Leaderboard

Javelin was an interesting aircraft, having virtually every nasty transonic handling problem known to man, and some invented especially for this aircraft The Mk. 7 was the first with acceptable handling characteristics, largely due to the introduction of a little leading edge camber (a modification inspired by earlier work on the Vulcan). My favourite design faux pas had to be the addition of reheated engines. Because of the relatively bluff base of the fuselage, using reheat generated a throttle-dependent drag increment higher than the additional net thrust. Hence, using reheat at high speed causes the aircraft to *decelerate*, while kicking out extra noise and more than doubling fuel consumption... As a "what-if", bringing the DH 110 into RAF service earlier, as would have happened if Hatfield hadn't had their hands full with the Comet, is an interesting scenario. If effort had been available, the Venom and Javelin would never have been developed, and the DH. 110 would have been entering service in parallel with the Hunter and Swift, probably suffering from the same engine issues as the former. An RAF DH. 110 with dry Sapphires and 4 Aden cannon appearing in service circa 1954 would be a *very* interesting scenario, particularly if the Avon 200 series engines were retrofitted in a timescale comparable with the Hunter F Mk. 6.