Long-Range Hurricane II (internal tanks)

[Graham Boak]

"Refurbished" could mean anything: any fighter old enough to have served in the BoB would have been through a number of overhauls by whatever time this was in 1941. Do we have any better guide to the timing? However, the Mk.I wing was not capable of carrying anything other than the fixed external ferry tanks.

Many Mk.Is were converted into Mk.IIs, and this was capable of carrying the jettisonable tanks. However, this does not seem to have appeared in the Middle East before the middle of 1941 at the earliest - the operations in Greece/Crete only involved Mk.Is. I don't recall any mention in Shores/Cull book on this campaign concerning anything other than standard Mk.Is in 33 Sq., and late production ones at that, so I suspect the timing is late in the year.

The problem remains that there seems to be no place in the Hurricane wing for additional tanks other than the armament bays, and 33 was a fighter unit not FR/PR where a reduced armament would be acceptable.

[AndreasB]

Thanks again Graham. I think I'll put this one down to faulty memory, and what he may have meant were fixed underwing tanks.

All the best

Andreas

[brewerjerry]

Hi
Just a thought graham you mentioned about a year ago in a brit modeller thread, that malta modified it's PR hurricanes to have fuel tanks in the leading edges of the wings.
Could this possibly be the same or similar modifiction, but done to a normal fighter hurricane.
cheers
Jerry


post 16 http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/i...howtopic=42962

[Graham Boak]

That's an interesting thought, but the PR Hurricanes don't carry armament, leaving space for significant tanks.

It's worth also remembering that the Mk.VIII Spitfire had leading edge tanks, tucked into the space ahead of the undercarriage near the wing root. There doesn't seem to be a lot of space there, but it was considered worthwhile. IIRC, the Hurricane already had tanks in the wing root, but I can't picture them offhand (the manual is upstairs.....)

Although there are only rare examples of RAF engineering officers carrying out locally-invented modifications to aircraft, those that did happen show considerable inventiveness. Just because I (and it seems no-one else on the board) can't think of how to fit more fuel into a Hurricane doesn't rule it out completely. There's always the outer wing..... not an ideal place for carrying fuel but perhaps?

[CraigQ]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

That's an interesting thought, but the PR Hurricanes don't carry armament, leaving space for significant tanks.

It's worth also remembering that the Mk.VIII Spitfire had leading edge tanks, tucked into the space ahead of the undercarriage near the wing root. There doesn't seem to be a lot of space there, but it was considered worthwhile. IIRC, the Hurricane already had tanks in the wing root, but I can't picture them offhand (the manual is upstairs.....)

Although there are only rare examples of RAF engineering officers carrying out locally-invented modifications to aircraft, those that did happen show considerable inventiveness. Just because I (and it seems no-one else on the board) can't think of how to fit more fuel into a Hurricane doesn't rule it out completely. There's always the outer wing..... not an ideal place for carrying fuel but perhaps?

The Hurricane had it's oil tank in the LH wing root ahead of the undercarriage and the filters in the same place on the RH side. The only space that extra fuel cells could have been placed were the gun/ammo bays. The wing tanks are in the center section outboard frame work aft of the undercarriage attach points. I can upload and post pictures of this I shot while doing extensive work on the Fighter Factories Hurri a couple of years ago.

[AndreasB]

Many thanks all!

All the best

Andreas

[AndreasB]

Okay, just to add to the confusion, Shores et al's new book on the Air War in the Med also mentions LR Hurricane I being used by No. 33 Squadron in September/October. The squadron was re-equipped with Hurricane I after Greece, i.e. during the summer. I have yet to trawl the book in detail to see if there is any other mention of the details of the planes.

All the best

Andreas

[Graham Boak]

I'm in the middle of reading it - 27th September. Can you please point me at the 33Sq reference for I can't find it in September or October. I've passed a brief reference to long range conversion in April 1941 involving 274 Sq - retaining armament.

Later, 274 was used for long range operations to Crete in the final stages of the evacuation. A description of the aircraft is on page 196 but it does not go into detail about the engineering of the tanks. Nothing appears to be incompatible with the fixed external ones.

[AndreasB]

Hi Graham

I'll get you the reference tonight.

Regarding external tanks, that's almost certainly the answer then.

All the best

Andreas

[Graham Boak]

There is a reference to 33 Sq with long-range Hurricanes in early November (P305, November 13th) which talks of the severe effect of the tanks on aircraft performance, which certainly does point to the external tanks.