Hawker Hurricane I to XII, Sea Hurricane IA to XIIA
Type: British fighter planes; later, fighter-bomber, tank buster and ship-based fighter.
History:
Until well into 1941 the Hawker Hurricane was by far the most numerous of the RAF's combat aircraft and it bore the brunt of the early combats with the Luftwaffe over France and Britain.
Designed by Camm as a Fury Monoplane, with Goshawk engine and spatted landing gear, it was altered on the drawing board to have the more powerful PV.12 (Merlin) and inwards-retracting gear and, later, to have not four machine guns but the unprecedented total of eight. The Air Ministry wrote Specification F.36/34 around it and after tests with the prototype ordered the then-fantastic total of 600 in June 1936.
The Hawker High-Speed Monoplane (F.36/34) prototype, flown in November 1935 a few weeks after the first Bf 109. Many detail changes were needed to yield the Hurricane.
In September 1939 the 497 delivered equipped 18 squadrons and by 7 August 1940 no fewer than 2,309 had been delivered, compared with 1,383 Spitfires, equipping 32 squadrons, compared with 18 1/2 Spitfire squadrons.
Gloster's output in 1940 was 130 per month. By this time the Hurricane I was in service with new metal-skinned wings, instead
of fabric, and three-blade variable pitch (later constant-speed) propeller instead of the wooden Watts two-blader. In the hectic days of 1940 the Hawker Hurricane was found to be an ideal bomber destroyer, with steady sighting and devastating cone of fire; turn radius was better than that of any other monoplane fighter, but the all-round performance of the Messerschmitt Bf 109E was considerably higher.
One of the most remarkable pictures of WW2 shows a Hawker Hurricane as it was shot down. At top, the pilot is opening his parachute; right, a wing shot from the plane; center, the Hurricane falling with one wing sheared; lower foreground, the black silhouette of the attacking plane's window; lower background, the white chalk cliffs of Dover.
The more powerful Mk II replaced the 1,030hp Merlin II by the 1,280hp Merlin XX and introduced new armament and drop tanks. In North West Europe it became a ground-attack aircraft and in North Africa a tank-buster with 40mm guns against German Panzer III and Panzer IV.
A Hawker Hurricane Mk IID is attacking a Italian tank in North Africa.
While operating from merchant-ship catapults and carriers it took part in countless fleet-defence actions, the greates't being the defence of the August 1942 Malta convoy, when 70 Sea Hurricanes fought off more than 600 Axis attackers, destroying 39 for the loss of seven fighters.
The Hurricane was increasingly transferred to the Far East, Africa and other theatres, and 2,952 were dispatched to the Soviet Union, same receiving skis. Hurricanes were used for many special trials of armament and novel flight techniques (one having a jettisonable biplane upper wing).
Total production amounted to 12,780 in Britain and 1,451 in Canada (after 1941 with Packard Merlins) and many hundreds were exported both before and after World War 2.
Users: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Finland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jugoslavia, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Soviet Union, Turkey, UK (RAF and RN). |
Idyllic study of a Hurricane I (one of a batch of 600 built by Gloster) in formation with two Spitfires from a batch of 1,000 Mk IIAs and IIBs built at Castle Bromwich. The photograph was taken in 1942 when hundreds of these former front-line machines were standard equipment at OTUs (Operational Training Units).
Hawker Hurricane I |
| Type |
fighter |
| Power plant |
one Rolls-Royce Merlin vee-12 liquid-cooled with 1,030hp |
| Accommodation |
1 |
| Wing span |
40 ft |
| Length overall |
32 ft |
| Height overall |
13 ft 1 in |
| Weight empty |
4,670 lb |
| Weight loaded |
6,600 lb |
| Max level speed |
318 mph |
| Initial climb |
2,520 ft/min |
| Service ceiling |
36,000 ft |
| Range |
460 miles |
| Armament |
eight 0.303in Brownings, each with 333 rounds
(Belgian model four 0.5in FN-Brownings) |
| First flight (prototype) |
6 November 1935
|
| Production delivery |
12 October 1937
(in Canada as MkX January 1940) |
| Final delivery |
September 1944 |
| Total production figure |
14,233
(of these 2,952 for Soviet Union) |
| Production figure 1940 |
130 per month |
3d model Hawker Hurricane I
Hurricane I of No.71 Squadron
(used November 1940 to May 1941)
Hurricane I of No.237 Squadron (used September 1941 to February 1943 in the Middle East)).
Hurricane I of No.213 Squadron (used from January 1939 to February 1942), transfered by the carrier 'Furios' to Middle East in May 1941.
Hurricane I of No.85 Squadron
(used September 1938 to July 1941)
Like the Bf110, Beaufighter, Curtiss P-40 and many other aircraft of World War 2, the Hurricane was fairly soon outclassed as a daytime dogfighter, yet remained in production almost to the end of the conflict because it was versatile and useful. The last of all was PZ865, a Mk IIC fighter-bomber delivered in September 1944 bearing the inscription 'The Last of the many' (as distinct from 'The First of the Few').
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