Hanriot HD.6

History

Next to the prototype-oriented HD. 5 Beginning in 1918, Hanriot from France also developed the equally experimental HD. During the final months of the First World War (1914-1918), there were 6 two-seater biplanes. This form borrows some design elements used by the HD.

5 But went a step further and introduced enough changes to make it completely unique in the Hanriot lineup. When the Armistice was signed in 1918 to end the war, the aircraft was still in the early stages of development - so it had little impact on the outcome and never entered mass production.

Although I shot it in HD. 5's two-cabin wing design, tandem seat open-air cockpit and multi-machine gun approach, HD. 6 With a new design line, larger size. Unlike the HD, the hood of the nose is rounded. 5 Angular look.

The upper wing element of the biplane configuration remains low on the fuselage and HD. 5 Both leading and trailing edges were cut away to maximize pilot and gunner visibility.

The tail uses a similar single-ribbed circular vertical plane, and ground run is provided by a conventional two-wheel "drag-style" tail skid arrangement.

The proposed weapons are slightly different: 2 x 7.7mm Vickers machine guns mounted as usual in a fixed forward firing position above the nose, 2 x 7.7mm Lewis machine guns in the rear cockpit, mounted on a trainable stand (T.O. 3) As expected, but the bottom of the tail gunner position provided a cutout for a third 7.7mm machine gun, which could fire on targets below and behind the aircraft as a new defensive measure.

A pair of forward-facing machine guns also fired simultaneously through rotating propeller blades.

One of the most important design aspects of HD. 6 is its engine, essentially a mating of Salmson 9Z 9-cylinder radial engines, each producing 260 horsepower, to produce the unique Salmson 18Z twin-row, water-cooled, air-cooled radial with a total output of 530 horsepower . This drives a typical two-blade wooden propeller in the nose and is the company's completely experimental setup for extracting every ounce of power from a fighter jet, resulting in a powerful, well-equipped by the standards of the time. airplane.

However, such an engine arrangement was fraught with problems, and lag proved to be common with HD. 6 Flight testing of the design did not take place until the spring of 1919the war was already over in November 1918, and demand for new fighter jets by the major players in the war was at an all-time low.

In addition, it was found that despite the increase in power, the pairing with two engines contributed little to performance. HD developed like this.

6 only operated until the summer of 1919, and were eventually abandoned shortly thereafter - the only concrete work on the program was the only airworthy prototype.

The aircraft has an overall length of 29 feet, a wingspan of 44.6 feet, and a height of 9.5 feet. Empty weight reaches 1,790 pounds, while maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 2,755 pounds. HD. The 6's service cap is listed as 23,000 feet with a range of 375 miles.

Credit for the design of this interesting biplane goes to Emile Dupont, as does the HD. 5 Described elsewhere on this website.

Specification

Basic

Production

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Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

ARMAMENT

VARIANTS