Hawker Hurricane
(因民航法規限制本機台灣地區暫不引進)
The Hawker Hurricane was the first modern British fighter aircraft, designed before World War II broke out. Until 1941 the Hurricane has been the fighter most employed by the RAF – Royal Air Force, the one which sustained the impact of the first battles against Luftwaffe’s aircrafts in the skies of France and Great Britain.
Initially designed by Sidney Camm as a “single-winged Hawker Fury“, powered by a Goshawk engine and equipped with a fixed landing gear with wheel fairings, the Hurricane project was modified during its prototyping in order to host the much more powerful PV.12 (Merlin) engine. It was also equipped with a retractable landing gear and armed with eight, rather than four, machine guns, a never before seen solution until then.
In comparison with the more famous Supermarine Spitfire, which was equipped with the same Merlin engine, the Hurricane was slower but more robust, simple (some part were fabric-covered) and significantly cheaper. The technical specs were – fabric covering aside – those of a modern single-winged fighter aircraft: three-wheels retractable landing gear, closed cabin, air cooled 1030 HP Merlin II engine with inline cylinders, radio mount and eight .303 Browning machine guns, capable of shooting up to 10.000 bullets/min (1.8 k of bullets). The covering was in painted fabric for the most part, except for the front part of the fuselage and the wing. The propeller was initially two-bladed and made of wood, but it was soon replaced with a metallic three-bladed.
During August 1940, Hawker’s fighter was employed in the Battle of Britain, sustaining epic conflicts thanks to the heroism and bravery of its Pilots. The Hurricane Squadrons destroyed more enemy aircrafts than all of the other forces engaged. They served in an admirable way in North Africa, Malta, Sicily, Burma and basically almost all battles in which the Royal Air Force was present.
Hawker Hurricane was one of the most versatile fighters during World War II
and stayed in service until January 1947
