DeHavilland Gunnery Special

[Brian da Basher]

The RAF was caught flat-footed when war erupted over the Munich crisis in 1938. The Nazi juggernaut not only rolled over Czechoslovakia, but was also able to gobble up the low countries and Belgium. France fell in April, 1939. From across the English Channel, the British looked on in horror and many stop-gap measures were pushed forward.

The RAF found itself completely out-numbered and mostly out-classed when the Luftwaffe "Blitz" began in May, 1939. Spitfires and Hurricanes were available only in small numbers and were usually busy fighting off Me-109s. Nothing else had the speed, ceiling and firepower to stop the Nazi threat. What was needed was a fast, heavily armed bomber killer.

DeHavilland had a solution. They up-engined their famous Comet racer with high-compression Halls-Hearst Hurlin' engines and added the punch of four 30 m.m. cannon. The new bomber killer was officially known as the DH Gunnery Special but pilots and crews called it the Gunner.









Pushed into combat, the new aircraft soon proved valuable. With just a few bursts of its 30 m.m. cannon, the Gunner was able to practically disintegrate Nazi bombers.

More to follow...

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Morale in the Luftwaffe Bombengeschwader crumpled like an Airfix box at the bottom of the stash. Reichsmarschall Goering held a meeting with his commanders and asked what they needed to bring the RAF to heel. "Herr Reichsmarschall, Wir brauchen eine Staffel von Gunners!" was the reply. Old Fatso stomped away in frustration as his last bombers were blasted into oblivion over England.









By 1940, the Luftwaffe threat to England had been erased and wings of Gunners were able to range practically at will over occupied France, destroying anything that came in their sights on "Rhubarb" missions. Perhaps the most famous of these was when a Gunner caught Wehrmact Army Group West commander General-Oberst Ober in his command car and blasted it and the General-Oberst to smithereens.

The DH Gunner was eventually superseded by more advanced types and all were scrapped by the end of the war. All that now exists of this aircraft is this desk model.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The basis for this project is the last of my 1/72 Airfix DH 88 Comets. For this one, I replaced the engines with ones made from F-86 Sabre drop tanks and I replaced the tip of the nose with the gun piece from an Airfix Mosquito. Here's a few shots before paint and before I lopped off the ends of the drop tank engines for the nice Aeroclub four-bladed props and Mossie exhausts.









More to follow...

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The model was brush-painted by hand with Model Master acrylics, Dark Sea Gray and O.D. uppers and RAF Sky for the prop spinners and underside. Decals are all from spares. The entire project took me about a week from start to finish.









Brian da Basher

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Wicked idea and it certainly looks purposeful with the modifications you have made to the nose. 

[sequoiaranger]

Not quite as "brutish" as yours, my "Cometa" uses 3/4 Merlins (V-8's downsized from the V-12's of the Supermarine S.8 racer) of 800 hp each, and four 12.7 mm machine guns in the nose. Most of nacelle is Westland Whirlwind. Canopy was from Ar-96 (?) trainer. Mix of FROG and Airfix DH.88's along with two FROG S.8's)



PS--"30mm" for your cannon sounds too "European"---perhaps a "1-pounder" might do!

[The Big Gimper]

Very nice work.  :).

[Brian da Basher]

Thanks, gents! I'm really chuffed you like my Gunner.

Mr Ranger, I really like your take on this concept. Your Cometa is very sleek indeed!

Brian da Basher

[Texgunner]

Brian, and the ranger, both planes are very cool!  Bad-assed lil' hotrods if ya asked me.  Keep 'em coming boys!
Gary

[finsrin]

Brian, and the ranger, both planes are very cool! Bad-assed lil' hotrods if ya asked me. Keep 'em coming boys! Gary

I second Gary's statement.  :)  :)
Question for Brian - Looks like V10 engines.  What engine would that be ?

[Gaz]

What they said!

Ranger: The engines of your Cometa would be Merlinites. The logic is that the unsupercharged version of the Merlin,
used as an engine for tanks, was the Rolls-Royce Meteor. That engine had a V8 derivative called the Meteorite, hence a
"Merlin V8" (want one for my car!) ought to be a Merlinite!

[Brian da Basher]

Brian, and the ranger, both planes are very cool! Bad-assed lil' hotrods if ya asked me. Keep 'em coming boys! Gary

I second Gary's statement.  :)  :)
Question for Brian - Looks like V10 engines.  What engine would that be ?

Why the famous Halls-Hearst Hurlin'  V-12 V-10 engine, of course!
(a tip o' the pin to Mr Ranger for spotting my typo)

Brian da Basher

[TerryCampion]

That's fantastic...I love it

[LemonJello]

Love the look and purpose of this one - bomber killer extraordinaire! Nicely done!

[sequoiaranger]

Brian--Gary's comment on a possible V-10 is probably because of the (only) 10 visible exhaust pipes. Where are the other two for the Haulin', Hurlin' V-12 to breathe?

Gaz--Welcome to the forum.  "Merlinite" sounds like a fundamentalist sect riding horse-and-buggies and bicycles in Pennsylvania! If it wasn't such a long and awkward name, I would call this mini-Merlin the "Sorcerer's Apprentice"! Even this 3/4 Merlin would still be roughly 1200 cu. in. (approx 21 liters)--if you have a car that could fit THAT in the engine compartment---GO FOR IT!!

PS--many of the American V-12 Allison aircaft engines were used post-war to power racing boats. I saw such an engine up close, headless (the engine, not me!), and was AMAZED at the size of the pistons! I could wiggle my fist around inside the cylinders!

[GTX_Admin]

Outstanding Brian. :)

[deathjester]

Wonderful work mate!  Without the exhausts, the engines almost look like RR Darts...

[Jacques Deguerre]

Great model of a worthy subject that is so obscure, most aviation experts don't even believe it existed! 

I did read an account "somewhere on the internet" (so it must be true) that an early prototype was lost when the wings took off without the fuselage. Apparently, the fault was traced to inadequate riveting that failed to take into account the power of the engines. DeHavilland redesigned the wing-fuselage structure and hired supervisors to meticulously inspect the work. While the supervisors never seemed to do any actual work, they were self-described "experts" on the subject and frequently berated the people who actually built the aircraft. DH employees informally dubbed these supervisors "rivet counters" and noted that most of them behaved as "a bunch of joyless numpties".

[TomZ]

Great one

TomZ

[Brian da Basher]

I do believe, Messr. Deguerre, that you could start a cottage industry writing back stories!

Thanks for the comments all! They inspire the madness to no end...

Brian da Basher

[ChrisF]

Love it !! I feel like doing one myself now !

[Doom!]

Another terrific build BDB, Your creative juices never seem to slow down!

[Diavel]

I am liking that Brian, only if eh I think the Luftwaffe would have gotten a proper good kicking from these things.
cheers
Chris 

[Weaver]

Lovely job Brian!  :)

Makes me wonder about an alternative timeline where "split single" engined fighters (i.e. small single-seaters with two small engines rather than one big one) became popular in a big way: instead of the Spitfire and Hurricane double act, you end up with De-Havilland Gunners and Westland Whirlwinds as the primary fighters, duking it out with Fw-187s while Supermarine make bombers and Hawker plough a lonely furrough with their "wierd" single-engined designs.....