AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 127 / 264

Plate 127 of 264 · Second World War · Training and assault glider

General Aircraft Hotspur Mk II

Hotspur Mk II, ‘HH268’, painted as The General Aircraft Hotspur Mk II replica displayed as ‘HH268’ at the Army Flying Museum, Middle Wallop: the British Army’s first assault glider, built in wood by General Aircraft and sub-contractors from 1940 and used, once the larger Horsa took over the assault role, to train the Glider Pilot Regiment, a mid-wing cantilever monoplane of 45 ft 10¾ in span with a slim plywood fuselage, two pilots in tandem under a long framed canopy, room for six troops behind them, a nose tow release, a tall rounded fin braced to the tailplane by struts, and twin-wheeled main legs either side of a sprung central landing skid, shown level on its main wheels as it is mounted in the museum: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces and sides over trainer-yellow undersides with black diagonal bands under the wings and fuselage, Type A1 roundels with a yellow outline on the fuselage sides, a large black ‘H’ behind them, ‘HH268’ in black ahead of the fin, a red, white and blue fin flash, roundels under the wings and the maroon-and-blue Airborne Forces Pegasus badge below the cockpit (shape from R.H. Warring’s Aeromodeller plan and the Wikimedia Commons three-view, with the fin and fuselage depth checked against a side-on IWM photograph of a wartime Hotspur; markings matched to photographs of the museum’s replica; the upper-wing camouflage and roundels, which no photograph shows, are representative); the museum’s Hotspur is a composite reconstruction, and it also holds the forward fuselage of a Hamilcar, TK777.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as The General Aircraft Hotspur Mk II replica displayed as ‘HH268’ at the Army Flying Museum, Middle Wallop: the British Army’s first assault glider, built in wood by General Aircraft and sub-contractors from 1940 and used, once the larger Horsa took over the assault role, to train the Glider Pilot Regiment, a mid-wing cantilever monoplane of 45 ft 10¾ in span with a slim plywood fuselage, two pilots in tandem under a long framed canopy, room for six troops behind them, a nose tow release, a tall rounded fin braced to the tailplane by struts, and twin-wheeled main legs either side of a sprung central landing skid, shown level on its main wheels as it is mounted in the museum: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces and sides over trainer-yellow undersides with black diagonal bands under the wings and fuselage, Type A1 roundels with a yellow outline on the fuselage sides, a large black ‘H’ behind them, ‘HH268’ in black ahead of the fin, a red, white and blue fin flash, roundels under the wings and the maroon-and-blue Airborne Forces Pegasus badge below the cockpit (shape from R.H. Warring’s Aeromodeller plan and the Wikimedia Commons three-view, with the fin and fuselage depth checked against a side-on IWM photograph of a wartime Hotspur; markings matched to photographs of the museum’s replica; the upper-wing camouflage and roundels, which no photograph shows, are representative); the museum’s Hotspur is a composite reconstruction, and it also holds the forward fuselage of a Hamilcar, TK777. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (977 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Hotspur II, Hamilcar I); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Hotspur Mk II, ‘HH268’ modelled here.

History

The Hotspur

Germany’s use of gliders to land troops at Eben-Emael and in the Low Countries in May 1940 persuaded Churchill’s government that Britain needed an airborne force of its own, and that meant gliders and pilots to fly them. The first British military glider was ordered from General Aircraft at Hanworth that summer: a small wooden machine able to carry a handful of fully armed soldiers, cast off at height and glide a long way to its target. The design team under F. F. Crocker produced the GAL.48 Hotspur in a few months, and the first prototype flew in November 1940.

The Hotspur Mk I had a long, slender wing for gliding range. By the time it was ready the Army had decided that its assault gliders should be larger and released close to the target, so the Hotspur was given a new task: training the glider pilots who would fly the Horsa and, later, General Aircraft’s own tank-carrying Hamilcar. For that role the wing was cut down to under 46 ft, giving a steeper glide and shorter landings, and the result was the Hotspur Mk II, the main production version. It was a mid-wing monoplane built almost entirely of wood, with two pilots in tandem under a long framed canopy, seats for troops behind them, twin-wheeled main legs that could be jettisoned and a sprung skid for landing on rough ground.

Most Hotspurs were built not by General Aircraft but by the furniture makers Harris Lebus of Tottenham, and just over a thousand were completed. They served at the glider training schools, towed by Audaxes, Hectors and Masters, and trained the soldiers of the Glider Pilot Regiment, formed in 1942, who went on to fly Horsas and Hamilcars into Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and across the Rhine. The Hotspur itself never went into action. An experimental Twin Hotspur, two fuselages joined by a new centre section, was flown but not adopted, and the type was withdrawn as the war ended.

This airframe

Hotspur Mk II replica ‘HH268’

HH268The airframe modelled

No original Hotspur survives complete. The Army Flying Museum at Middle Wallop, home of the Army Air Corps and successor to the Glider Pilot Regiment’s museum, displays a composite reconstruction marked as ‘HH268’, mounted high above a diorama with its main wheels in cradles on two steel posts; the gazetteer records it under the identity HH379, and photographs of it show ‘HH268’. The model shows it as displayed, standing level on its wheels without the posts: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces and sides over trainer-yellow undersides, with black diagonal bands under the wings and fuselage, yellow-ringed roundels on the fuselage sides with a large black ‘H’ behind them, ‘HH268’ ahead of the fin, a red, white and blue fin flash and the Airborne Forces Pegasus badge below the cockpit. No photograph shows its upper wing surfaces, so their camouflage and roundels are representative. The shape follows R. H. Warring’s Aeromodeller plan and the Wikimedia Commons three-view, with the fin and fuselage depth checked against a side-on IWM photograph of a wartime Hotspur. The museum also holds the forward fuselage of a Hamilcar, TK777.

See it at Army Flying Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Hotspur in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 264 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.