Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Single-seat fighter-bomber

Power Plant:

(Mk IIB)

One 955 kw (1,280 hp) Rolls Royce Merlin XX twelve-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

Armament:

Twelve 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Browning machine guns in wings; provision for two 113 kg (250 lb) bombs; or two 227 kg (500 lb) bombs; or eight rocket projectiles

History:

The Hawker Hurricane was designed by Sydney Camm to Air Ministry specification F36/34, the prototype (K5083) built at Kingston in Surrey making its first flight on 6 November 1935, the first production aircraft flying on 12 October 1937, and the first unit to receive the aircraft being No 111 Squadron at Northolt in west London. The history and development of the Hurricane is well known and documented.

A production licence was granted to Yugoslavia, 12 being supplied from the United Kingdom, and 20 being built, one being fitted with a 783 kw (1,050 hp) Daimler Benz DB 601A engine for comparison purposes. However, production ceased soon after the German attack on 6 April 1941. Others were ordered by Romania (12), Persia (15), South Africa (7), Poland (1), Finland (10), Turkey (15) and Belgium (20), the latter fitted with 12.7 mm (0.50 in) Browning machine guns, but few were delivered, most being diverted to the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the war.

The type was also built at the Fort William Works of the Canadian Car & Foundry Company and these were fitted with Packard-built Merlin engines, a number of these being sent to the RAF and seeing service during the Battle of Britain. By the outbreak of war Britain had 497 Hurricanes, all built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd, but production soon commenced at the Gloster and Austin facilities. When the Battle of Britain commenced Britain had 30 squadrons equipped with the Hurricane and 19 with the Spitfire, the former bearing the brunt of the fighting between July and November 1940. In the Battle of Britain and throughout the war Australian and New Zealand pilots flew Hurricanes with British squadrons.

The Hurricane received much development during the war years, being operated off aircraft carriers and CAM (Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen) ships, seeing service in nearly all theatres. A total of 2,952 was supplied under Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union. The last Hurricane (PZ865) was delivered to the RAF in September 1944. An interesting variant was the Mk IID with two 40 mm Rolls Royce BF or Vickers S cannon under the wings for anti-armour operations.

No 3 Squadron Royal Australian Air Forcd (RAAF) moved to the Middle East in July 1940 and part of the unit took up residence at Port Alexandria in Egypt, initially operating Westland Lysanders on Army co-operation work with the 6th Division of the Australian Infantry Forces (AIF). Four Gloster Gauntlets were operated for bombing operations, being protected by Gloster Gladiators, also operated by No 3 Squadron, but based at Ikingi Maryut, moving later to Salum on the Libya / Egypt border. In January 1941 the unit re-equipped with well-worn ex-Battle of Britain Hurricane Mk Is and these continued with the unit until May 1941 when the squadron re-equipped with the Curtiss Tomahawk.

The Hurricane saw some service in the defence of Singapore. At the time of the Japanese advance RAF, RAAF and RNZAF Squadrons were operating the Brewster Buffalo in the region and on 13 January 1942 51 Hurricanes arrived in Singapore to take up the island’s defence, a further 48 at the time being on their way on board ‘HMS Indomitable’. Reports indicated a further 39 were in crates on board another ship heading for the area. After assembly they initially entered service with No 232 Squadron RAF. One pilot with this unit was Plt Off John Gorton who, on 21 January 1942, crash landed his Hurricane when the engine failed. John Gorton later entered politics and became the Prime Minister of Australia.

However, the Japanese onslaught meant the surrender of Singapore and it seems none of the Hurricanes survived. In February 1942 No 453 Squadron RAAF was in Batavia awaiting re-equipment with Hurricanes but, when they did not arrive, embarked on board the ‘SS Orcades’ and returned to Australia.

After the war Hurricanes were supplied to a number of countries, recipients including Egypt (20), India (300), and Portugal (50). Total production was 14,233, 10,030 by Hawker and Austin, 2,750 by Gloster, 1,451 by Canada, and two by Avions Fairey.

One Hurricane Mk I was operated by the RAAF. This was presented to the RAAF and allotted a RAAF serial A60-1, but this was never applied, it always retaining its RAF serial V7476. It was technically presented to the then Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Robert Menzies, and became known as his aircraft. It was erected at No 1 Aircraft Depot (AD) in August 1941 and was operated by Nos 1 and 2 Communications Flights, the Central Flying School, and No 2 Operational Training Unit (OTU). It was mostly used for testing G-suits. Development of G-suits was taking place in Australia, Canada and the United States as fighter pilots were having problems dealing with very manoeuvrable Japanese fighters.

These test flights were usually of 30 to 45 minutes duration and were flown mainly from Mascot, NSW. On occasion the aircraft was based at Camden, NSW, although some operations were flown from Laverton, VIC and a few in April 1943 from Mildura, VIC. It is also known to have been used for War Bond subscriptions and on one occasion put on a display of aerobatics over Spencer Street Railway Station, Melbourne, VIC. Some authorities indicated the aircraft was sent to Australia for the G-suit testing but work on developing G-suits, which was carried out by Frank Cotton from Melbourne University, had commenced some time after the aircraft was allotted for shipment.

After testing was abandoned the aircraft was operated by No 1 Communications Unit and the Central Flying School. By 1946 the camouflage colour scheme had been removed and the aircraft was in overall bare metal. It was transferred to Point Cook, VIC and placed in an aircraft disposal park until sold on 27 January 1951. The aircraft was later scrapped at Point Cook in 1951.

At one stage early in World War II the Australian Government considered the purchase of 50 Mk I Hurricanes to form one or more fighter units and an Operational Training Unit, the aircraft to be taken from the Canadian production line and to enter service in 1942 or 1943. In the event supplies of Bell P-39 Aircobras and Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks were available and the plan was shelved.

Major components of two Hurricane IIBs were shipped to the Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka, New Zealand late in 1993, having been recovered from crash sites in Russia. The first (BH229) was built by Gloster at Hucclecote in Gloucestershire in 1941 and, after a short period with No 10 Maintenance Unit, RAF, it was sent to Russia as part of the Lend-Lease program on 11 February 1942. The second (DR393) began life as a Mk I (serial P3351) and was delivered to the RAF in March 1940, having been built at Brooklands in Surrey in early 1940. It saw service with Nos 73, 32 and 71 Squadrons, and No 55 OTU. During the Battle of Britain it was based in north England.

On 9 September 1941, whilst flown by Sgt Ness Polson (from Invercargill, NZ), Hurricane DR393 hit a hedge whilst flying low and crashed into a field near Headingly, Leeds. During repairs it was converted to Mk II standard, re-serialled and sent to Russia in March 1942 under the Lend-Lease program. It was recovered from a crash site near Murmansk in 1992 and partially restored. It was shipped to New Zealand in October 1995 to complete the restoration, becoming ZK-TPL, making its first post restoration flight on 12 January 2000. After being displayed at a number of Warbirds over Wanaka air shows, it was sold by the Alpine Fighter Collection and exported to Europe, becoming F-AZXR in France.

A small number of Hurricanes have survived in the world, a few airworthy, and, following the recovery of more crashed Hurricanes in Russia and Canada, others have been under restoration. A number of fibreglass non-flying replicas have been built and one of these was placed on display at Omaka, NZ. This replica for a period was part of the collection of the Museum of Transport, Technology & Social History (MOTAT) in Auckland and was part of the Sir Keith Park Memorial site.  It eventually found its way to a museum at Wanaka.

In early 2006 an airworthy Hurricane based at Duxford in the United Kingdom was sold to an Australian but it was immediately sold on to Canada and was not imported to Australia.  In 2014 a further Hurricane was imported, this being a Mk XII which had originally been built by the Canadian Car & Foundry Company.  It required some restoration work at Scone, NSW, before it was registered on 23 September 2015 as VH-JFW (c/n 5481 – ex C-FDNL, N678DP, G-ORGI, 5481 [RCAF]) to Galway Scone Pty Ltd.  It made its first post-restoration flight at Scone on 2 October 2016 and since has attended a number of aviation events on the Australian eastern seaboard.  In October 2019 it was noted for sale.