Supermarine Nighthawk - the First Night Interceptor

It might look completely crazy, but Supermarine's proposal for an "Anti-Zeppelin fighter" anticipated many of the needs of the all-weather interceptor of later years - as well as being the first aircraft project for a designer who would create one of the most famous aircraft in history.
But, yeah, it look bizarre.
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[@hawkerhellfire9152]

Literally the first thing that popped into my head upon seeing the thumbnail was the theme music to "Dastardly and Muttley and their flying machines"

[@Lensman864]

Stop the pigeon!!!

[@jonathansteadman7935]

Me too, and I knew someone would mention it in the comments.

[@DraftySatyr]

Oh, thank you. Now I have that theme tune on repeat in my head!

[@imbok]

Thank you for bringing this up! That cartoon flashed into my mind the minute I saw the thumbnail for this vid.

[@animaltvi9515]

Medal Medal Medal.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

If the B-17 is the "Flying Fortress", this is the "Flying Tree Fort". This would have been the coolest thing ever to play on for young kids.

[@mongoose4117]

Haha great comment, so true.

[@PrototypeSpaceMonkey]

Like a jungle gym for wing walkers.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

@@PrototypeSpaceMonkey LOL, I am picturing a film with the thing taking off with dozens of flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz gamboling about, with the wicked witch of the west (wo-)manning the front gondola gun and searchlight...."heh heheh I'll get you NOW, my PRETTY...and your dog too!"

[@jaex9617]

Brilliant! 😂

[@jackroutledge352]

Given that the winds at altitude are often close to the top speed of this thing, this might have been the first (and perhaps only) aircraft to spend as much time flying backwards as forward.

[@casinodelonge]

Obviously the French and Italians were interested in the design..

[@Ob1sdarkside]

Maybe it just hovered, stuck in one place.

[@VersusARCH]

@@casinodelonge I see what you did there...

[@duncanhamilton5841]

Didn't the B-29s over Japan discover the Jet Stream and on some days were battling such a headwind that they a ground speed of nil

[@allangibson2408]

The Fairey Swordfish was frequently outrun by ships in the Atlantic and had a few missions aborted due to adverse winds.

[@coolhand1983]

Part of me is fascinated at the ability to just seemingly float on a flying double decker bus above the British countryside for 18 hours. Especially if there was a sofa!!

[@simonmcowan6874]

Sounds very Douglas Adams, (hitch hikers guide etc, how to fly, throw yourself at the ground and miss!)

[@carlosandleon]

maybe it would be more comfortable if it were also a balloon

[@andrewholdaway813]

There HAS to be a sofa.

[@jayartz8562]

18 hours, needs a bar.

[@greggstrasser5791]

@@jayartz8562 You beat me to it.

[@Ob1sdarkside]

You can imagine the designers, 1 wing = x amount of lift. Imagine what you could do with 4? We can also put a watchtower on it and a couch in it for comfort. This is the Homer Simpson car design of planes

[@oldbatwit5102]

The Supermarine Canyonero?

[@donkee011]

@@oldbatwit5102 I hope this comment gets a lot of well deserved thumbs up.

[@johnladuke6475]

"I was thinking about what you said, how the wings didn't give enough lift. So I've changed the design to make them..." "Wider? Longer?" "Nope. TALLER."

[@silvershelbygt5006]

@@oldbatwit5102 hilarious 🤣🤣🤣

[@philvanderlaan5942]

Lots of wings equals lots of lift also lots of drag , someone mentioned Homer Simpson, One episode featured Sideshow BoB escaping in the Wright Flyer , with the police having to get out of their cars and give chase on foot , the nighthawk’s operational speed of 35 MPH sounds like it right out of the Show.

[@benhooper1956]

I have always loved the way this thing looks, the way the glazed canopy is done makes me think a mini-bar would be fitted for the long haul...

[@mauricewalshe8234]

Algy time for a snifter Biggles "top hole old man"

[@jmi5969]

So true. All the amenities, with blackjack and everything

[@drosera88]

They may as well have just made this the gentlemen's war plane.

[@simoncribbes9141]

I do love how so many seemingly wacky British designs actually make a good deal of sense when you understand the what the designer set out to achieve.

[@RobMacKendrick]

Up next: the Soviets. (Seatbelts fastened...)

[@marcusfranconium3392]

Looks like one of those early 1900s aircraft , featured in those great magnificent man and their incredible flying machines.

[@marcusfranconium3392]

@@christskingdomiscoming5964 Wacky races. nice one .

[@hobbyhermit66]

@@christskingdomiscoming5964 same thing I was thinking.👍

[@johnladuke6475]

Bah! If man had been meant to fly, god would have given him four sets of wings!

[@thekinginyellow1744]

For non-commonwealth viewers, a "long" or "imperial" ton is exactly 2240 lbs. As opposed to the CMS "short" ton of 2000 lbs. that most US viewers are used to. Also I think Ed deserves a prize for being the first, and likely last, person to use the word "literally" correctly in 2021

[@josephking6515]

You are likely to be literally correct.

[@aaronlopez3585]

The supermarine nighthawk, design only an engineer's mother could love. Happy New Years everyone.

[@johnladuke6475]

She doesn't really love it, she just put it on the fridge so there wouldn't be any hurt feelings. It's also possible that those bullies aren't actually jealous of how cool you are.

[@aaronlopez3585]

@@johnladuke6475 😂🤣

[@mongoose4117]

Cheers, happy new year!!🎉💥🎇💯

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

She would still breastfeed it with a straw

[@mikearmstrong8483]

I fail to grasp how nobody in charge of the program could see that a pair of 100 hp engines weren't going to cut it. By 1916, the British were using the 110 hp Le Rhone, 130 hp Clerget, 150, 200, & 220 hp Hispano Suizas, 230 hp Bentley, 230 hp Siddely and 275 hp Rolls Royce engines, with the American 400 hp Liberty engine becoming available by the time this contraption actually flew.

[@PassportToPimlico]

Even to the point where would not the Handley Page 0/400 prove a better starting point for an interceptor of airships.

[@direktorpresident]

Good luck running a couple of 27-litre Liberties for eighteen hours (if you could get off the ground as these engines weighed 850 lbs each). The whole idea was to cruise around at altitude and pop the Zeppelins when they ambled over. Plus you are way out with the engine availability; the Liberty engines were just becoming available in late 1917, by which time the Nighthawk was in the scrap yard.

[@mikearmstrong8483]

@@direktorpresident The L12 Liberty was first run only 5 months after the 1st flight of the Nighthawk, and the earlier L8 Liberty was developed roughly concurrently with the Nighthawk. So my comment was poorly worded when I said "available" by the time it flew, but the anticipation of the imminent introduction of the engine should have put the flight testing on hold for a while (not that the concept was really valid anyway). And it's a matter of power to weight ratio; if the engine is twice the weight but 4 times the power, it will fly. The much smaller DH-4 had no problem flying with the L12 Liberty.

[@Itsjustme-Justme]

A more powerful engine consumes more fuel and is heavier. Both not good if loiter time is your very first goal. The problem with the Nighthawk was not having insufficient propulsion, it was having too much drag.

[@michaelfrench3396]

Recoilless rifle shooting huge amounts of very hot exhaust gas over the flammable muslin skin treated with dope, sounds like a great idea!! We'll take a thousand!

[@EdNashsMilitaryMatters]

Ohhh...it was better than that. The Davis gun fired lead shot out the back that weighed the same as the projectile - the whole "action counteracted by reaction" principle. So in effect, you had a gigantic shotgun blast backwards. Get that wrong, and you'd blow away the whole back of the aircraft 😳

[@michaelfrench3396]

@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Well that's way more horrifying than just burning the thing down! I'm going to have to do some reading about that I didn't know that they had a shot component too early recoilless rifle designs.

[@PiersLawsonBrown1972]

Love how the propeller at the end is fastened on a wall next to a sign that says 'Warning No Fastening To This Board'

[@McRocket]

What a wonderful, little story. You've done it again Ed. Thank you. ☮

[@haeuptlingaberja4927]

Ah, those magnificent men and their flying machines! Planes that only Terry Thomas could pilot...

[@animaltvi9515]

An absolute shower. Blast

[@direktorpresident]

@@animaltvi9515 Wasn't the designer married to Cynthia Stoke-Furness?

[@pedropinheiroaugusto3220]

"Right! And to test this machine, Dastardly and Mutley..."

[@SanderAnderon]

true beauty, that was some proper VW Bus-like glazing and, come on, how can one not love a prototype with "a proposed couch"

[@johnladuke6475]

The Microbus of the sky. If this plane's a-rockin, don't come a-knockin. Ass, grass, or aviation gas, nobody flies for free.

[@RobMacKendrick]

I think you're missing the point. This is the coolest-looking airframe of its era. Who cares if it actually works? Thanks for the awesome video!

[@deaks25]

At a surface level, this aircraft does look and sound ludicrous, but actually, the more I heard, the more I though it was just a design that was just way ahead of what aeronautics could achieve at that time, but the concept is actually really well thought out and the whole time I was thinking of BF110's and JU-88's doing the night time heavy fighter role, even the BP Defiant came to mind.

[@direktorpresident]

Don't forget, they were chasing Zeppelins, which would be even more at the mercy of winds, and hardly supersonic. This machine would drift "downwind" with them. Tactically, this is the WWI equivalent of the English Electric Lightning

[@Plymouth888]

This is a proper Vulture squadron aircraft.

[@unclenogbad1509]

Did it have enough airspeed to catch a pigeon, though?

[@Plymouth888]

@@unclenogbad1509 only if dived in from above.

[@Ka9radio_Mobile9]

Well there is one good thing about the Nighthawk, there was no loss of life. I can see those wings folding up like a deck of cards! Thanks for the video and Happy New Year!!

[@MothaLuva]

THIS is one coool looking contraption! I now VERY seriously need a model kit of this totally!

[@andrewholdaway813]

Supermarine certainly went through a steep learning curve.

[@mpetersen6]

If they kept going at this rate it would have been straight down.

[@marmite8959]

The answer to the question "is there such a thing as too many wings?" And that answer is yes.

[@johnladuke6475]

That answer changes if you're in sepia tone and there's a soundtrack of ragtime piano.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Caproni would suggest that one could never have too many wings.

[@gerardoppewal372]

"... an idea that seems to have fallen out of fashion nowadays". Bloody marvelous!!

[@SlideRulePirate]

Saw the thumbnail ... thought "Stop the Pigeon".

[@MisterOcclusion]

It's hard to believe that such a large aircraft could have such a low cruising speed. I wonder what it's stall speed was. They certainly put some thought into the concept, but the low speed and poor climb were absolute show stoppers. I've read that Zeppelin defensive tactics included dumping ballast and quickly ascending beyond the reach of pursuit planes, in addition to maintaining their max cruise speeds. They were outrunning and out climbing scouts, nevermind this beast.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

The Brits needed a 20,000' lance that they could use to poke the Zepps and make them pop.

[@maxnowell9270]

An HOUR to get to 10,000 ft??? And 60mph top speed??? I love this thing!

[@elliotdryden7560]

At first glance this looked like a inter-war concept of a "fleet shadower" when I saw it. It DOES look as if it has inward-rotating propellers however. I wonder if that was to negate any "critical engine" characteristics if one failed. Uh, probably not a huge concern since you would be pretty screwed anyway.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Ah...the Miles Night/Fleet Shadower of the second German war - doomed by constantly - changing specifications.

[@Itsjustme-Justme]

This prototype is a perfect example of overspecialization leading to total failure. They literally tried to build an airplane with Zeppelin flying characteristics to fight actual Zeppelins. Zeppelins go slow but go forever, so was this thing. In the end it had to be a failure because the hunter always needs to be faster than its prey. It had some potential to set a long flight endurance record but was useless in any other task. 4 wings add much more drag than lift. Even by 1916 knowledge in aerodynamics and structure, a biplane layout would have been much more promising. A biplane with the same wing area (2 larger wings instead of 4 small), the same fuselage design and armament, the same engines and fuel capacity would have been able to achieve the same climb rate and loiter time while going something like 10 mph faster. Still not much performance but it would have made the difference between totally useless and somewhat useful.

[@sunsettersix6993]

The Vincent Price clip was spot on, sir! 😂 As informative as your videos are, I do appreciate the occasional humor you throw in. Thank you for another great video and more chuckles as well!

[@clark9992]

How could they possibly have thought that 200 HP was enough to propel this thing? I should think it would need that much, just to trundle along a paved runway.

[@mongoose4117]

Not only that, its really quite short. Seems, it would be top heavy and pitch sensitive.

[@johnjephcote7636]

We can scramble in an afternoon!

[@McLarenMercedes]

Enclosed cabin and installed heating? Sounds like an incredible luxury for WWI pilots. In interviews they said that no matter how warm they dressed and what kind of thick fur and leather they used they still remembered flying at altitude in an open-cockpit airplane being bone chillingly cold. "You were always freezing." I recall an old pilot in his 60's saying in an old recorded interview.

[@ptonpc]

It would have been amazing to see this fly.

[@JK-rv9tp]

A Nighthawk/Zeppelin pursuit would be like that Seinfeld episode with George in the powered wheelchair being chased by a gang of seniors in their powered wheelchairs, all going down the sidewalk at walking speed.

[@namelesscurmudgeon9794]

The drag from all those wings, wires and struts must have been enormous.

[@tomsmith2209]

I'm loving these oddity aircraft videos

[@drydogg]

Thanks for the video, smashing, as always.

[@johnbb99]

Referring to MPs and business: " ... an idea that seems to have fallen out of fashion nowadays... " 😀😁😂🤣 nice one!

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Thanks Ed Nash 👍

[@Bananaskin101]

that Vincent Price insert....priceless 😂

[@jonathansteadman7935]

I always look up Google to see if there are any model kits of the more bizarre aircraft, and this is the first time I can't find one.

[@FirstDagger]

However as usual somebody scratchbuilt one.

[@jonathansteadman7935]

@@FirstDagger yes, I saw that, not a bad job 👍

[@tacitdionysus3220]

Well. I've been in aviation for most of my life and I thought there were few things I hadn't seen; but Ed Nash consistently surprises and delights me. I particularly liked the insert at O.50; it captured my reaction perfectly. Please do more.

[@raypurchase801]

I remember Dick Dastardly and Muttley chasing the Yankee Doodle Pigeon in something like this.

[@direktorpresident]

Actually the aircraft was a response to the lack of the warning systems which we have now come to take for granted. Richtofen knew that the Dr.1 was slow, but it "climbed like a rat up a drainpipe". Same here

[@donjones4719]

I really enjoy your little inserts of pics to go along with your jokes. That Brit sense of humor!

[@johnjephcote7636]

I can see it was an advanced design and I admire the elegant sweep back of the wings but the amount of built-in drag and the time to gain altitiude...

[@cdl0]

That the machine actually flew is a remarkable achievement.

[@garygriffiths2911]

I like the idea of spare crew having their own airborne sofa to lay about on - it reminds me of the Su-34 aircrew and their onboard toilet and kitchenette!

[@mongoose4117]

I had no idea! How did they fit a kitchenette and a toilet in that bird? I looked it up, crazy stuff.

[@TheArgieH]

Doesn't beat the Short Sunderland, they retained the extensive galley and crew rest area of the pre-war Imperial Airways passenger flying boats. Some crews reckoned they ate better in the air and and on the water, than on shore.

[@kacodemonio]

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines

[@stevetournay6103]

Puts me in mind a bit of the Knight Bus from the Harry Potter books. What a crazy piece of design. An R/C model of the Nighthawk would be fun...

[@FirstDagger]

0:52 Hey, the Stinkbug is a thing of beauty!

[@solsdadio]

Recoilless gun makes the tower it was in make sense. The backblast would’ve been exciting.

[@johndavey72]

Well Ed . Yet another ......had no idea ! Perhaps this should have been left as that ...an idea !! Thanks Ed. Happy New Year !

[@johnryder1713]

Happy New Year Ed and Please God a good one enjoying your fine content

[@drosera88]

You know despite it's looks, that's actually a pretty impressive aircraft for it's time all things considered. 18 hours of flight time, fully enclosed and heated cockpit, crew rest area, 1 inch recoilless gun, a spot light (radar by 1916 standards), and an absurdly low stall speed. I mean yeah it was rendered obsolete before it could even enter service, but wow did they do a good job addressing all the specifications they were given by the military.

[@bigblue6917]

This aircraft, along with the Italian Caproni Ca.60, make it look like an unaired episode of Dastardly and Muttley. Actually we should remember that though referred to as a triplane the Fokker Dr.1 was, in effect, also a quadplane as the Nighthawk was. This was because it had a wing between the wheels. Both the Fokker Dr.1 and the earlier Sopwith Triplane had big problems with wing loading for the top wing. In 1929 the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) investigations found that the upper wing of the Dr.1 carried a higher lift coefficient than the lower wing. At high speeds it could be 2.55 times as much. So I do wonder if the Nighthawk had the same problem.

[@InoFughaul]

18 hour loiter in 1915? Outstanding achievement!

[@simonmcowan6874]

18 hours in the air, wow presumably they took a luncheon with them, some cards to pass the time, what about going to the lavatory, dump in a bag and chuck it at the zeppelin? Jokes aside, that was very interesting, thank you and a happy new year.

[@MM22966]

I keep thinking of that Drachfiniel episode: "When Hotels Go To War" for some reason when I watch this...

[@EdNashsMilitaryMatters]

Wait until I get around to french bombers :)

[@MM22966]

@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Sacre Blue (Max)!!!

[@heliosdelsol]

a VERY interesting if not eccentric airplane!

[@mongoose4117]

An hour, to get to 10,000 feet!! I would definately want the couch installed.

[@adrianrutterford762]

Cool!! Another video from Ed!

[@iberiksoderblom]

With more powerfull engines, it would make a great conversion as a camping-airplane ! 😀 Deserves a cartoon !

[@lebaillidessavoies3889]

holly crap.. it comes directly from the cartoon « Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines »...

[@comentedonakeyboard]

What! A MP quiting Buisness, thus avoiding a blatant Conflict of Interest? What a Scandal!😱

[@poruatokin]

I used to watch the Yankee Doodle Pigeon cartoons when I was a kid, Dick Dastardly, Mutley, Klunk and Zilly would have looked perfectly at home in this.

[@Zorglub1966]

When you listed icons of British style, you forgot the Jaguar type E, and the Webley MkVI!😊

[@andrewmountford3608]

Brilliant comment about MPs today.

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

👍Brilliant, thanks. Had never heard of this aircraft before.

[@hobbyhermit66]

So, are we gonna see a Tamiya kit of it any time soon? Or maybe Roden? I have to look for it, just because . . . Nope. Google search turned up some pictures, but no kits. Carved wood might be in order.

[@JuanCarlosCoreaBarrios]

I can imagine trying to do the full rigging on that one...

[@thegodofhellfire]

Somewhat off topic. But why did they never make smaller "fighter" zeppelins to attack other zeppelins...

[@pingpong5000]

Dispite your mocking tone this is an intersting doc, I ask in stead of Ho Ho when you look at these early attempts at warplane design, try Oh Oh to the awesome though simple and basic attempts to find a solution to very complex and not understood problems. People were at that time still developing the mathematics to solve all those unknown aerodynamic problems and without wind tunnels. Aircraft of that time were a case of make it up, build it, try it and if you don't die in it,' I wonder what happens if we add/remove/change this'? In less than 10 years RJ and Supermarine learned enough to designed aircraft that were used by our RAF to map the whole world, I think the Supermarine Stranraer and Southampton flyingboats are probably the best aircraft of that type RJ ever designed, they were a great leap forward in understanding and all those lessons learned then led to the Spitfire, and Canberra, Hunter and supersonic flight. So titter ye not, this Nighthawk was just one of the early steps to space travel.

[@steveh1792]

The story of Pemberton-Billing and the Nighthawk takes up one of the chapters in James Gilbert's "World's Worst Aircraft", the which is a delightful read, if you can find it.

[@bradrock7731]

This would make a fantastic large scale RC plane! But at my age I don't have enough years left to make the struts & do the flying wires! YIKES!!

[@whyjnot420]

Yay, someone talking about multiplane aircraft with more than 3 main airfoils. Though the real insanity is stuff like the 1907 multiplane built by Horatio Frederick Phillips (note 1907, not 1904). If you think 4 main airfoils is bad, what would you say about 200?

[@JohnyG29]

aerofoils.

[@williamroberts8470]

Port Victoria designes next please.

[@jonhume6051]

Well I think we now know where the cartoonists got the inspiration for Dick Dastardly and Muttley’s flying machines

[@pickeljarsforhillary102]

How many wings do we need? Yes!

[@whitewidowgaming4887]

Well thats an odd beast. Very intresting as always, Thanks.

[@ronjon7942]

Did it actually loiter for 18hrs, or did it take that long to reach altitude? Seriously, tho, I’m confused about the Davis gun. I don’t understand what extra damage the Davis would do as compared to a Lewis; wouldn’t it just make a somewhat larger hole in the bag? Or was the intended target the gondola, or were the 37mm shells incendiary (I didn’t think they’d been invented yet, but I’m just getting into WWI and the origin aircraft periods so I guess I don’t know)?

[@malcolmtaylor518]

Interesting photos of the plane here, I haven't seen before. In the context of the times, the design of the plane made sense, but it would have been badly underpowered with just 200 hp. It's actually quite a workmanlike design.

[@babboon5764]

Hang on Ed - *Tacking* into wind is going to make the problem of your airspeed being less than the windspeed giving you 'negative' groundspeed (ie, you're going backwward relative to the ground) *worse* not give you a solution. - Take a moment to work out the 'Triangle of Velocities' involved and its not just clear, its actually *quantifiable* how much more quickly you'll be going backward relative to the ground.

[@markpatterson4917]

Shame theory was good. Great research Ed

[@davesy6969]

I so want one.

[@michaeltelson9798]

Can you do one on the Be 2c’s replacement, the RE 8, my grandfather was a mechanic on it, nicknamed the “Harry Tate”.

[@leary4]

This puppy was made for the internet.....way way ahead of it's time.

[@imadrifter]

2:27 Based Narrator

[@pizzagogo6151]

Thanks Ed.....That was a bizzare plane I didn’t know existed...ha, ha! Hilarious looking😂

[@nightshade4873]

The Supermarine Nighthawk look like it could be featured on an "Old England" setting series where the villains meet up in the plane to discuss their plans of monopoly and deceit.

[@richardw64]

I did't think anything was slower than a Tigermoth till now...lol

[@Hemimike426]

Tfw you'll never get to chill with the lads at high aptitude above London waiting for a zeppelin to FAFO

[@jaex9617]

I like the way it looks. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@jiyushugi1085]

The word 'drag' comes to mind....

[@kellybreen5526]

Ed, I wait anxiously for every new video, but you should have kept this one for April first.

[@EdNashsMilitaryMatters]

I've been contemplating April's fools, want to come up with a fake plane. Alas, with stuff like the nighthawk actually created, every idea I have isnt outlandish enough :)

[@marchellochiovelli7259]

I'll bet a sigh of relief was shared with lots of flight crews when this thing was scrapped.

[@hachwarwickshire1718]

18 hrs endurance. A modern MPA in the making.

[@dougsteel7414]

18 hrs at 35mph, excuse me for lowering the tone, but some of these guys must have relieved themselves over London

[@markgarin6355]

What/who was the suit brand? Never heard of them.

[@Zoydian]

To be honest, i can't imagine this thing getting off the ground. But then again, its wings remind me of some kites.