British WWII's fighters

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Hawker Hurricane, Sea Hurricane

The Hurricane was the first monoplane fighter produced by Hawker, and was available in substantial numbers at the beginning of World War II. Hurricanes played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain and went on to fly on more fronts than any other British fighter. Canadian Car and Foundry manufactured 1 451 Hurricanes between 1938 and 1943. With increasingly heavy armament, Hurricanes served to the end of the war. Hurricanes were used in Canada for training and coastal patrols.

Hurricanes equipped 26 RAF squadrons at the beginning of the Battle of Britain and shot down more enemy aircraft than all other defences combined. The RCAF received its first Hurricanes in August 1939, including those flown by Number 1 Squadron RCAF in the Battle of Britain. Later in the war, Sea Hurricanes were launched by catapult from ships at sea to defend convoys against air attack. A "tank buster" version with 40mm cannon was used in North Africa.

Detailed history of Hurricane

General characteristics Hawker Hurricane
Power plant	One Rolls-Royce (Packard) Merlin XX V-engine
Thrust	1,280 HP		955 kW
Wingspan	40 ft		12.2 m
Length	32 ft 3 in		9.8 m
Height	13 ft 1 1/2 in		4 m
Weight	empty	4,982 lb	2,259 kg
	max.	6,665 lb	3,023 kg
Speed	cruising	206 mph	332 km/h
	max.	348 mph	560 km/h
Initial climb rate	2,707 ft/min		825 m/min
Ceiling	34,000 ft		10,365 m
Range	460 mi		740 km
Armament	8x machine gun (12x m.g. Hurricane IIb) or 4x cannon; up to 226 kg bombs
First flight	Prototype 6.11.1936
Date deployed	October 1937
Number built	12,870 (+ 1,451 in Canada)

Jirka Wagner