Hunter F3 canopy questions (with reference to the Pavla mod kit for the Revell F6)

[John R]

As any child knows the Hunter F3 used to attack the World speed Record was fitted, amongst other modications, with a conical front windscreen. This did not replace the existing front windscreen but was fitted forward of it. I have just acquired the Pavla modification kit to convert the Revell Hunter to an F3 and it contains a canopy with a forward conical section. It appears that this is intended to replace the kit canopy but without the original screen. Whilst searching for information about how the conical part was fitted I came upon some interesting information, namely that the canopy extension was removed for the record breaking runs and furthermore as the original screen and portion under the conical extension had not been painted red but were left in the original duck egg green the model builder is left with a choice of three options.

Original configuration with green frame under the extension, extension removed and green front section exposed or all nice red as presently exhibited.

Does anybody know why it was removed? I assume that it didn't do much for the speed and hindered visibility or maybe they were worried the consequences of it becoming detached.

 

A question about the canopy. I believe the production Hunters had a longer canopy. Whilst looking for information about the above matter I came across this in Bill Gunston's 'Fighters of the Fifties'. "The Sapphire prototype... was 7.5" longer (this greater length became standard)". I have not seen this anywhere else. Was he inferring that the nose was lengthened so that the longer canopy could be fitted or that he was wrong and the 7.5" referred to the longer canopy? Can anyone enlighten me further please?

John

PS. See second post to see what I have found

 

 

[John R]

A bit more digging into my reference books and the internet brought the following to light.

The fuselage length did not change but the fuselage behind the canopy was modified to accommodate a lengthened canopy. There is a side view of the Mk3, which had the original canopy, in the SAM book of the Hunter. (I missed this at first because I was only looking for the P1067 and didn't think to look at the other marks). There are also nice side views of the P1067 and an F6 on the BAe Heritage website.

In Roy Braybrooks' book of the Hunter there are a couple of pictures of WB188 taking off before, and landing after, the record setting flight which, to me, show the conical windscreen was fitted. Braybrook goes on to say that the conical section was removed after the record setting flight because of condensation problems.

If the above mentioned pictures are correct then it would appear that some aspects of the Pavla mod kit are in error as the airbrakes were removed and 'WB188' was in a different position.

I seem to have answered my own question... but then this might be of interest to others.

Anyone beg to differ?

John

[junglierating]

As any child knows....lol not sure if you are serious or not....british aviation waz big with skool boys in the fiftys so maybe you are talking with experience ...it would be rude to speculate but it made me laugh.

 

Cant help with your question sorry

[Graeme H]

It is very possible that it is only in the canopy

I noticed when I got some photos of it at Tangmere that the canopy on this has metal bracing on the rear of the canopy, not seen on other Hunters, and it does look shorter because of the bracing, not sure if it is an optical illusion or not.

 

 DSCF0652 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

DSCF0644 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

DSCF0655 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

but only has the standard windshield, I did ask about the high speed windshield, but was told they didn't have it.

 

DSCF0656 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

[John R]

I have just seen a copy of the Warpaint book of the Hunter and in it there is a picture of Neville Duke in the mark 3 and the section under the conical section is not green but black. This had me baffled for a while but I think that the conical section was probably built as 'bolt on' unit which consisted of the conical windscreen and a base plate. This was fitted and then the whole a/c was painted red so the section under the conical section remained green and this became visible in photos taken after the conical section was removed.

Anyone beg to differ?

John

[StephenMG]

You're right. The standard windscreen was/is flat so the 'conical' extension was added to make it more 'slippery' for the record attempt (along with a pointed replacement for the normally rounded radome). It was removed after the record runs leaving a patch of the original green showing.

 

As for the canopy length - the first two P.1067 prototypes had a longer and more bulbous spine behind the cockpit and a correspondingly shorter canopy - the original rear bulkhead between the spine and the cockpit was located immediately behind the seat headbox. One of the original criticisms of the prototypes when evaluated was it's restricted rear visibility. To help, the canopy was extended rearwards and the spine behind it made less bulbous. That's whay the control rod trunking behind the seat became visible through the hood. This revision first appeared on the third prototype WB202 (the Sapphire prototype). The first two, WB188 and WB195 weren't modified to match however. 

 

This is almost always overlooked by model makers - well done for spotting it!

[canberra kid]

A nice photo of the Hunter after the front screen had been removed.

John