[Fake] Hawker Hurricane with contra-rotating propeller

fabulousfour

fabulousfour

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Hello.
I found this in an old issue of "Flying" (July 1943), a Hawker Hurricane with a contra-rotating propeller.

I couldn't find much more information about this experimental version, Robert Jackson quotes in his book "Warplanes of World War II" that "one Hurricane Mk I was used to test a six-blade contra-rotating propeller ."

Is there anything a bit more exhaustive around and maybe another photo from a different angle?

IMG_3644.jpeg
 
A cropped version of your image appears in an Aircraft Engine Historical Society paper on contra-props.

"Hawker Hurricane 1943?

No other information beyond this single picture of a Hurricane wearing a de Havilland contra-prop assembly has been unearthed. This is most likely a 1940’s “Photoshop” creation for propaganda purposes and not an actual flying aircraft."

-- https://www.enginehistory.org/members/Convention/2012/Presentations/Fey/Contra-Rotating02.pdf

In the cropped AEHS version of this image, a darkish sky background is evident. That background has obviously been cut out of your version to leave a white background for whatever book it came from.
 
Last edited:
An early Photoshop, that might be the explanation that no other picture of this specific Hurricane seems to exist.
I could find the same picture now with much better resolution and with clouds in the background at Gettyimages, however this still might be a retouched photo.

Source

IMG_3676.jpeg
 
Classic photo compositing, which had been around for the better part of a century by the time this Hurricane
image was created. Referring to it as "early Photoshop" is absurd.
 
jcf said:
... Referring to it as "early Photoshop" is absurd.
Click to expand...

Agreed and I was surprised to see an AEHS author using the phrase "a 1940’s “Photoshop” creation".

Anyone familiar with the physical manipulation of photographs - where 'cut and paste' wasn't just a keyboard shortcut - will know how much simpler such things are now in the digital age. Alas, no Ctrl+Z function with a No. 11 X-Acto blade, either ;p
 
It does look a bit stark.

I wish Dino Bruglioni would have lived to see today's AI art.
 
I was interested (on a French forum) about counter-rotating propeller planes (until 1957) and I never found anything on a possible Hurricane thus equipped.
aviationsmilitaires.net

Premiers avions à hélices contrarotatives

Votre forum sur l'aviation militaire, et plus encore !
aviationsmilitaires.net aviationsmilitaires.net

Same thing on an Anglo-Saxon site which also listed them (including beyond 1957).

Aircraft With Contrarotating Props

You will find as attachment a listing (which I hope it should be fairly complete) of aircrafts with contrarotating props together with year of first flight. I edited a similar handwritten listing on post #2809 page 188 of "aircraft identification V" Should anybody find more types I have...
ww2aircraft.net ww2aircraft.net
 
fabulousfour said:
An early Photoshop, that might be the explanation that no other picture of this specific Hurricane seems to exist.
I could find the same picture now with much better resolution and with clouds in the background at Gettyimages, however this still might be a retouched photo.

Source

View attachment 705939
Click to expand...
That's a (poor) composite photo, I made one about that quality in junior high.

While technically interesting, a Hurricane wouldn't have needed a counterprop unless it was testing a Griffon.
 

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