Hawker Hurricane

Hurricane
Hurricane Mk I (R4118), which fought in the Battle of Britain
Role	Fighter
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Hawker Aircraft
Designer	Sydney Camm
First flight	6 November 1935
Introduction	25 December 1937
Primary users	Royal Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force
Produced	1937–1944
Number built	14,583
Variants	Hawker Hurricane variants

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s-1940s that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Although overshadowed by the Supermarine Spitfire, the aircraft became renowned during the Battle of Britain, accounting for 60% of the RAF's air victories in the battle, and served in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

The 1930s design evolved through several versions and adaptations, resulting in a series of aircraft which acted as fighters, bomber-interceptors, fighter-bombers (also called "Hurribombers") and ground support aircraft. Further versions known as the Sea Hurricane had modifications which enabled operation from ships. Some were converted as catapult-launched convoy escorts, known as "Hurricats". More than 14,583 Hurricanes were built by the end of 1944 (including at least 800 converted to Sea Hurricanes and some 1,400 built in Canada by Canadian Car and Foundry).

At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog, all biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages.Sydney Camm's design to meet F.7/30, the Hawker P.V.3, was essentially a scaled-up version of the Fury and was not among the proposals submitted to the Air Ministry selected for building as a government sponsored prototype. After the rejection of the P.V.3, Camm started work on a cantilever monoplane with a fixed undercarriage armed with four machine guns and powered by the Rolls-Royce Goshawk. The original 1934 armament specifications for what was to evolve into the Hurricane were for a similar armament fitment to the Gloster Gladiator: four machine-guns, two in the wings and two in the fuselage, synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. The photo immediately below the completed K5083 first prototype shows a mockup of the evolving Hurricane fuselage design mounting the starboard fuselage gun. The prototype as completed had ballast representing this armament, before the final multi-gun wing armament was accepted. Detail drawings for the Hurricane were finished by January 1934, but failed to impress the Air Ministry enough for a prototype to be ordered.

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