The last biplane???????????????????
It's wonderful to stumble across weird and wonderful planes, But for me my latest discovery "takes the biscuit", A Hawker Hurricane (L1884/RCAF 321) biplane Attachment 163483Attachment 163484 I was researching into CAM Ships Attachment 163485 Here we have a Hurricane mounted on board a British merchant ship equipped with a catapult, the concept was a simple answer to deal with the shadowing Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor Attachment 163486 Condor's had a range of nearly 2,000 nautical miles, So a single plane could stay with a convoy for hours passing information to the German naval high command, which would in turn vector in U-boats for an attack on the convoy, But in the case of a convoy with a CAM ship the outcome changed Attachment 163487 Alas once launched into the air with rockets from the catapult,Attachment 163488 the fighter pilot would bail out or ditch in the ocean near the convoy, and be picked up if all went well, a total of 50 Hurricane converted for use with the CAM ships, according to Admiralty records CAM launched Hurricanes were used on 8 operational sorties, for the loss of only one Hurricane pilot killed, however Hurricanes accounted for enemy aircraft, The first Sea Hurricane kill was on 2 August 1941, when it shot down it's first Fw 200 Condor, CAM ship sailings were initially limited to North American convoys with aircraft maintenance performed by the Royal Canadian Air Force at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. CAM ships sailed on Gibraltar and Freetown convoys beginning in September, 1941, after an aircraft maintenance unit was established at the RAF base at North Front, Gibraltar. No CAM aircraft were provided during January and February 1942 after it proved impossible to maintain the catapult-mounted aircraft in flying order during the North Atlantic winter. CAM sailings resumed on 6 March 1942 on North Atlantic convoys and in April on the Arctic Russian convoys with a RAF aircraft maintenance unit in Archangelsk. Other aircraft were used on board Cam ships included the Fairey Fulmar Attachment 163489 alas the ubiquitous spitfire was never used on board CAM ships. (INFORMATION supplied from Flying Helmut) Attachment 163490Attachment 163491, So now the big question, why a Hawker Hurricane biplane? It's very simple It was designed with a second wing to provide more lift on take off, Then the top wing would be jettisoned, known as the "Hillson FH.40" Slip Wing Hawker Hurricane, it proved to be a less than successful design, and so RAF L1884/RCAF 321 Attachment 163492 had a particularly interesting life as a "test plane"
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Originally Posted by Flying Helmut
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