Home » Education » Social sciences » History

The Hawker Hurricane - fighter aircraft of World War Two

2 Comments

19 Like

Like 19

Pin It

Ranked #1,532 in Education, #36,694 overall

About the Hawker Hurricane

The Hurricane, along with the more glamerous Spitfire, bore the brunt of action during the Battle of Britain in World War Two. Reknowned for its toughness, the Hurricane could survive damage that would fell other aircraft. In one legendary encounter (caught on film) a Hurricane had run out of ammunition while one remaining German bomber got through. The pilot rammed the bomber, which fell to earth in two pieces. The Hurricane returned to base intact.

About the Hurricane

The Hurricane MkII announcement from Pathe news

R.A.F. Hawker Hurricanes, March 1938
Buy This Allposters.com

Often overlooked in favour of the more glamorous Spitfire, the Hurricane was an outstanding aircraft in its own right. Designed by Sydney Camm, the Hurricane was the first fighter in RAF service capable of more than 300 mph. Forming the majority of the Allied aircraft during the Battle of Britain, the highest scoring ace of the battle was a Hurricane pilot.

The original newsreel from Pathe news, announcing the Hurricane Mark II.

Hawker Hurricane take off

A video of the hurricane taking off

A nice video showing a Hurricane taking off. In a particularly poignant note, the takeoff is set to Winston Churchill's famous speech.

Technical Specifications for the Hurricane

Abilities and diagrams

The photograph of a restored Hurricane gives you an idea of the design of this single seater fighter. Almost 15,000 of these aircraft were produced, in various Marks, and of these almost 3,000 went to the Soviet Union to serve in the war on the Eastern front.

Hurricane by s3btiger
Design custom stamps using www.Zazzle.com

Crew: One
Engine; 1 x Rolls Royce Merlin
Service Ceiling; 32,000 ft
Max Speed; 322mph
Wing Span; 40ft
Length;32ft 2 inches
Height;13ft 1 inch

Cutaway Diagrams:
Cutaway diagrams of the Hawker Hurricane are available from FlightGlobal through Amazon.co.uk

10x8 Photograph (25x20cm) Hawker Hurricane Mk1 Published 31/10/40 from Flightglobal: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home: 10x8 Photograph (25x20cm) Hawker Hurricane Mk1 Published 31/10/40 from Flightglobal: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

Pilot's manuals for the Hawker Hurricane

Available on CD-ROM and Paperback from Amazon, the manuals cover flying the Hawker Hurricane piston engined fighter.

Hurricane airshow display flight

This video includes a superb airshow display, with loops, from a recently restored Hurricane in 2005.

Uploaded by youtube user Bradburger

Hawker Hurricane: Inside and out - a reference book

Many different variants of Hurricanes were created, included bombers, rocket-armed fighters (early missiles) and even the Sea Hurricane - a uniquely designed fighter meant to protect Merchant shipping.

Hawker Hurricane: Inside and Out

by: Melvyn Hiscock

Amazon Price: $16.85 (as of 06/01/2012)

This reference covers the history and construction of the Hawker Hurricane. The author is actively involved in Hurricane resotration, which allowed him to get close up photographs and several hurricanes stripped down showing their internal workings.

The Sea Hurricane

Protecting Merchant shipping

Hawker Hurricane
Buy This Allposters.com

Merchant vessels often came under attack from convoy raiders or airborne attackers. To counter this, the Sea Hurricane was created to give them a last line of defence.

The Sea Hurricane was a navy variant converted from a standard Hurricane. As the merchant vessels were too small to have a runway, it was designed to be launched from a catapult on the ship's deck. This earned it the name "Hurricat".

Originally this was a single use procedure. As there was no way to return to the ship, if there was no land nearby the fighter pilot had to ditch his aircraft in the sea and hope to be picked up. The metal aircraft sank very quickly after ditching, leaving the pilots to get out quickly or go down with the Hurricane.

The later variant used larger ships, which could recover both plane and pilot. Well over a thousand of various marks of Sea Hurricane were built.

Other Battle of Britain Aircraft

The fighters and nightfighters of the Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain was not fought by the Hurricane alone. During the day, the Hurricanes and Spitfires responded to German attacks. At night, the twin engined nightfighters, the Bristol Blenheim and the de Havilland Mosquito intercepted fighters.

Bookmark this page

Add this to your lens »

Models and collectibles of the Hurricane

Models and statues of the aircraft

Ranging from die cast Corgi collectibles to airfix kits, the Hurricane is a favourite of modellers. The models shown below range in size from 1-72 scale to 1-24.

Photographs of the Hurricane

Public images from Flickr

Here are a selection of the most recent photographs of Hawker Hurricanes from Flickr.

Like this lens?

Rate or Digg it here

This module only appears with actual data when viewed on a live lens. The favorite and lensroll options will appear on a live lens if the viewer is a member of Squidoo and logged in.

Add this to your lens »

More comments about the Hurricane

Blog posts on the Hawker Hurricane

HurricaneTee by BlackHeartArt
View more Hurricane T-Shirts

The Hurricane is one of the most famous British aircraft, and its performance in the Battle of Britain kept Britain free during the Second World War.

Here are a sample of the latest blog posts about the Hurricane, with anecdotes, models, appearances by the surviving flying aircraft, and other ranmdom comments.

Magnificent flying machines to land for festival: The Hawker Hurricane and the Hawker Siddeley Harrier Jump Jet were also designed and built in Kingston. Retired aircraft engineer and joint project leader David Hassard, 69, said: "It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the people of Kingston to ...
Wild Ponies and Wild Weather: It's too reminiscent of pilots' painting their girlfriends' names on warplanes, a fad especially popular during World War II , when RAF Hawker Hurricane fighters ruled the Battle of Britain skies. I'm not sure why we choose to domesticate violence in ...
Group on same frequency: Miriam King QMI Agency - Cookstown's Bill Turkington proudly looks over his radio-controlled scale model of a Hawker Hurricane, which was part of a recent display by the Beeton R/C Flyers at the Cookstown Public Library in Innisfil.
Nostalgia: Preserving the home front: Doreen already had three children in 1940 when Gilbert's Hawker Hurricane was lost and he was reported missing. Refusing to believe her 36-year-old husband would not come home, Doreen took the children from their home in Chalfont St Giles, ...

More Aircraft lenses

British Aviation Series

Leave your comments

Have your say

Hawker Hurricane by ZazzleEmbroidery
Browse more Plane Embroidered Shirts

Something missing from the lens? memories or stories of Hurricanes you want to share? This is the place!

Reply

gregoryolney Aug 18, 2011 @ 8:00 am | delete

Very interesting lens - great stuff !

Reply

SandyPeaks Dec 6, 2010 @ 11:15 am | delete

Fine lens on a fine aircraft. Blessed by a SquidAngel.

Show All

Share this Guestbook
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- RSS
- Email

About the Lensmaster

Tirial&Error Lensography

Tirial's Bio and Featured Lenses

More about the Lensmaster

My Bio

Aviation, IT, History, Gaming, I'm interested in just about anything! I made the Squidoo Top 100 Club in June 2009. My first novel, "Fire Season", is now out, and I have a new title, "The Docks", out in Nov 2011.

For a full list of my lenses, view my profile

Check out these Great Lenses...

Longitude - John Harrison's chronometers
Longitude is a measure of position vital for navigation. In the eighteenth century there was no way to measure it and ships were being lost at sea. Parliame...
view lens

The Jervis Bay and convoy HX84
HX84 was a British navy convoy in the second world war. Attacked by the German battleship Admiral Sheer, the convoy's sole armed escort, the converted l...
view lens

Brunel's Great Western Railway
Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Great Western Railway was designed to be one of the fastest of its time.The railway was built on a wide gauge of...
view lens

HMS Glowworm - Lieutenant Roope's Victoria Cross
HMS Glowworm was British Destroyer H-92. On patrol in 1940 she encountered the German invasion force heading for Norway and, with her radio shot out and una...
view lens

Fire Season by VH Folland
The story of a small airstrip caught in a raging forest fire, Fire Season is the debut novel of British author VH Folland. An old school adventure, Fire Sea...
view lens

19 Like

by tirial

Aviation, IT, History, Gaming, I'm interested in just about anything! I made the Squidoo Top 100 Club in June 2009. I have three fiction books in print... more »

273 featured lenses
Winner of 12 trophies!
Top lens » Free Online Hatching Games - Virtual Pet Sims

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Squidoo