Typhoon

[Smoke2much]

I was talking to a gentleman the other day who flew the Typhoon during the battle for Europe.

Apparently the Typhoon could take a huge amount of punishment and still stay in the air, he flew below tree top level and would target individual tanks using a direct radio link with the ground troops.

Apparently there were numerous engine modifications during this time which the pilots were told very little about.  If they were captured they couldn't reveal sensitive information to the enemy.

The Typhoon was in his words "Awful" up high.  It had a very nasty spin characteristic at 15-20 thousand feet and would happily go into a flat spin.  During the spin the centrifugal forces would pin you into the cockpit and the stick would hammer around smashing into various parts of your anatomy.  On one occasion he lost control whilst practicing aerobatics at 20,000 ft and regained control at about 3000 feet.  He told me that more pilots were lost during their first week of conversion training than at any other point in their careers.

His analysis was that the Typhoon was the best ground assault aircraft of the war, literally a flying tank.  When the three blade prop was replaced by the four blade prop she became a very stable platform that could outrun most interceptors at the altitude they were flying at and could survive some pretty intense flak.

Will

[ozzy72]

Sounds about right Will. A lot of the Foreign Squadrons had accidents early on as the British aircraft had push forward levers to increase throttle, whereas in Europe they had pull backs. Imagine the mess! Loads of trashed Spits and Hurris!
The Typhoon was one of the more sophisticated ground attack aircraft in the latter part of WWII, and a beast. I'd say flying tank was a good summary, along with the Jug (P-47). Another beast

Ozzy

[Connor]

My Grandpa flew Typhoons in the war with 193 squadron he flew 70 combat sorties in that airplane.
The engine in that airplne was a beast it was I think naiper sabre with 2400hp. My Grandpa once told me that you swore the airplane was going to rattle apart when it was just ideling

[Smoke2much]

Thanks for your comebacks.

Ozzy, that is a complete nightmare with the throttle levers!  Next thing you know they'll be driving on the wrong side of the road in foreign parts....


The chap I was speaking to said the same as your Grandpa, Connor.  He told me that they were more uncomfortable taxiing than at any other time.  And if you weren't careful you got whiplash on landing.

Will

[ozzy72]

Hey Will that was unnecessary. I only forgot once The Lada coming the other way was surprised followed swiftly by knackered

[Hagar]

Very interesting stuff. I remember reading a biog of the late Roland "Bee" Beamont, Hawker & later English Electric Chief Test Pilot. http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/88bios/beamon88.htm
The Typhoon had continual teething problems & was rushed into service far too early. The pilots in the first operational squadrons, 609 Squadron was led by Beamont himself aged 22, were acting as both test & combat pilots. This must have been a strain as they were never sure if the engine would pack up or the prop or tail section fall off without warning. The standing instructions were to bail out rather than attempt ditching due to the huge chin intake. This made the Tiffie tip right over on contact with the water, trapping the pilot in the cockpit.

It is felt in some quarters that had "Bee" Beamont not been appointed to command 609 sqn on the 2nd Oct (1942), the Typhoon would probably have been lost to the Allies as one of their war-winning weapons.

[Woodlouse2002]

Twas George Lucas (Hawkers chief test pilot and my grandpa's second cousin) who was cruicial in curing the Typhoons set backs. Once he was flying the prototype and the tail started to wobble at high altitude. He landed the aircraft purely because he knew he had to or the problem would not be solved.

Geoffrey Wellum was another Typhoon test pilot but we're still waiting for that book...

[aeronut]

Yes-that was why they were eventually assigned the low level role-engine cooling was a big problem too in the early days-'When's the next seized up Sabre due to land?' We used to wonder.If you haven't seen 'The Typhoon's last storm' on Sat. TV would recommend it-an account of the Tiffies last operation-rather sad though.

[HawkerTempest5]

.If you haven't seen 'The Typhoon's last storm' on Sat. TV would recommend it-an account of the Tiffies last operation-rather sad though.

I saw this recently on the History channel. Very sad tale. It was interesting to hear the first hand accounts of some of the pilots.

[Felix/FFDS]

Sounds about right Will. A lot of the Foreign Squadrons had accidents early on as the British aircraft had push forward levers to increase throttle, whereas in Europe they had pull backs. Imagine the mess! Loads of trashed Spits and Hurris!
The Typhoon was one of the more sophisticated ground attack aircraft in the latter part of WWII, and a beast. I'd say flying tank was a good summary, along with the Jug (P-47). Another beast

Ozzy

Ozzy - No excuse!!!!  It seems that the early Harvards taken over by the RAF from the French contract also had the pull back throttles.... I believe most were used in the Canadian training scheme....

[Hagar]

[quote]Ozzy - No excuse!!!!