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Character Profiles
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Hawker
Hurricane Mk. 1
(profile
contributed by Justin "LooseCannon" Riggir)
Hawker
Hurricane Mk I
Hurricane
fighter on patrol
Typical Hurricane
Mk I Specifications
Manufacturer: Hawker
Length: 31 ft 4 in
Wing Span: 40 ft
Height: 13 ft 1.5 in
Speed: 324 mph at 16,250 ft
Range: 505 miles
Ceiling: 34,200 ft
Armament: eight .303 in Browning mg with 334 rounds per gun
Engine: Rolls-Rpyce Merlin III 12-cylinder V inline, 1,030 hp at
take-off
Climb: 8 minutes 30 seconds to 20,000 ft
Weight empty/loaded: 4,982/6,447 lbs
The Hurricane was designed to Air Ministry Specification F.36/34, the
prototype making its first flight on November 6, 1935. Put into production
in 1936, the first production Hurricane I flew in October, 1937.
Although it was no longer in production when the war ended the Hurricane
was still in service as a first-line aircraft. It served on seventeen
different battle fronts - in the British Isles, France, Norway, North
Africa, Sicily, Italy, the Middle East, the Far East, Russia, in the Battles
of the Altantic, the Mediterranean and the Northern Convoys, to mention
the most important - as a fighter, a fighter-bomber, a R.P. fighter, a
'tank-buster', a catapult fighter and carrier fighter. In 1944-45, equipped
with rocket projectiles, the Hurricane was used with great effect against
enemy shipping in the Adriatic, and as a fighter-bomber it served with
distinction in Burma.
Well over 15,000 Hurricanes were built, the last one being delivered from
the Hawker factory in September, 1944.
The Hurricane was the most common of the British fighters during the fall
of France. It was an easy to maintain, rugged airplane, however it was
obsolete compared to both the Spitfire and its main opponent, the Bf-109.
Its biggest advantage over the Bf-109 was its superior manoeuvrability.
Pilots said the best tactic when confronting the enemy was to meet them
head-on so they couldn't latch onto you, and then do a quick 180 turn
after the merge.
The Hurricane was the first modern fighter used by the RAF, and also the
most important in the early war years. In the Battle of Britain, Spitfires
were used to engage the German escort fighters while the slower Hurricanes
went after the bombers. The Hurricane’s main strengths were its rather
rugged construction and ease of maintenance, however like the Spitfire,
the Hurricane suffered from the lack of fuel injection during negative
G manoeuvres. The Hurricane's drawbacks were its rather weak firepower,
slow speed, and initial lack of armour.
Successive stages of Hurricane development:
Hurricane I. Rolls-Royce
Merlin II or III engine. Armament consisted of eight .303 in Browing machine-guns,
four in each wing. Originally had fabric-covered wings, two-blade wood
fixed-pitch airscrew and was without armour or self-sealing tanks. In
1939 the Mk I was fitted with either the D.H. or Rotol constant-speed
airscrew, ejector exhaust stacks, metal-covered wings, armour, etc. In
the Battle of Britian the Hurricane Mk I accounted for more enemy aircraft
than any other type of aircraft and altogether in the first year of the
war Hurricane squadrons accounted for more than 1,500 confirmed victories
over the Luftwaffe, almost half the total of enemy aircraft destroyed
by the RAF in that period. In 1940 the Mk I was fitted with air cleaner
and desert equipment for service in the Middle East.
To be continued...
Source: The War
in the Air by Gene Gurney, Major, USAF, Jane's Fighting Aircraft
of WWII, and "The Anatomy of Aircraft"
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