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Miller-Hawk « Time Flies »
- Thread starter hesham
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Bit more about this project. Back in 1936 Frank Hawks, a well-known air racer got together with Howell W. "Pete" Miller, who was chief engineer for the Granville Brothers, famous for their Gee-Bee series of racing aircraft. As a result of their discussions regarding a new racing aircraft for the US series, Miller formed a new company to build the HM-1, which was to be called the New England Aircraft Company, with Miller as president and Hawks as vice president. Hawks managed to gain sponsorship from the Gruen Watch company, hence the name of the racer "Time Flies". To enable the aircraft to manage as high a performance as necessary, it featured a buried cockpit, where the curved cockpit cover could be tilted forward, together with cranking up the pilots seat to enable vision for takeoff and landing very like the system fitted to the Miles Master Mark 1. The chrome-molybdenum steel tubing fuselage sections were covered with plywood, with the wings also being plywood-covered.
Following the maiden flight of the HM-1 on October 18, 1936, Hawks decided to make a number of record flights prior to participation in air races. The first of these occurred on April 13 1937, when Hawks flew "Time Flies", from Hartford, Connecticut to Miami, Florida in 4 hours and 55 minutes. Following this flight, he then flew to Newark Airport, New Jersey, in 4 hours and 21 minutes. Unfortunately as he was landing at Newark he bounced on landing, and after the third bounce, a wooden spar broke in the right wing with other spars also damaged. Due to lack of funds, Hawks made the decision not to rebuild the aircraft. However he sold the rights to the design, including engineering data to Tri-American Aviation. This company wanted to convert the design into a fast attack/observation aircraft. The two founders of Tri-American Aviation, Leigh Wade and Edward Connerton, engaged Miller to rebuild the aircraft in 1938 as a two-seater with a greenhouse canopy added, with the aircraft being renamed the Miller HM-2, but this later changed to the MAC-1, when Tri-American Aviation became the Miller Aircraft Company. Other names that the type became known as were the "Hawks Military Racer" and Military Aircraft HM-1. To demonstrate the aircraft's potential, pilot Leigh Wade entered the MAC-1 in the 1938 Thompson Trophy race. In essentially military configuration with dummy machine guns fitted, Wade flew the aircraft to fourth-place.
After the Thompson race, Earl Ortman flew the MAC-1/HM-1 at East Hartford, Connecticut to display flight capabilities for foreign military interests, and seek out military contracts. While reaching speeds approaching 425 mph (684 km/h), a wing sheared off. Ortman was able to bale out safely, but the aircraft was demolished and the project was abandoned.
One area which puzzles me is that there seems to be a variation in the areas of the two types. Now I am in no way an aeronautical engineer, but I can't see from the pictures enclosed how the wing areas seem to be so much larger on the MAC-1 even though it has a smaller span and doesn't look any larger in chord!
Specifications for the HM-1
Crew: 1
Length: 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Wingspan: 31 ft (9.14 m)
Wing area: 160 ft² (48.77 m²)
Empty weight: 1,840 lbs (834 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,028 lbs ()
Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cyl. two-row air-cooled radial piston engine, 1,150 hp (860 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 375 mph (604 km/h, 326 kn)
Specifications for the MAC-1 were like the HM-1, with the following changes
Crew: 2
Wingspan: 30 ft 0 in (9.14 m)
Wing area: 525.0 sq ft (48.77 m2)
I attach an alternative picture of the HM-1, and also a picture of the type after conversion to the MAC-1.
All info taken from American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) Journal, Vol. 57, No. 3, Autumn 2012, Race With The Wind: How Air Racing Advanced Aviation by Birch Matthews and the article from Walt Boyne in Wings, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1978, entitled 'Built for Speed: Pt. II of the Howell Miller Legend.'
Following the maiden flight of the HM-1 on October 18, 1936, Hawks decided to make a number of record flights prior to participation in air races. The first of these occurred on April 13 1937, when Hawks flew "Time Flies", from Hartford, Connecticut to Miami, Florida in 4 hours and 55 minutes. Following this flight, he then flew to Newark Airport, New Jersey, in 4 hours and 21 minutes. Unfortunately as he was landing at Newark he bounced on landing, and after the third bounce, a wooden spar broke in the right wing with other spars also damaged. Due to lack of funds, Hawks made the decision not to rebuild the aircraft. However he sold the rights to the design, including engineering data to Tri-American Aviation. This company wanted to convert the design into a fast attack/observation aircraft. The two founders of Tri-American Aviation, Leigh Wade and Edward Connerton, engaged Miller to rebuild the aircraft in 1938 as a two-seater with a greenhouse canopy added, with the aircraft being renamed the Miller HM-2, but this later changed to the MAC-1, when Tri-American Aviation became the Miller Aircraft Company. Other names that the type became known as were the "Hawks Military Racer" and Military Aircraft HM-1. To demonstrate the aircraft's potential, pilot Leigh Wade entered the MAC-1 in the 1938 Thompson Trophy race. In essentially military configuration with dummy machine guns fitted, Wade flew the aircraft to fourth-place.
After the Thompson race, Earl Ortman flew the MAC-1/HM-1 at East Hartford, Connecticut to display flight capabilities for foreign military interests, and seek out military contracts. While reaching speeds approaching 425 mph (684 km/h), a wing sheared off. Ortman was able to bale out safely, but the aircraft was demolished and the project was abandoned.
One area which puzzles me is that there seems to be a variation in the areas of the two types. Now I am in no way an aeronautical engineer, but I can't see from the pictures enclosed how the wing areas seem to be so much larger on the MAC-1 even though it has a smaller span and doesn't look any larger in chord!
Specifications for the HM-1
Crew: 1
Length: 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Wingspan: 31 ft (9.14 m)
Wing area: 160 ft² (48.77 m²)
Empty weight: 1,840 lbs (834 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,028 lbs ()
Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cyl. two-row air-cooled radial piston engine, 1,150 hp (860 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 375 mph (604 km/h, 326 kn)
Specifications for the MAC-1 were like the HM-1, with the following changes
Crew: 2
Wingspan: 30 ft 0 in (9.14 m)
Wing area: 525.0 sq ft (48.77 m2)
I attach an alternative picture of the HM-1, and also a picture of the type after conversion to the MAC-1.
All info taken from American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) Journal, Vol. 57, No. 3, Autumn 2012, Race With The Wind: How Air Racing Advanced Aviation by Birch Matthews and the article from Walt Boyne in Wings, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1978, entitled 'Built for Speed: Pt. II of the Howell Miller Legend.'
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