MILES HAWK SPEED SIX

One of the most attractive English aircraft to come out of the 1930’s, the Miles Hawk Speed Six is truly a thing of beauty. The little all-wood single-place Speed Six was not produced heavily, with only three examples completed, but raceplanes are generally not high demand items. The type was raced before the War, but was much more successful as an efficiency racer in the postwar events. These races are quite popular in the U.K., and, as each airplane’s vital numbers are put into an equalizing formula, the variety of airplanes raced in any one event can be quite amazing. The English used the cantilevered low-wing taildragger planform quite heavily through the Depression years and Percival, Miles, B.A., and some other assorted English types shared a common “look”. Other features commonly seen on these aircraft are attractive gear leg spats, elegant tail surfaces, and complicated multi-paneled window layouts.