Something Horrible from Hawker's

[Brian da Basher]

With great confidence, the RAF accepted the Gloster Meteor into service late in W.W. II. It was hoped their first jet fighter would be a successful counter to the German Me-262. Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as planned.



The Meteor suffered catastrophic structural failures after flying for only a few hours. When one crashed in the London suburb of Grimesley (luckily no one was hurt), the Air Ministry grounded the new jet.



This left the RAF without a jet fighter. An answer had to be found and fast.

Fortunately, Whittle Power Jets LTD. engineer Hank Spittle came up with a solution. His radical new Little Spittle jet engine had been rejected for production by Sir Frank Whittle even though it was an improvement over the Whittle jet. The Little Spittle jet engine had been flight-tested on a clapped-out, war-weary Hawker Hurricane which, with minor modifications, could serve as an interim replacement for the Meteor. Thus the Hawker Hurry Jet was born.







Powered by the slim and powerful Little Spittle jet engine and armed with two 40 m.m. cannon in the nose, two 20 m.m. cannon and four .303 machine guns in the wings, the stop-gap jet fighter seemed just what the doctor ordered to counter both the Me-262s and V-1 Buzz Bombs. After a crash (no pun intended) flight test program, the Hawker Hurry Jet entered service.







The Hurry Jet's heavy armament made mince-meat of any foe. On September 14th, 1944, one flown by Flying Officer Frederick Headrick exploded a Buzz Bomb in mid-air as it headed for the houses of Parliament. This feat was witnessed by the Prime Minister and the Lord Privy Seal and F.O. Headrick was awarded the Air Cross.





A squadron of Hurry Jets was sent to Europe in October, 1944 and it was here where the new fighter's shortcomings became apparent. While a fast, maneuverable, heavily armed and solid gun platform, the Hurry Jet consumed fuel like a bum drinks Sterno. This could have very bad consequences if one did not keep a constant eye on the fuel gauge.



Even when pilots were mindful of the Hurry Jet's poor gas mileage, their heavy fuel consumption caused logistical problems as the increase in tanker trucks bottle-necked an already stressed supply chain.



Fortunately, the cause of the Meteor's structural failures was found to be a lack of Unobtanium in the air frame. Once this was corrected, Hurry Jets were phased out of service as quickly as they could be replaced.





While Hank Spittle and his Hurry Jet are completely forgotten today, there was a time when the stop-gap fighter held the line in defense of democracy.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

This all began innocently enough with the 1/72 Airfix Hurricane Mk. I kit. Once again, the crew at Airfix do not disappoint. That stunning box art just gets the pulse racing, doesn't it?



Of course, there was no way mine was going to look anything like that by the time I was done. Initially I had grand plans to swap out the Hurricane nose for one from an Me-109 and finish the whole thing in Finnish markings. While the perversity of this appealed to me, once I found the engines from a 1/144 Airfix Boeing 737, I went off in a different direction.

As with many of my projects, it started with a nose job.



Since I'd already cut off the nose in anticipation of previous plans, it was simple for me to re-attach it upside down. I liked this as it seemed the pilot would have a better view and it might make this thing look fast enough for the jets. The kit prop went in the spares box and I added a Mosquito gun nose tip on the end.





After filling a few holes in the new nose, I put together the 737 engines and glued them under the wings. The entire model was brush-painted by hand with Model Master acrylics, Light Sea Gray mostly. All of the decals were robbed from the Mosquito except for those large fin flashes which came with the Hurricane kit.





The model took me three days to build. I hope you enjoyed it and the story of Hank Spittle and his Little Spittle jet engine.







Brian da Basher

[GTX_Admin]

 :)

[Cliffy B]

Brian don't EVER stop doing what you do man!!!  I mean that whole heartedly 

You left me literally crying with laughter after this one 

[deathjester]

Brilliant!!  Ilove your stories, and your models!!

[jetboy]

Hi,Brian,    really enjoyed that,good looking plane as well..cheers Don

[apophenia]

Brilliant, hilarious concept as usual and excellent nose job. But, Brian, you've just got to do that Daimler-engined Hurricane in Finnish markings next!

[Weaver]

Brilliant and funny as usual! 

[kitnut617]

Got to agree with everyone here BdB, bloody marvelous and another famous backstory ----  :) :)

[finsrin]

Got to agree with everyone here BdB, bloody marvelous and another famous backstory ----  :) :)

I 'm with kitnut and the rest.
You had ta been an "A" student in creative writing.  Your background stories, pictures, and kitbashing combine to be greater than sum of the parts.  Its a synergy kinda thing.
Now its easy to envision those parked-taxiing-flying.

Hurry Jet does have a plausibility of getting a jet flying ASAP.    We can make more refined jets later.

[Tophe]

Lovely jet-Hurricane, thanks a lot! (History books are so sad compared to the creativity here...)

[tc2324]

Gret work Brian.  :)

Love the story to it and the model looks great.

[Tophe]

And very inspiring... Thanks again!

[ChrisF]

Always loved hurricanes and any story that involves getting further modification on the hurri airframe is good with me !!

Lovely job !