British 'Mistel' combination projects.

[lark]

Is there anyone who haves more info or illustrations about the

Hawker Hurricane /Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
and-or
Hawker Hurricane/Consolidated B-24

pick-a-back combinations , suggested in Great Britain at the beginning of WW II to counter
the attacks of the Focke-Wulf Condors in the North West Atlantic.

The idea is mentioned in 'Mistel-German composite aircraft and operations 1942-1945'
Robert Forsyth-Classic Publication 2001.

 

[Justo Miranda]

I have found a drawing.

 

[lark]

Interesting illustration Justo.Much thanks.

It seems that Short and Folland each produced shemes
in 1939 for a single engined bomber as upper component
for a composite...
I have ,for the moment, no info of the lower component.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Apparently both the pick-a-back and the towed systems were left aside when it was discovered that the Merlin iced up and would not start after prolonged inactivity at high-altitude (Air Enthusiast No. 87 May/June 2000).
There is a book about the subject, "Hurricane special" by D.P. Broer http://www.amazon.com/review/R31B3AVH50FTC

 

[lark]

Thanks for the hint.Search for the book is on

 

[lark]

Just for the reccord:
'Hurricane Special' is written by Maurice L.Allward.

Mr. Broer was the reviewer.

 

[VictorXL188]

Futher to this, I'm not sure if this has been posted as I did do a quick search, but there was a proposal I came across to help ferry Hamilcar gliders using a P-38 clamped onto the top. I came up with a rough mockup of what this might look like, although obviously the clamping section would have been probably much neater than my design!

 

[hesham]

Nice find Victor.

 

[Schneiderman]

Ref post #1

On a composite scheme the engines of the upper aircraft, in this case a Hurricane, would be kept running so icing and engine starting were not an issue. A Hurricane had been allocated for modification by Hawker with a larger oil tank to allow for exended engine running and fuel system that could draw petrol from the lower aircraft (both approved by Rolls-Royce), but the project was cancelled at the end of March 1941 before a Liberator had been provided to Short to be adapted as the carrier.

The composite was not intended to provide bomber escort but for marine patrol over the Atlantic.

 

[Jemiba]

From J.E.Mrazek, "Kampfsegler im 2. Weltkrieg" (Assault glider in WW II) a drawing of the
proposed Hamilcar/P-38 combination:

 

[VictorXL188]

Thanks Jemimba, glad it was not something from my imagination!!

 

[Chris Chris]

Britishes were active also with Piggy-Back planes

 

[Jemiba]

The obviously not real Blenheim-Hurricane Mistel was moved an can now be found here
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/unrealised-british-mistel-combinations.32145/#post-357160

BTW, the photo of the Blenheim used, is the same, as in the Wiki site

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Blenheim#/media/File:Bristol_blenheim_1_ExCC.jpg

 

[Schneiderman]

That's very generous of you Jemiba, however they are not so much 'unrealised' as completely fictional . As are the other ones posted yesterday, so they should all be in Alternate History and Future Speculation

Done !

 

[dan_inbox]

or even in the fakes blacklist.