Few British aircraft have attained the special niche in the history of the RAF which is accorded to the Hawker Hurricane, sharing with the Supermarine Spitfire the brunt of air defence during the Battle of Britain in August-September 1940. One of the significant statistics of the Hurricane's contribution to this hard-fought battle was the fact that these aircraft destroyed more enemy aircraft than the combined total of all other defence systems, air or ground. Even that factor must be equated with the information that at the beginning of the battle (on 8 August 1940) approximately 65% more Hurricanes than Spitfires (2,309 to 1,400) had been delivered to the RAF's Fighter Command. Perhaps, in the final analysis, such figures can be regarded as more controversial than revealing. The fact remains that this combination of machines and courageous pilots was enough to deny the Luftwaffe access to the daylight skies over Britain without unacceptable loss.
The family tree of the Hurricane can be traced back to a 'Fury monoplane' proposal of 1933, then to be powered by the Rolls-Royce Goshawk evaporative-cooled power plant. Instead it was decided in early 1934 to adapt this design to incorporate the new PV.12 engine which Rolls-Royce had developed - and which was the direct forbear of the famous Merlin. From that time the airframe/engine combination bore so little relation to the Fury that it then became identified as the 'Interceptor Monoplane'.
This finalised design was submitted to the Air Ministry in 1934, and in the following year a prototype was ordered to Specification F.36/34. On 6 November 1935, powered by a 767kW Merlin 'C' engine, the Hurricane took to the air for the first time. Although of cantilever monoplane configuration, its construction was typical of the Fury from which it stemmed, and even its wings were fabric-covered in early Mk Is, with a metal leading edge and trailing-edge flaps. The tailwheel-type landing gear had hydraulically retractable main units of wide track. Armament of production Mk Is comprised four 7.7mm Browning machine-guns in each wing, making this the RAF's first eight-gun fighter.
Early tests of the prototype confirmed the predicted performance, and an initial order for 600 placed in June 1936 was followed by one for 1,000 additional aircraft in November 1938. The first production aircraft flew in October 1937 and Hurricane I began to enter service in December 1937, first with No 111 Squadron. In early February 1938 Britain's breakfast-time newspaper readers almost choked on their toast when headlines assured them that, during the night, No 111 Squadron's commanding officer (Sqdn Ldr J. GilIan) had flown his Hurricane from Edinburgh to Northolt at an average speed of 657km/h, assisted by a tail wind!
Subsequent Hurricane versions included the Mk IIA with Merlin XX and eight guns; Mk IIB with 12 guns; and Mk IIC with four 20mm cannon. Mk IID with two 40mm Vickers 'S' guns and two 7.7mm guns (plus additional armour for low attack) were used extensively in the Western Desert. The final production version was the Mk IV with a wing able to accept armament comprising two Browning machine-guns plus two 40mm guns, or eight rocket projectiles, or two 110kg or 225kg bombs, or long-range fuel tanks. The Hurricane V (only two built) was powered by a Merlin 27 or 32 engine, while Hurricane X, XII and XIIA were produced in Canada by the Canadian Car and Foundry Company with Packard 28 or 29 engines. A total of 12,780 Hurricanes were built in Britain, plus 1,451 in Canada.
Sea Hurricanes joined the Royal Navy in January 1941 and became the first carrier-based British single-seat monoplane fighter when taken to sea by HMS Furious in July 1941. Under the 'Catfighter' scheme, Sea Hurricane IA were equipped for catapult launch from the decks of CAM merchant ships (catapult-equipped merchantmen) to counter the threat posed by Germany's Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors, introduced in the spring in 1941. Only the Mk IA was specially built. The approximate figure of 800 Sea Hurricanes which entered service included 50 Mk IA and about 750 conversions of Mk II and Canadian-built aircraft.
In addition to the Hurricanes already mentioned, more than 4,000 were supplied to other air forces, including Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Eire, Finland, India, Persia (now Iran), Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.
Ever see a mongoose take on a 15 ft cobra?? the mongoose is outgunned, but he doesnt know it. the cobra thinks hes gonna win, right up to the time the game, outclassed mongoose sinks its fangs into the cobras neck and gives a vicious jerk of his head! Fanatics and nazis couldnt lose, like the cobra, they did, and most germans still cant believe it. go brits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 1947, I had a few Fitter 2 E and A's retired from the I.A.F. working with working with me in Air India. They said that they just loved working on the hurricanes. The only trouble was that the pneumatic system for the Undercart retraction system and the brakes used to give a lot of trouble. I remembered this when in 1961 we had the same problem with the Fokker F-27 aircrafts.
In 11 Group RAF, which bore the brunt of the Battle of Britain, there were only 3 (I think) squadrons of Spitfires: most had Hurricanes. They were a more stable gun-platform than the faster and more aerodynamic Spitfire - ideal for tackling attacking bombers. THAT was the priority in the "Battle of Britain".
I worked on both Hurricane and Spitfires at RAF Coltishall's Historic Aircraft Flight in 1966, we had 3 Spits and 2 Hurricanes all in great flying condition, each of these A /C have their good (and bad) points but both were fantastic fighters that did wonders for our war effort.I wonder where they are now. I would love to see them perform at the Reno Air Races along with the P51 Mustangs and Grumman Bearcats. The sound of a Merlin on full chat is awsome.
It was possibly the most iconic aircraft of ww2 more so than the spitfire because just as the battle of britain began only a few spits were made so the hurricane led the defence.
Thing to remember about the Hurricane was that, unlike the revolutionary stressed-skin construction of the Spit, it was a traditional design - virtually obsolescent in 1940. But the fabric-covered frames were easy to repair, and bullet holes did not destroy the integrity of the airframe. That thick wing might've been a big disadvantage speed-wise - but you could load it with heaps of ordnance. It became a hugely effective ground-attack type later in the war. Increases in power from uprated Merlins were used to increase the payload, rather than boost speed. So the Hurricane was doing the same speed in 1945 as she managed in 1940 - but with a heavier punch.
The Hurricane's hey-day was in the Battle of Britain in 1940. It equipped approx two-thirds of the RAF fighter squadrons and knocked down approximately two-thirds of the Luftwaffe losses of all types, fighters and bombers. The Japanese Zero /Zeke had a totally different design ethic where pilot safety features such as self-sealing fuel tanks, pilot armour and bullet-proof windscreens were discarded in pursuit of pure performance. Provided the Zero got the drop on the Hurricane it was in with more than a chance. In an equal fight the Zero would have a performance edge but NOT a firepower edge. After six seconds of firing time the Zero loses its cannons, the Hurricane can continue firing all eight guns for around 17 or 18 seconds. If the Zero gets hit then it is in trouble, a flying napalm bomb. If the Hurricane gets hit then experience with the similarly armed Bf109 reveals the Hurricane could withstand the first burst and even a cannon shell or two. After that it is in trouble. You also have to remember that the Japanese benefitted from a pool of superb combat trained pilots but had not geared-up to war-time training programme. Essentially Japan's pilots were a finite resource, the Commonwelath's were not.
I'm currently trying to do some design work on a scaled Hurricane and am surprised that I can't find the wing section details anywhere on the web? Anyone got any ideas on the root and tip sections? I know they are 19% and 12.2% respectfully, but no idea of the type, NACA, RAF?
Some clear advantages the Hurricane had over the Zero was that it had pilot armour selfsealing fueltanks and a fire wall for the engine plus it was more strongly made, lots of Zeros and other Japanese aircraft would disintergreat or burst into flames when hit by only a few mg rounds.The P40 could out preform the Hurricane at low levels but hit a wall at about 15000ft due to its Alison engine where the Hurricane had a preformance edge whith is Merlin.
I'd have to agree that the Hurricane hit it's peak in 1940. Certainly the Russians concurred. It was not given it's due because the Spitfire overshadowed it. One advantage it had was it's guns were in 2 concentrated batteries of 4, not spead out like on the Spit. This plus converging the fire cone instead of shotgun style like the early Spit. Thus it's task of tackling the Luftwaffe bombers while leaving the escort for the faster Spitfires made sense. In the Far East all Allied pilots fell victim to the Zero and Oscar unless they dove away. Few Allied pilots were quick to learn that, unfortunately. The Japanese couldn't follow most any Allied fighter whatever the dive speed, until they had the Tojo and Tony. True the Hurricane's early Merlin required a half-roll to dive but so did the A6M2 Zero.
hurricane had no clear advantage over the zero except some high speed control. which by other compares is slow. even the p40 had a significant advantage over the zero ,roll rate and speed. as a russian piolot said about the hurricane it was even slow in a dive, thick wing no speed, the zero lost out also, slow, poor high speed control, needed a bigger engine to boost climb as me109 or fw190 pilots knew dont turn with a hurricane just fly away.400 extra horse power in a hurricane gave it a 20 mile ahour speed increse where the same engine in a spit boosted speed close to 400mph
Can anyone explain why the Hurricane feature has been covered inches deep in Buffalo crap? It's good for the garden – and presumably good for the buffalo – but not very relevant in a discussion on the Hurricane.. Anyway, here are a few facts which might be of interest.
Buffalo service records in the RAF and Commonwealth air forces.
60 Sqn Issued July 41, withdrawn Oct 41. Replaced by Blenheims, then Hurricanes
67 Sqn Issued March 41, withdrawn Feb 42, Replaced by Hurricanes
71 (Eagle) Sqn Issued Oct 40, withdrawn Nov 40, replaced by Hurricanes. These were American pilots, remember.
146 Sqn issued March 42. Withdrawn April 42. Replaced by Hurricanes.
*243 Sqn Issued March 41, Withdrawn Feb 42, Replaced by Spifires
*453 RAAF Sqn Issued Aug 41. Withdrawn Feb 42, Replaced by Spitfires
488 RNZAF Sqn Issued Oct 41 Withdrawn Jan42. Replaced by Hurricanes
*In the second week of December 1941, these three squadrons in Singapore could muster 31 serviceable Buffalos between them. By early January six were left.
All in all, a not very distinguished record by a not very distinguished aeroplane.
And the terminal velocity was 575 mph? (Buffalo page) Do me a favour – I'd be surprised if it ever saw 450
the fact is that the hurricane did no better than the buffalo in asia. the buff was inferior to the type 0 but primarily took a beating because of poor pilot training, failure to correct maintance problems,lack of early warning and complete failure of top level leadership. The hurricane was a nice airoplane but no better than the buff and in fact, the finns completely dominated the russian flown hurricane while flying there very successful buffalo varient.
It's OK, I think I read the same report that mixed you up. Written in wartime, people had lapses. Churchill and the press were hard put to put a rosier outlook on the war at that stage and made a hero out of the 413 Catalina pilot who reported the sighting and Hurricanes who defended. Natural propaganda. However, they did not establish the radar sets on the Island, except for one at Trincomalee, and failed to properly alert defenses on time, because they were not aware of the Japanese aircraft's range capabilities, such as MacArthur's mistake in the Phillipines. The Hurricane and the men who flew it earned a place in history at the Battle of Britain. Ceylon was propaganda.
