Hawker
Hurricane
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Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Chantilly, Virginia

Photo: Robert Deering 10/18/2012
National Museum of the USAF
Dayton, Ohio
Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
 Chantilly, Virginia
Hawker Chief Designer Sydney Camm's Hurricane ranks with the most important aircraft designs in military aviation history. Designed in the late 1930s, when monoplanes were considered unstable and too radical to be successful, the Hurricane was the first British monoplane fighter and the first British fighter to exceed 483 kilometers (300 miles) per hour in level flight. Hurricane pilots fought the Luftwaffe and helped win the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.

Materials:
Fuselage: Steel tube with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling Wings: Stressed Skin Aluminum Horizontal Stablizer: Stress Skin aluminum Rudder: fabric covered aluminum Control Surfaces: fabric covered aluminum

Physical Description:
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC single seat, low wing monoplane ground attack fighter; enclosed cockpit; steel tube fuselage with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling, stressed skin aluminum wings and horizontal stablizer, fabric covered aluminum rudder and control surfaces; grey green camoflage top surface paint scheme with dove grey underside; red and blue national roundel on upper wing surface and red, white, and blue roundel lower wing surface; red, white, blue, and yellow roundel fuselage sides; red, white and blue tail flash; Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid cooled V-12, 1,280 horsepower engine; Armament, 4: 20mm Hispano cannons.
SPECIFICATIONS: PERFORMANCE:
Span:  12.2 m (40 ft) Maximum speed:  538 km/h (334 mph)
Length:  9.8 m (32 ft 3 in) Cruising speed: 
Height:  4 m (13 ft) Range: 
Empty Weight:  2,624 kg (5,785 lb) Service ceiling: 
Gross Weight:  3,951 kg (8,710 lb)  
Crew: 
Engines:  Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid-cooled in-line V, 1,300 hp
Armament:  Four 20 mm Hispano cannons, plus two 250-lb or two 500-lb bombs or eight 3-in rockets
   
SOURCE:  Smithsonian Air & Space Museum