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FAA Hellcat with 8 British rocket rails


Seahawk

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A useful shot. It never fails to amaze me how bulky these blast plates were, they can't have done much for the aircraft's flight characteristics & when one sees how the Typhoons did without them, why they were necessary on the Hellcat?

Steve

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Yes, even the humble Swordfish got away without them.  And was the blast from a British RP that much more fierce than that from the HVARs launched from the minimalist US "zero-length" mounts?

Edited by Seahawk
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I`ve been hoping that some resin manufacture will do these some day;

Image result for hellcat british rockets

Image result for hellcat british rockets

There are some good photos scattered around in various books,

Cheers

          Tony

 

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On 30 December 2016 at 0:24 PM, tonyot said:

I`ve been hoping that some resin manufacture will do these some day;

Image result for hellcat british rockets

Image result for hellcat british rockets

There are some good photos scattered around in various books,

Cheers

          Tony

 

Would anybody like to suggest the colour scheme for the top photo - looks to be a single top colour to me rather than edsg/slate grey.

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Just a reminder that there are some photos out there that show the test aircraft for RP fitment. These were a rather bulky fit and later operational rails were much neater. Somewhere in my messed-up heap of old aircraft magazines is an article on FAA Hellcats and the use of RP's.

 

 

Chris

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Was just thinking that the installation on B8H didn't look as bulky as the trials installation.  Don't think I would be the only one to be fascinated by that article on RP usage by FAA Hellcats if you ever manage to track it down.

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21 hours ago, iainpeden said:

Would anybody like to suggest the colour scheme for the top photo - looks to be a single top colour to me rather than edsg/slate grey.

It is TSS, there are more photos around of 896 squadron showing them more clearly. You can see the two paint tones on the rudder.

 

I had a go at this aircraft a while back- needs the rockets though: 

 

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It is always easier to improve on an idea than come up with one in the first place.  Have you seen the Thunderbolts etc.  with multiple bazooka tubes, which was the US's first attempts?

 

For these rockets it was believed necessary to use rails in order to provide sufficient accuracy (never brilliant).  This was possibly due to the low impetus provided by the early powder mix.  Later the rails were found to be unnecessary but by then the setup was in production, lots available, people trained in the installation and use.  The later larger US rockets did provide a greater impulse and thus less initial drop.  Perhaps Selwyn could provide fuller details.

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You'd also have to factor in the energy of the impact, presumably higher with an HVAR.

 

It's interesting, if a little ironic, to note that initially the armour piercing heads were thought more appropriate for ground attack, with the 60lb heads for anti-shipping work.  Use for real showed the reverse, partially because heavily armoured targets proved to be only a small proportion of the ground targets.

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When the British first started testing and using aircraft mounted RP's during the war, they were limited to a 3" diameter rocket body, as that was the largest size die they had for the cordite propellant. The Americans, on the other hand, were not restricted to this size and made their rocket bodies 5" in diameter. This gave more uumph on lightup, giving the RP's a higher velocity, allowing them to discard the large launch rails.

 

As for the warheads, both the 60lb. SAP and HVAR were the same size, 5" diameter.

 

 

 

Chris

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