The Little World

The ” Aha! ” moment in this build came as I tried to figure out what the platforms and driveshafts were all about and I ran across the term ” Huck starter “. A google hour then filled me in.

And filled in a question I had about a number of airplane designs. On a lot of European planes I had seen cannon barrels protruding from their propeller spinners. I figured it was a European thing. I didn’t look closely at the things. Then I saw a larger scale model of one of these fighters and noted that the supposed ” barrel ” was actually a spiral hook.

Then a Google image of a Huck starter truck hooked up to a British plane of the inter-war period made the penny drop – it wasn’t a cannon – it was a hook for the shaft of the starter to whirl the prop and turn the engine over. That shaft was driven from the engine of the Huck starter – whether it was on a truck, an Austin car, or a roll-round cart.

The only other thing to puzzle out was the platform on the AS truck – and this was simple; the platform at the front went up and down to allow a crewman to be up there and attach the Huck shaft to the hook. It could be starting a fighter engine close to the ground, or a bomber engine up higher. Presumably he climbed off it before the driver engaged the clutch and revved the truck’s engine to turn over that of the plane. When the plane fired, the truck backed away from it.

Using a Huck starter meant you saved the weight of an internal flywheel – like those on the Messerschmitt Bf 109. or the electric starter and battery on other Allied planes. The tactical disadvantage came if the truck was busted or not there.

Note the number of spare wheels and tyres the Soviets carried in the back. They knew something about their own roads…