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British WWII's fighters

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Hawker Typhoon

The so-called 'N type' fighter (developed in parallel with the Tornado) was powered by a 2,180 HP Napier Sabre engine. This powerful engine gave the Typhoon exceptional low-altitude performance, but it had a lot of teething troubles. Another problem was the conservative wing design, with a thickness of 18%, which was resulted in serious compressibility problems. A bad high-altitude performance and problems with the tail structure (finally traced back to a failure of the elevator balance weight causing flutter) sealed its failure as an all-round fighter. The Typhoon then earned fame as ground attack aircraft.

Detailed history of Typhoon and Tempest

General characteristics Typhoon Mk. IB
Primary function Fighter-bomber
Power plant One 24cylinder Napier Sabre IIA water-cooled in-line engine
Thrust 2,180 HP 1,626 kW
Wingspan 41.6 ft 12.67 m
Length 32 ft 9.73 m
Height 15.3 ft 4.66 m
Wingarea 278 sq ft 25.8 sq m
Weight empty 8,800 lb 3,992 kg
max. 13,250 lb 6,010 kg
Speed 404 mph 650 km/h
Initial climb rate 3,000 ft/min 914 m/min
Ceiling 35,200 ft 10,730 m
Range loaded 510 mi 821km
max. 950 mi 1,530 km
Armament 4x 20mm cannon; 8x rockets or 2x 454 kg bomb
Crew One
First flight 24.2.1940
Date deployed May 1941
Number built 3,332


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