Price: £65.00

De Haviland Hornet NF21

The De Haviland Hornet was widely acclaimed as being remarkable aircraft to fly, as well as being the best looking and fastest of all piston engined fighters, but due to the end of hostilities in 1945 it's service career was not as spectacular as it's famous predecessor, the Mosquito.

After the success of the Mosquito the De Haviland design team began to consider what might follow. Two designs emerged as showing considerable promise. One was the DH 100 Vampire, Britains second jet fighter, the other, the DH 103 was a scaled down version of the Mosquito to serve as a long range fighter in the Pacific. Later named Hornet, the fighter was designed around a pair of specially cleaned up Rolls Royce Merlins, which made great use of Schnieder Trophy racing experience. The frontal area of the engines was dictated by the crankcase and cylinder dimensions only and delivered 2070 hp, calculations showed that the twin engined Hornet would have a superior performance in speed and climb to any single engined fighter built to the same specification. Construction was of bonded wood and light alloy, which made the Hornet very light. The prototype first flew on 28th July 1944, and achieved a top speed of 491 mph at 24,000 ft. The only aircraft to go faster than the Hornet in level flight on piston engines, (not counting special racing aircraft) was the Supermarine Spiteful at 494 mph.

The Hornet entered RAF service in February 1946 as a long range day fighter with 64 squadron replacing North American Mustangs. Exercise Dagger showed that at low level the Hornet was invulnerable to interception at low level, even by the new fangled jets so its role was switched to low level ground attack. The Sea Hornet was a navalised version of the Hornet with folding wings and an arrestor hook, the Sea Hornet NF21 was a radar equipped night fighter with the radar operator situated in a dorsal cupola like the Beaufighter. Despite the superlative performance of the Sea Hornet, they were rapidly superseded in naval service by the new jet fighters. Pity. All Sea Hornets and Hornets were scrapped after service and none remain.

The Hornet will be remembered by those fortunate to fly her for the types remarkable aerobatic performance due to the fantastic excess of power. People still remember the Kelly twins who put together a synchronised pair routine on Sea Hornets. One manouver they put together consisted of four consecutive loops. The first on full power, at the top of the second the port engine was stopped, at the top of the third the port engine was restarted and the starboard engine stopped, on the pull up into the fourth loop both engines were stopped for a silent loop!!

Performance

Top Speed: 491mph (prototype) at 24,000 ft.
Weight: 17,880 lbs
Ceiling: 35,000 ft
Powerplant: Rolls Royce Merlin 130 and 131, (2070 HP).
Armament: Four 20mm cannon