Hawker Siddeley P.139B

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P.139B
Model of P.139B
Role
COD
aircraft
National origin United Kingdom
Manufacturer Hawker Siddeley
Status Cancelled 1966
Primary user Royal Navy (Intended)

The Hawker Siddeley P.139B was a proposed

aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy. The P.139B formed part of the a major equipment procurement plan for the RN in the 1960s intended to give the service a force of new, modern carriers capable of operating air groups
consisting of equally modern aircraft. However, cuts in defence spending by the British government in the mid-1960s meant that these proposals never came to fruition.

Background

The early 1960s was the zenith of carrier operation for the Royal Navy, as it operated five aircraft carriers, all with air groups consisting of the most modern carrier aircraft available.[1] Despite modernisation, the speed of aircraft development, which led to carrier based aircraft increasing in size, was such that the Royal Navy carrier fleet could not keep up.[2] Owing to the relatively small size of Royal Navy aircraft carriers, with HMS Eagle the largest at 812 feet (247 m),[3] it became necessary for the RN to consider a new generation of aircraft carriers - the CVA-01 - capable of operating new modern aircraft in sufficient numbers to be viable as capable units. The Fleet Air Arm planned the procurement of new aircraft to go with new aircraft carriers. The plan involved three separate areas:

  • Air Defence
  • Strike
  • Airborne Early Warning

Airborne Early Warning requirement

The Gannet AEW.3 was intended as a stop-gap, fitted with the equipment from the obsolete Skyraider, until a purpose built AEW platform could be introduced

In 1959, the FAA had begun to replace the obsolete

Grumman E-2 Hawkeye a new, purpose built aircraft with an advanced Pulse-Doppler radar
was already in development.

As the Gannet was intended to have a similarly "interim" status to the E-1 Tracer, the Fleet Air Arm entered into a procurement process for an "AEW (Replacement)" platform to eventually supersede the Gannet. The development of the E-2 Hawkeye was a spur to the Royal Navy to begin the development of an equivalent British system as capable as the Hawkeye was expected to be. British aerospace and electronics companies were ordered to begin work on a new British AEW aircraft in 1962.[7]

Design

The P.139B was the result of design work from the former

Carrier Onboard Delivery role, which would have seen the scanners removed, and the nose faired in, while the tail scanner was removed and replaced with a cone shaped freight door to give access to the internal space for freight or passengers.[8]

Cancellation

rotodome
and twin tail arrangement.

Owing to the cuts in defence spending that took place during the mid-1960s, it was eventually determined that the development of an entirely British AEW platform for aircraft carriers from scratch was too expensive, and the P.139 project was cancelled in 1964 while the aircraft was still on the drawing board, with the intention of using an existing aircraft design. One proposal was to use the HS.125 with a fixed dorsal radome, similar to that of the E-1 Tracer,[7] while another was to update the Gannet with a new radar system involving a similar configuration to the E-2 Hawkeye.[10] However, the eventual cancellation of the CVA-01 aircraft carrier also led to the cancellation of any kind of new AEW aircraft, leaving the Gannet as the only AEW platform available to the Fleet Air Arm until the final withdrawal of conventional aircraft carriers in 1978.

Following the cancellation of the P.139 project, development of the Fore Aft Scanner System and FMICW radar system was continued to provide the RAF with an AEW capability, as the system was proposed to be installed on the new Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft. Airborne Early Warning capability in the Royal Navy eventually had to pass to helicopters following the final decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal in 1978, as the subsequent Invincible class was incapable of operating conventional fixed wing aircraft.

Specifications

Three way view of P.139B

Data from Aircraft of the Royal Navy Since 1945[8]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 4
  • Length: 45 ft (14 m)
  • Wingspan: 50 ft (15 m)
  • Gross weight: 45,000 lb (20,412 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2 × turbofan engines

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 460 mph (740 km/h, 400 kn)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hawker Siddeley P.139B.

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

  1. ISBN 9781574886634
    . Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  2. ^ Birkler, John; Mattock, Michael; Schank, John; Smith, Giles; Timson, Fred; Chiesa, James; Woodyard, Bruce; McKinnon, Malcolm; Rushworth, Dennis (1998). "Chapter 2" (PDF). The U.S. Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base: Chapter 2 (Report). RAND Corporation. p. 8. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  3. ISBN 0951953885
    .
  4. ^ "Fairey Gannet AEW3". The Spyflight Website. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  5. ^ "Northrop Grumman E-2A/B/C/D Hawkeye". The Spyflight Website. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  6. ISBN 0760311404
    . Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d e Hirst, Mike (1983). "From Skyraider to Nimrod...Thirty Years of British AEW". Air International. 25 (5): 223–230.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0907771068
    .
  9. ^ Beedall, Richard. "CVA-01 - AEW and COD Aircraft". CVA-01 Queen Elizabeth class. Navy Matters. Archived from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
  10. ISBN 978-0956195128
    .
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