Hawker P.1052 / P.1081

Hawker P.1052, P.1072 и P.1081

Успешные результаты, полученные инженерами компании при создании Hawker P.1040/Sea Hawk, побудили руководство компании продолжить опытно-конструкторские работы. В результате вскоре появились два прототипа, в целом идентичных самолету Hawker P.1052, которые в основном отличались стреловидным крылом (35°) и оснащались двигателем Rolls-Royce Nene. Вскоре после постройки один из них был переоборудован в P.1081 - его предполагалось оснастить двигателем Rolls-Royce Tay. Однако последние Министерство так и не закупило, поэтому на самолет пришлось ставить двигатель Nene, изменив при этом конструкцию хвостовой части машины. В то же время и все поверхности управления были сделаны стреловидными. Первый полет состоялся 19 июня 1950 года, но 3 апреля 1951 года самолет был разрушен во время аварии. Другой самолет, P.1072, предназначался для изучения особенностей работы ракетных двигателей, для чего был модифицирован прототип P.1040. Двигатель Nene сохранили, но дополнительно установили на самолет - в хвостовой части, чуть ниже руля направления - ракетный двигатель Armstrong Siddeley Snarler тягой 8,89 кН. Было выполнено не более шести полетов в такой конфигурации (полет выполнялся только на ракетном двигателе), после чего проект закрыли.

The second Hawker P.1052, VX279, a swept-wing development of the P.1040 which was considered by some to be more deserving of a production contract.

Hawker's P. 1052 was a derivative of the company's first jet, their unswept P.1040 of late 1944 that was to become the Seahawk. With the availability of captured German data on swept wings, the P. 1052 represented the first in a series of faltering steps that was to see the company lose pride of place as a producer of outstanding fighters. Powered by a 5.000lb s.t. Rolls-Royce Nene and built to Specification E.38146, the P.1052's task was researching the aerodynamics of a Mach 0.86 limited, 35 degree swept wing of 10 per cent thickness to chord ratio. Useful as this information may have been in late 1945 or 1946, by the time the P.1052's first flight took place on 19 November 1948, there is little doubt that the need for such data had long past. Indeed by this time, the fully swept Mig-15, North American F-86 Sabre, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and SAAB J29 were all in, or about to enter, production.

The second Hawker P.1052, VX279, was given an afterburning Tay with a single orifice beneath swept wing tail surfaces to become the interim Hawker P.1081. When T. S. “Wimpey” Wade was killed in this aircraft in April 1951 Neville Duke became Hawker’s chief test pilot.

Опытный самолет P.1052. 1947г.

The first example of the swept-wing P.1052 was VX272, which first flew in December 1948.

The second P.1052, VX279

VX279 в варианте Р.1052. Самолет рассматривался как демонстратор технологий стреловидного крыла, но время уже было компанией к тому времени упущено.

The Hawker P.1052 was photographed at R.A.F. Cardington by M. M. Gates of Ealing.

The Hawker P.1052 (with swept tailplane), stored at R.A.F. Cardington, are now painted inl standard R.A.F. camouflage.

The second P.1052, VX279, was given an afterburning Tay with a single orifice beneath swept tail surfaces to become the interim P.1081.

VX279 после переоборудования в прототип самолета P.1081, к которому проявляла активный интерес Австралия.
Converted from the second P.1052, VX 279, the sole Hawker P.1081 had started life as an aspirant fighter design for the Royal Australian Air Force and again represented a fairly minimalist approach when set against its contemporaries, such as the North American F-86 Sabre, which won the Australian order. Still using the forward fuselage of the P.1040 Seahawk, the P.1081 abandoned the split, or bifurcated jet exhaust pipes in favour of a straight-through jet pipe taken from a Supermarine Attacker. The major change to the P.1081 were the all-new, fully swept fin and tail surfaces. Powered with the same 5.000lb s.t. Nene as its forebear, the P.1081 first took to the air on 19 June 1950. The top level speed of VX 279 was Mach 0.89 at 36.000 feet, or 588mph, 14mph faster than the P.1052. VX 279 crashed, cause unknown, on 3 April 1951, killing Hawker's Chief Test Pilot, Sqn. Ldr. T.S. 'Wimpy' Wade.

19 июня 1950г.: переделанный из второго Hawker P.1052, взлетел самолет P.1081 с двигателем Nene и стреловидным хвостовым оперением. Первый полет выполнил сквадрон-лидер Т. С. Уэйд.

Опытный самолет P.1081. 1949г.

The P.1052 is an interesting machine and was built primarily as a research aircraft to investigate the behaviour of swept-back wings at low speeds. As the drawing shows the 1052 made use of a similar fuselage to the Hawker Seahawk, but the wing was swept back 35 degrees. The first prototype (VX272) was used to gain experience with the operation of swept-wing aircraft from aircraft carriers. At the request of the Royal Navy, Hawker Aircraft fitted the swept tailplane, and the machine was used for tests with the new empennage. Vortex generators were fitted to the top surfaces and these, with the sweep-back, improved longitudinal stability and all-round performance. The acorn fairing was used for the study of area-rule as early as 1950, although it was not known as such then.

The P.1081 was an experimental fighter derivative of the P.1052 swept-wing research aircraft.