Maybe someone should do the same with the Hawker Fury...oh, that's right they did - it was the Hurricane.
Are you sure ...
Hawker's Fury Monoplane - the Harrier and HarpyThe
Harrier was one of three Hawker submissions for F.5/34 (Interceptor Monoplane). Initially known as the P.V.4
Fury Monoplane, this fighter used as much of the
Fury biplane structure as possible. The
Fury fuselage had an another bay added forward of the cockpit to accommodate a monoplane centre section stub wing. To this stub wing were attached fabric-covered outer wing panels and the cantilever landing gear legs.
Ironically, the P.V.4 monoplane was ready sooner than the competing P.V.3 biplane (which required a largely revised structure). Rather than delay F.5/34 to allow other competing biplane fighters to be finished, the Air Ministry elected to issue an immediate contract for 50 P.V.4 monoplanes as the
Harrier Mk.I.
The
Harrier Mk.Is were delivered with 525 hp
Kestrel IIIS engines but development plans aimed at Roll-Royce's evaporatively-cooled
Goshawk. Trials with the 695 hp
Goshawk III produced no noticeable improvement in the
Harrier's performance. As a result, attention was turned to airframe improvements with the aim of installing evaporatively-cooled Roll-Royce engine, the larger PV-12.
Harpy - The 'opped-up 'arrier from 'awkersAlthough the new PV-12 was only slightly larger than the
Kestrel, it was almost 500 lbs heavier. As a result, considerable redesign of the
Harrier fuselage was required to restore its c/g. At the time, the RAF was moving towards a new standard machine gun chambered for Vickers' rimless 12.7x81 ammunition. At an early stage, the Hawker design team decided to place this armament in the wings outside of the propeller arch. Thus the weighty BSA 'Aircraft Gun, Heavy' armament was was partly offset by the elimination of synchronization gear.
The most radical feature adopted for the 'PV-12
Harrier' was a completely retractable main undercarriage. This gear attached to the centre section stub wing and retracted outward into the wings (inboard of the gun bays). This design was quickly adopted by the RAF under a new name -- the
Harpy. Since the PV-12 engine was not yet in full production,
Harpy Mk.Is were powered by
Kestrel VIs. The
Harpy Mk.II was the first fitted with the PV-12 (by then named
Merlin B). All
Harpies were armed with four .5" BSA AGH guns.
Shown is the
Harpy Mk.II demonstrator G-ABSE while at Brooklands airfield for tests in Nov 1935. In March 1936, G-ABSE moved to Martlesham Heath for RAF trials.