Evolution

This is just a bit of fun prompted by the fact the a test render looked just like a model kit so I ran with that idea.
Actually I have not even started to UV map the Hunting Hound yet so still lots to do in this area and I hate UV mapping.

Some background on the Hawker Hound evolution
Late in 1936 Tesla/Royce contacted the Air Ministry to inform them that the PV12-Electric could not be expected to go into production for another 18 months. The engine was plagued with problems that included cooling issues, excessive wear and cylinder head cracking. Most problematic was the constant gear train failures between the output shaft and the generator.

The Air Ministry contacted the various contractors that would be affected by the news and many heated phone calls and meetings took place in the weeks that followed.  At Supermarine  there was a little relief mixed in with the disappointment. RJ Mitchells Spectre was going to be problematic to produce at least initially and there was much to iron out. The prototype flew with a much modified Tesla/Royce Schneider race engine and along with a spare it was good for continued trials until the Merlin Electric was ready.

At Hawkers,  Sydney Camm was also disappointed but not in the least surprised. The Merlin Electric was a huge step forward and he wanted all the kinks ironed out before he bolted it to an airframe. However, all this was overshadowed by the news of the bombing of Guernica in April the following year. Camm was as appalled as everybody else and was even more vocal in his thoughts on an interceptor.  He was invited to speak at an Air Ministry meeting regarding the future Air defence of Great Britain where he stated,

“There may be those in Parliament and elsewhere that are firm in their belief that the Bomber will always get through and, with this frame of mind, vast sums of money and resources are being expended in building what is seen as a deterrent bombing force.”
He continued, “This is an arms race that will spiral out of control and, in some cases, may be the ruin of countries with more fragile economies”.
He had everyone’s full attention now as the Depression was still very much in recent memory and the Edwardian aerial dreadnought building era had been the ruin of many a chancellors budget.

Camm glanced at his notes then picked them up and tossed them aside. Gripping his jacket  lapels he continued,  “Gentlemen, there is something that always seems to be ignored when stating that the bomber will always get through which is simply that calming by deterrent does not allow for the madman who is willing to lose all in a first strike”.

He paused and then continued in the manner of a headmaster speaking to a rather dim child,
“Of course there is also the fact that no matter how many you put over your enemy your enemy will be doing his damnedest to get some over you and, if the bomber will get through, what are you going to do to stop them ?”

Camms logic was met mostly with mutterings of “hear hear” as he had vocalised what many had been thinking.  The outcome of all this was the formation of Fighter Command which would grow into a formidable and very capable home defence organisation far ahead of its time. However, in the meantime Britain was left with only the Hawker Hound Mk 2 which in all reality was nothing more than the original Hound with two additional machine guns and greater horsepower.

Sidney Camm knew that the basic layout of the Hound and its variants was sound and could be improved upon easily without the need to start from scratch. What was needed was more power and also more hitting power. The Air ministry had taken the advice of the Operational Requirements Branch that in view of the increasing speeds of  fighter and bomber aircraft, gun firing opportunities would be brief, so a six or preferably eight-gun battery should be installed in fighters. This was later amended to a mixed armament of rifle calibre machine guns and 20mm canon that equalled or exceeded the weight of fire from an 8 gun battery.

The addition of canon came about after Aero electric began research into defensive shielding and the possibility that until such times as shielding was available, aircraft would be fitted with armour which would be increased as more lifting power became available. It was known that Germany was also very interested in defensive shielding and armour. However, it would be some years before any country had a reliable defensive shield generation capability.

At Hawkers the result of all this thinking was the Hawker Hunting Hound (in reality the Hound MK4). Tesla/Royce had pushed the kestrel -Electric to previously unheard of power output for what was still the original displacement of 21 litres and Camm wanted all that power. He stayed with a tubular steel framework, wooden frames/stringers and fabric for most of the rear airframe but refined the flying surfaces and included a fully enclosed cockpit. The Tesla/Royce Kestrels Electric  XX mountings were redesigned for added strength and fully covered to accommodate a retractable undercarriage.

In the nose sat 4 x browning .303 machine guns and in the underside of the nose  2 x Hispano 20mm canon. Camm had some difficulty with the feed mechanism and changing drums on early “big dogs”, as the RAF came to call them, was a source of much annoyance.

The result of all this was the world’s most heavily armed and fastest interceptor prior to the start of the Second World War.  By this time the very last bit of power production had been sucked from the Kestrel Electric design and the Merlin Electric was being introduced along with the global adoption of the constant speed propeller.

Soon after, the Supermarine Spectre began to equip operational squadrons and would eventually replace the Hunting hound but for the first 12 months of the war these two aircraft would be instrumental in the coming defence of Britain and the outcome of the war.

As a foot note to the Hawker Hounds story it is worth mentioning that for a short period in 1938 a Hunting Hound A series held the world airspeed record. On a flight from the north of England to his base in Northolt in London, Squadron Leader J. W. Gillan made the trip in 40 minutes. This made great propaganda and as is the nature of propaganda the fact was overlooked that Gillan had the benefit of extremely high tail winds which was a result of an earlier violent storm front.

When asked about the experience Gillan stated “it was like flying in a Hurricane”.