Emergency fighter

The crisis which gives rise to an emergency fighter may have been the sudden outbreak of war, which resulted in a country lacking sufficient fighter aircraft. This was the case for Australia at the beginning of the Pacific War in World War II; with both the UK and the USA committing its production capacity to supplying their own needs, they had to create their own indigenous design resulting in the Commonwealth Boomerang.[1]

An emergency fighter may also have been produced to meet a need for a particular sort of fighter aircraft. For instance, Britain’s Royal Air Force used hastily converted Bristol Blenheim light bombers as twin engined heavy fighters.[2] A materials shortage arising in the course of conflict may have led to experiments with new kinds of fighters, like the Finnish VL Humu, which was based on the American Brewster F2A Buffalo, but with a higher proportion of wood in its construction.

Emergency fighters were also designed to a tight time scale in a crisis situation, in the hope that a new aircraft might be able to change a nation’s fortunes. Most famous of these was undoubtedly the Heinkel He 162 jet aircraft of Germany.

Many examples of the emergency fighter concept date from the Second World War. In that global conflict, situations of strategic national emergency arose in several nations due to total war. At the same time, fighter design was still sufficiently simple that an aircraft designed and produced in a matter of months had some chance of being effective.

Some emergency fighters were aircraft designed for other purposes but pressed into service to meet an immediate need. In early 1942 eight Australian CAC Wirraway trainer and general purpose military aircraft were used to intercept a Japanese raid on Rabaul, with disastrous effects when all the defenders were shot down. Some Russian Sukhoi Su-2 light bombers were used as fighters during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa when nothing else was available.

To meet the challenge posed by a shortage of strategic materials like the light alloys used in aircraft construction, several prototype emergency fighters were designed to use more readily available materials. For example, the British Martin-Baker MB 2 used a simple design made from steel tubes, while the VL Myrsky used much plywood. However, less strategically important materials like steel or wood tended to affect the performance of the aircraft adversely.

The advantage of adapting existing aircraft was that the emergency fighter could be produced quickly. A variety of aircraft types were used: the Bristol Blenheim light bomber lacked performance in its intended role as a heavy day fighter, but found a useful niche as a strike fighter in Coastal Command[3] and as a night fighter, pioneering the use of airborne intercept radar;[4] the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 was occasionally used to escort other Sturmoviks on ground attack missions; and 26 British Miles Masters were produced, but never used, as the M.24 Master fighter with a single seat and six wing guns.[5]

Modern attack aircraft are usually equipped to carry short-range air-to-air missiles for self-defense; some airforces because of inventory shortages will task their attack aircraft with a secondary air-to-air role, for example as with the Portuguese A-7 Corsair II squadrons. During the late 1980s and early 1990s the United Kingdom planned to use their BAe Hawk trainer aircraft as point-defence fighters.

Very few new emergency fighter designs progressed beyond the prototype stage. Of those that did, the Commonwealth Boomerang was probably the most successful, but even then it was most effectively used in the ground support role. The Heinkel He 162 entered mass production and even squadron service, shooting down some opponents, but its effectiveness was limited by a dire shortage of fuel in the collapsing Reich.[6]

Other designs which did not enter service included the British Miles M.20,[7] which had a similar performance to the contemporary Hawker Hurricane; and the American Bell XP-77.

Very few emergency fighters entered service, and of those that did, even fewer types achieved effectiveness in operations. Two main factors can be identified for this failure:

• Time Scale: Even though emergency fighters were produced to a tight time scale (the He 162 flew within 5 months of design work beginning), by the time they were ready for combat, events had usually moved on. Either the crisis had passed (as with the Miles M.20 which first flew as the Battle of Britain was being won), or it had deepened so far that rescue was impossible (as occurred with the Bachem Ba 349).[11]
• Performance: Conversions from existing aircraft were usually inadequate as frontline fighters, although some like the Bristol Blenheim IF found useful employment elsewhere. Likewise emergency fighters which used non-strategic materials usually suffered in performance, although they could be used for other roles, like the VL Myrsky which was used for reconnaissance Sometimes the rush into production meant that the emergency fighter was positively dangerous to all but the best pilots, like the He 162.[12]

Overall therefore it can be seen that the lack of operational effectiveness of emergency fighters stemmed from the inherent limitations of the concept.

• Dorr, Robert F and Donald, David (1990) “Fighters of the United States Air Force”, Aerospace Publishing, ISBN 0-600-55094-X
• Gunston, Bill (2001), The Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Salamander, ISBN 1-84065-092-3
• Lake, Jon (1998), “Blenheim Squadrons of World War II”, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-723-6
• Mondey, David (1982), “The Hamlyn Concise Guide to British Aircraft of World War II”, Bounty Books, ISBN 978-0-7537-1462-1
• Mondey, David (1984), The Concise Guide to Axis Aircraft of World War II, Chancellor Press, ISBN 1-85152-966-7
• Townshend Bickers, Richard (1990, The Battle of Britain, Salamander, ISBN 0-86101-477-4