Model Airplane Videos - de Havilland Hornet

The RC model airplane featured on the DVD was built by Ted Allison and weighs in at 70 lbs with a wingspan of 11’3.

The de Havilland D.H.103 Hornet was the British piston engine fighter that further exploited the wooden construction techniques pioneered by de Havilland's classic Mosquito. The Hornet entered service towards the end of World War II and later equipped Fighter Command day fighter units in the UK and was used with success as a strike fighter in Malaya.

Design and development
Designed as a private venture for a long-range fighter for use in the Pacific Theater in the war against Japan. From an early stage it was also envisaged that the Hornet could be adapted for naval use, operating from carriers. As a result priority was given to ease of control, especially at low speeds, and good pilot visibility.

Construction was of mixed balsa/ply similar to the earlier de Havilland Mosquito, but the Hornet differed in incorporating stressed Alclad lower-wing skins bonded to the wooden upper wing structure using the then-new adhesive, Redux. The two wing spars were redesigned to withstand a higher safety factor of 10 versus 8.

Apart from the revised structure the Hornet wings were a synthesis of aerodynamic knowledge that had been gathered since the Mosquito's design process, being much thinner in cross section, with de Havilland designers adopting a laminar flow profile similar to the P-51 Mustang and Hawker Tempest.

Control surfaces consisted of hydraulically operated split flaps extending from the wing root to outboard of the engine nacelles; like the Mosquito the rear of the nacelles were part of the flap structure. Outboard, the Alclad-covered ailerons extended close to the clipped wing tips and provided excellent roll control.
Hornet I PX217. From a sequence of Charles E. Brown photographs taken in September 1945. Medium Sea Grey over Dark Mediterranean Blue "High-Altitude" camouflage initially used on the Hornet.

Ted Allison is a long time member of the Large Model Association whose large rc model airplanes feature in The Boys with Big 'Uns model airplane videos.