The Sea Hornet

You may have heard of the Mosquito, but have you heard of its younger, smaller but more powerful brother?

Designed to take piston engine fighter design to the pinnacle of performance, the de Haviland Hornet was a fighter that is, sadly, mostly forgotten today. With the war coming to an end just before this British aircraft entered the front lines, its staggering performance of nearly 500mph was never known by the enemy. History is full of anomalies, and the Hornet was one definitely of them.

Towards the end of the war, in 1944 and 1945, Hornet prototypes were being tested extensively. One achieved an astounding 485mph in level flight, a speed unmatched at that time.

When it came to the flight performance and characteristic assessment of the aircraft, test pilot Eric Brown (one of the world's most experienced pilots) had this to say about the state-of-the-art fighter.

«For aerobatics the Sea Hornet was absolute bliss. The excess of power was such that manoeuvres in the vertical plane can only be described as rocket-like. Even with one propeller feathered the Hornet could loop with the best single-engine fighter.»

A few prototypes were tested for use on carriers. This variant of the Hornet, named the Sea Hornet, would go on to have arrester wire hooks, wing folding mechanisms and strengthened landing gear legs. Great forward visibility, counter rotating props and large drag flaps all played to the plane's advantage. Subsequently, more Sea Hornets were built than other standard variants.

Eric Brown: «I had felt such absolute confidence that I was mentally relaxed... Indeed, there was something about the Sea Hornet that made me feel that I had total mastery of it.»
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Text: flitetest.com
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