Miles Hawcon

M.6 Hawcon

Manufacturer: Miles Aircraft Limited
Designed by: Frederick George Miles
First flight: 1935
Primary user: Royal Aircraft Establishment
Number built: 1

The Miles M.6 Hawcon was a 1930s British experimental monoplane designed by Miles Aircraft Limited. The Hawcon name comes from a combination of Hawk and Falcon.

Design and development

The M.6 Hawcon was a one-off experimental monoplane designed for thick-wing research by the Royal Aircraft Establishment. The Hawcon combined parts from both the Hawk and Falcon and powered by a 200hp (149 kW) de Havilland Gipsy Six piston engine.

Operational history

The aircraft, serial number K5925, was used for thick-wing research by the Royal Aircraft Establishment. It had four interchangeable wings of different thickness. The aim was to investigate the performance penalties of thicker wings, which had structural advantages (lower weight for the same strength) and provided space for fuel etc.

The four wings, labelled A to D had root thickness to chord ratios of 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 and 0.30. The trials showed that the thickness had little effect on maximum speed: wing B was faster than A by 5 m.p.h. (less than 3%) and the other wings fell between. The maximum speed given below is for the D wing, as are the dimensions and weights.

For comparison, modern low Mach number aircraft have root thickness to chord ratios of 0.14 - 0.20 .

Operators

United Kingdom

Royal Aircraft Establishment

Specifications (M.6)

Data from Russell & Lukins

General characteristics

Crew: Two
Length: 25 ft in (7.6 m)
Wingspan: 39 ft 5 in (12 m)
Height: 6 ft 6 in (1.9 m)
Wing area: 161 ft² (14.6 m²)
Empty weight: 1,550 lb (703 kg)
Gross weight: 2,400 lb (1,088 kg)
Powerplant: 1 x— de Havilland Gipsy Six piston engine, 200 hp (149 kW) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 180 mph (290 km/h)

Related lists

List of experimental aircraft

Bibliography

Amos, Peter. and Brown, Don Lambert. Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 2000. ISBN 0-85177-787-0.
Brown, Don Lambert. Miles Aircraft Since 1925. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1970. ISBN 0-37000-127-3.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919. London: Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10014-X.
Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919, Volume 3. London: Putnam, 1988. ISBN 0-85177-818-6.
Lukins, A.H. and Russell, D.A. The book of Miles aircraft. Leicester UK: Harborough 1945
Fielding, John P. Introduction to Aircraft Design, Cambridge UK:Cambridge University Press 1999. ISBN 0-521-44319-9.

Miles Hawcon Pictures and Miles Hawcon for Sale.

Living Warbirds: The best warbirds DVD series.

Source: WikiPedia