Emergency Blackburn Roc Replacement.

The Blackburn Roc is perhaps the most useless fighter ever foisted onto the Royal Navy. They knew it was worthless before it ever entered service but it was continued with to keep Boulton and Paul busy. Now at the same time as the Roc was being built Gloster were building the Hawker Henley, a potentially excellent combat aircraft that was wasted as a target tug. Now suppose early in 1939 with war on the horizon a stink is raised about the Navy's new fighter and a quick fix is looked for. It is decided that the Rocs will be converted into target tugs and that the Navy will be given the 202 Henley's to convert into fighters. To give the Henley the firepower for the roll they will be equipped with the cloth covered wings taken from RAF Hurricanes that are being upgraded with new metal ones. Naval radios and nav equipment are added are catapult points and of course a tail hook.
 
IIRC, Boulton Paul were building Rocs as they'd finished the contracts for the Defiant and Blackburns were behind with the Skua. The delay largely down to the aircraft being redesigned to take the Bristol Perseus after the RAF said they had a monopoly on the Mercury the Skua was designed to have. Besides which, if they stopped building Rocs, the labour force could be dispersed and they needed to keep them together - Bristols kept building Buckinghams which went as far as MUs sans engines and instruments to keep teh labour force together until they could start production of the Brigand.

Basically, you're giving the Navy the Fulmar a year earlier and I doubt that the Henley would be any better - similar size and power. Personally, I'd just have the Skuas reengined with a Taurus or a Hercules if possible and replace them in the attack role with the Henley.

There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the Skua, it was just going up against opposition it was never intended to tangle with. It distinguished itself better in combat than many give it credit for. There was at least one ace on the type.
 
The Roc's entered service a year before the Defiant. As for the Skua, there's nothing wrong with it as a dive bomber, but as a fighter 225mph is just not good enough. Giving the Navy a near 300mph fighter with a 900 mile plus range in time for Norway can only be a good thing and actually provide the Skua's with a proper escort to do the job they were designed for.
 
How much reinforcement of the frame does it take for the aircraft to hold together tail hooking? & the undercarriage slamming onto deck? Were these aircraft painted & otherwise made resistant to salt air, or was that necessary in 1939?

Lots of questions about what was & was not necessary for a carrier plane in 1939.
 
They did it to the Hurricane without any problem, and the Henley's were essentially two seat Hurricanes. All Sea Hurricanes were converted RAF cast offs.
 
Personally I would advocate converting the Hawker Hotspur into a two seat naval fighter with metal clad eight gun wings. Avro were IIRC contracted to build the Hotspur already. Ideally then swap the Henley for the Skua, the Skua will have less problems with towing targets than the Henley, and as a fighter bombe the Henley has twice the guns and a much longer endurance. So if In the world of the PAM, Sir Arthur Dowding would be rather pleased with an FAA that could mix and match the following aircraft to make up each RN carrier's air group in 1939.
Single seat fighter =Hawker Sea Huricane.
Two seat fighter = Hawker Sea Hotspur.
Dive Bomber, recon, fighter = Hawker Sea Henley.
Torpedo, recon, patrol = Fairey Fulmar.
Torpedo, recon, patrol = Fairey Swordfish.
 
I was thinking as well- what about, as the stopgap of stopgaps, making the Roc the least-awful fighter you could...

What about interrupting the production run, deleting the turret and giving the radio operator (the RN still wanted 2-seat fighters in 1938) a single .303 Vickers K, and putting 4-6 Vickers .303s in the wings? If centre of gravity is a problem, could a fuselage fuel tank mitigate it?
 
I was thinking as well- what about, as the stopgap of stopgaps, making the Roc the least-awful fighter you could...

What about interrupting the production run, deleting the turret and giving the radio operator (the RN still wanted 2-seat fighters in 1938) a single .303 Vickers K, and putting 4-6 Vickers .303s in the wings? If centre of gravity is a problem, could a fuselage fuel tank mitigate it?
You end up with a Skua.
 
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