Hawker - Hurricane

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Hawker Hurricane (Jump to photos)

The Hawker Hurricane is a fighter design from the 1930s. It was less famous than the Supermarine Spitfire but contributed more to the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. Some 14,000 were built by the end of 1944.

The Hurricane was developed in response to the Air Ministry specification F.36/34, (modified by F.5/34) for a fighter aircraft built around the new Rolls-Royce engine, then only known as PV-12. The design, started in early 1934, was the work of Sidney Camm.

By some measures the design was outdated when introduced. It used traditional Hawker construction techniques that had been used on previous biplane aircraft. This meant that joints were mechanically fastened, not welded. It had a Warren girder type fuselage of high tensile steel tubes. Over this sat frames and longerons that carried the linen fabric covering. Initially the wing structure consisted of two spars, also in steel, fabric covered. An all-metal stressed-skin wing of duraluminium (a DERD specification similar to AA2024) was introduced in April 1939 and was used for the all of the later marks. In contrast, the contemporary Supermarine Spitfire used all-metal monocoque construction and was thus both lighter and stronger, though not more tolerant to bullet damage.

Its simple construction was the main reason why it was ordered into production in 1936. At the time it was unclear if the much more advanced Spitfire would be able to enter production smoothly, whereas the Hurricane was a well understood manufacturing problem. This was true for service squadrons as well, who were experienced in working on and repairing planes constructed like the Hurricane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane