TYPE: Interceptor, fighter bomber

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Napier “Sabre” IIC liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2,180 hp

PERFORMANCE: 412 mph at 19,000 ft

COMMENT: The Hawker “Typhoon” (“Tiffy” in RAF slang), was a British single-seat fighter bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium–high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker “Hurricane” but several design problems were encountered and it never completely satisfied this requirement.
The “Typhoon” was originally designed to mount twelve Browning Machine guns and be powered by the latest 2000 hp engines. Its service introduction in mid-1941 was plagued with problems and for several months the aircraft faced a doubtful future. When the Luftwaffe brought the formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190 into service in 1941, the “Typhoon” was the only RAF fighter capable of catching it at low altitudes; as a result it secured a new role as a low-altitude interceptor.
By contemporary standards, the new design’s wing was very “thick”, similar to the “Hurricane” before it. Although the “Typhoon” was expected to achieve over 400 mph in level flight at 20,000 ft, the thick wings created a large drag rise and prevented higher speeds than the 410 mph at 20,000 feet achieved in tests. The climb rate and performance above that level was also considered disappointing. When the “Typhoon” was dived at speeds of over 500 mph, the drag rise caused buffeting and trim changes. These compressibility problems led to Hawker designing the “Typhoon II”, later known as the “Tempest”, which used much thinner wings with a laminar flow airfoil.
By 1943, the RAF needed a ground-attack fighter more than a “pure” fighter and the “Typhoon” was suited to the role and less-suited to the pure fighter role than competing aircraft such as the Supermarine “Spitfire” Mk IX. The powerful engine allowed the aircraft to carry a load of up to two 454 kg bombs, equal to the light bombers of only a few years earlier. The bomb-equipped aircraft were nicknamed “Bombphoons” and entered service with No. 181 Squadron, formed in September 1942
Starting in January 1943, a “Typhoon” was used to test a new, clear, one piece sliding “bubble” canopy and its associated new windscreen structure which had slimmer frames which, together with the “cut-down” rear dorsal fairing, provided a far superior all-around field of view to the car-door type. From November 1943 all production aircraft were to be so fitted. However, the complex modifications required to the fuselage and a long lead time for new components to reach the production line meant that it took some time before the new canopy became standard. Production of the “Typhoon”, which was entirely the responsibility of Gloster Aircraft, totaled 3,330 machines (Ref.: 24)

TYPE: Interceptor fighter, fighter bomber

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One de Havilland ‘Goblin’ 3 centrifugal turbojet engine, rated at 1,500 kp

PERFORMANCE: 548 mph

COMMENT: The de Havilland ‘Vampire’ was a British turbojet fighter developed and manufactured during the WW II to harness the newly developed turbojet engine. The ‘Vampire’ entered service with the RAF in 1945 and was the second jet fighter, after the Gloster ‘Meteor’, operated by the RAF, and its first to be powered by a single jet engine. After Air Ministry specification E.6/41 was raised to provide official support for two prototypes of the jet fighter, design work on the DH.100 began at the de Havilland works in mid-1942, two years after the ‘Meteor’. Originally named the ‘Spider Crab’, the aircraft was entirely a de Havilland project, exploiting the company’s extensive experience in building with moulded plywood for aircraft construction. Many of the basic design features were first used in their famous ‘Mosquito’ fast bomber. It had conventional straight mid-wings and a single jet engine placed in an egg-shaped, aluminum-skinned fuselage, exhausting in a straight line. Armament was four 20mm Hispano Mk V cannon under the nose, with air brakes in the wings to slow the aircraft so as to be able to get into a firing position behind slower aircraft – a feature also incorporated in the ‘Meteor`. The Vampire was considered to be a largely experimental design due to its unorthodox arrangement and the use of a single engine, unlike the Gloster ‘Meteor’ which was already specified for production. The low power output of early jet engines meant that only twin-engine aircraft designs were considered practical; but as more powerful engines were developed, particularly Halford’s H.1 (later known as the ‘Goblin’), a single-engined jet fighter became possible. De Havilland were approached to produce an airframe for the H.1, and their first design, the DH.99, was an all-metal, twin-boom, tricycle undercarriage aircraft armed with four cannon. The use of a twin boom kept the jet pipe short, avoiding the power loss of a long pipe that would have been needed in a conventional fuselage. The DH.99 was modified to a mixed wood-and-metal construction in light of Ministry of Aircraft Production recommendations, and the design was renumbered to DH.100 by November 1941. The first prototype made its maiden flight on September 1943, only six months after the ‘Meteor’s’ maiden flight. The first Vampire flight had been delayed due to the need to send the only available engine fit for flight to America to replace one destroyed in ground engine runs in Lockheed’s prototype XP-80 Shooting Star. The production Vampire Mk I did not fly until April 1945, with most being built by English Electric Aircraft factories due to the pressures on de Havilland’s production facilities, which were busy with other types. Although eagerly taken into service by the RAF, it was still being developed at war’s end, and never saw combat in the Second World War.

Noteworthy is the fact that the de Havilland DH 100 “Vampire” had great similarity with the contemporary German Focke-Wulf Projekt VII “Flitzer” (“Streaker” or “Dasher”) (Ref.: 24).

TYPE: Long-range fighter and fighter-bomber

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Two Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin’ 130/131 liquid-cooled engines, rated at 2,030 hp each

PERFORMANCE: 472 mph at 22,000 ft

COMMENT: The de Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ was perhaps the most graceful twin-engined monoplane to be produced by any combatants during WW II. The experience gained by the company with the de Havilland ‘Mosquito’, coupled with a need for a long-range, single-seat fighter for the use in what appeared likely to be a prolonged island-hopping in the South Pacific against the Japanese, led to the design of an unusual clean ’Merlin’-powered aircraft. The first prototype D.H.103, officially to be named ‘Hornet’, was flown on July 1944. Production of sixty ‘Hornet’ F.1s was commenced late in 1944, and the first aircraft off the line flew on February 1945. The prototypes of the ‘Hornet’ had achieved the phenomenal speed of 485 mph and with full operational equipment the production ‘Hornet’ F.1 was only a shade slower at 472 mph. The ‘Hornet’ was too late to see operational service during WW II, however, the first squadron, No 64, re-equipped early in 1946. A conversion of the ‘Hornet’ F.1 initiated before the end of war was the navalisation of two machines for use on carriers. Equipped with folding wings, these aircraft were named ‘Sea Hornet’ (Ref.: 12)

TYPE: Interceptor fighter, fighter bomber

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Rolls-Royce ‘Griffon III’ liquid-cooled engine, rated at 1,735 hp

PERFORMANCE: 448 mph at 18,000 ft

COMMENT: In order to boost the performance of the Spitfire Mk. IV it was intended to replace the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine by a single stage Rolls-Royce Griffon IIb liquid-cooled engine, driving a four-blade airscrew. In order to avoid confusion the Griffon engine prototype was redesigned as Spitfire Mk. XX. So in consequence all Griffon-powered Spitfires would be designated in the Mk. XX series, but this plan was not adhered to when the interim Griffon-powered Mk. XII, XIV, XVII and XIX were produced. The Spitfire Mk. IV alias Mk. XX was made the subject of production contracts during the period that the prototype was under development, and 750 were ordered in autumn 1941. But in fact, none was produced in this form. In spring 1942 the need arose suddenly for a high-performance low-altitude fighter to combat the low-flying Focke-Wulf Fw 190. The availability of the improved version of the two-stage Griffon engine led to an interim variant of the Spitfire, designated Mk. XIV. As initially produced, this aircraft had what was, apart from some strengthening of the fuselage, a standard Mk. VIII airframe married to a Griffon 65 engine which drove a five-blade Rotol airscrew. The vertical surfaces were enlarged and the “C” wing was used. In total 975 Spitfire Mk. XIV were produced, 527 fighter and 430 fighter-reconnaissance aircraft. The Spitfire Mk. XIV gained the distinction of destroying the first Messerschmitt Me 262 in fighter-versus-fighter combat, this event taking place on October 5, 1944 (Ref.: 12).