although on second thought that aileron looks way to small...)

Nope!

Famous aircraft, but this is the rarest surviving version, from what we can see, and although the version is not identified as such by any difference in the designation. Confused?

[Steve Nelson]

Avro Anson? Most of the survivors I'm aware of are the later Canuckian-built plywood-skin versions.

SN

[JDK]

Avro Anson? Most of the survivors I'm aware of are the later Canuckian-built plywood-skin versions.

Nope!

[Steve Nelson]

Got it now..Hurricane I.

Going out to buy a bag of oats for the pony.

SN

Last edited by Steve Nelson on Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

Got it now..Hurricane I.

Going out to buy a bag of oats for the pony.

Not so fast...

What makes this Hurricane Mk.I unique? (There are several Mk.I survivors)...

Clue I won a bet with an engineer who has forgotten more about fabric than I'll ever know - over something you can see in the pic.

[Steve Nelson]

Other than it being a rare fabric-wing Hurri (didn't know there were any still extant) I'm stumped..guess I bought that saddle for nothing.

SN

[JDK]

Other than it being a rare fabric-wing Hurri (didn't know there were any still extant) I'm stumped..guess I bought that saddle for nothing.

Saddle up cowboy, you're correct.



It's the only fabric-wing Hurricane. (And a Battle of Britain veteran, but not unique in that.) The Hurricane Mk.I in the Science Museum, London.

All early Hurricanes were built with two-blade fix-pitched wooden props, no armoured windscreen, and the outer wings (outside the centre section) were metal construction but fabric covered - Hawker developed the stressed skin construction later (but still pre-war), introduced it into production, and when production caught up, started retro-fitting the fabric ones with the new all-metal outer wings. This is the only example still with the fabric-covered outer wings fitted. It crashed at Croydon Airport during the Battle of Britain, and never re-entered service, IIRC.

What makes it unique in construction terms is that the fabric covering extends right from the leading to trailing edge - in a 300+mph fighter, this required channels in the ribs, which the fabric was pressed into by bars on the outside, fitting into the channels. In the Hawker Fury and Hart families, Hawker pioneered the fabric rolls being attached on the bias, rather than the normal systems - the fabric's edge can be seen at 45 degrees in the first pic. I'd remembered it, but my fabric man didn't believe me!

Cheers,

[Mike]

Other than it being a rare fabric-wing Hurri (didn't know there were any still extant) I'm stumped..guess I bought that saddle for nothing.

Saddle up cowboy, you're correct.

It's the only fabric-wing Hurricane.

.....for now.

Am I allowed in now James?

This one is being rebuilt to Battle of France spec (fabric wings, early, pre-armoured glass windscreen, straight aerial mast, Watts 2-blade wooden prop, etc) and will be taxiable when complete.

Somewhere I've got pics of an original fabric wing, with paint still on it, that they retrieved from a scrapyard and will be used in the restoration.