"It's quite beautiful, don't you think?"

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Design and Development

The M.3 Hunteress first flew in January 1933, a product of the Fuzavir-based company Airco. The aircraft is a single-bay biplane with metal wings and a capacity for five passengers, with the pilot sitting in an enclosed cockpit directly overhead. Such capacity meant that it was originally intended for use as a short-range civil airliner and touring aircraft, able to be adapted for other roles if needed, such as agricultural work or light cargo transport.

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The Hunteress is powered by a single Bristol Jupiter radial engine, providing between 375 and 440 horsepower depending on the model. In airliner configuration it has a maximum speed of 170 mph and a stall speed of 80 mph, although it takes a skilled pilot to maintain flight at such a speed. In standard configuration the aircraft has a range of 625 miles, and with a long-range tank fitted in place of two passenger spaces this increases to 930 miles.

The aircraft was proved to be surprisingly agile in flight, and had sufficient power for high-energy manoeuvring.

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Operational History

The first M.3 Hunteress was delivered in June 1933 to Colonial Airbridge, flying a freight and light passenger route between Wright and Brightneau. Other deliveries soon followed, and within a year over sixty aircraft were in service with nine operators, usually as mail aircraft or sightseeing flights, but also as a successful bush aircraft for oil companies working on Maywar.

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During the break-up of Fuzavir in the 1960s as many as twelve Hunteresses, then in use mainly as sightseers, were taken up into rebel service in the fledgling Conegsreich Republic and were used as light bombers, regularly flying low under the radar to bomb coastal towns on mainland Fuzavir, equipped with long-range tanks and four 50Ib bombs. Five aircraft were lost.

When production ended in 1939 over 400 aircraft had been built, with many remaining in service into the early 1960s flying tourists on aerial tours. During the Second Global War over fifty Hunteresses had served as military liaison aircraft, with these surplus aircraft literally being dumped on the civil market at the war's end, resulting in large numbers of aircraft surviving to this day.

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There are nineteen airworthy examples still in existence, with four known to be in active service transporting oil prospectors around Snowstone, with two others in a similar role on Maywar. Three more are in a partially restored state, with one in Snowstone and two in the Conegsreich Republic.

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Variants

M.3 Hunteress:

Powered by 375hp Bristol Jupiter, 98 built.

M.3A Hunteress:

Powered by 400hp Bristol Jupiter, improved
suspension and bush gear for STOL operations,
123 built.

M.3B Hunteress:

Powered by 440hp Bristol Jupiter, 187 built.

M.3C Hunteress:

Proposed military variant, 440hp Bristol Jupiter,
2 built.

M.56 Turbo Hunteress:

Proposed 1990s modernisation for oil prospection
use, 1450hp turboprop, 3 converted.

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Controls

AG1 activates the landing assistance gyro, for use by rubbish pilots such as myself. Activate upon landing and deactivate once your speed drops to 45mph. Non-canonical feature.

AG2 activates the anti-collision lights. They're there just because they look nice.