The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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For the weather
disturbance, see Tropical
Cyclones.
Hawker Hurricane IIc
|
Crew |
1 |
|
Dimensions |
40'0" by 32'3" by 13'3" 12.19m by 9.83m by 4.04m |
| Wing area | 218
square feet 20.3 square meters |
|
Weight |
5658-8044 lbs 2566-3649 kg |
| Maximum speed | 301
mph at 17,750
feet 484 km/h at 5400 meters |
|
Cruise speed |
177 mph 285 km/h |
|
Climb rate |
40 feet per second 12.2 meters per second |
|
Service ceiling |
33,200 feet 10,100 meters |
| Powerplant | One 1460 hp (1089 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin XX vee-12 liquid-cooled engine driving a three-bladed propeller. |
|
Armament |
4 20mm Hispano cannon
in the wings |
|
External stores |
2 500lb (227kg) bombs or 8 3" (76mm) rockets |
| Range | 426 miles (686 km) normal 950 miles (1530 km) with two 44-gallon (167-liter) drop tanks. |
| Fuel |
94 gallons 356 liters |
| A total of 12,780 in England and 1451 in Canada of all
marks: 3857 Mk.I 451 Mk.IA 2948 Mk.IIB 4711 Mk.IIC |
|
|
Variants |
The Mk I used a
1030hp (1857 kW) Merlin II, was armed with eight .303 Browning machine guns,
and
had no
bomb racks. The IIA introduced the Merlin XX
engine. The IIB had 12 0.30 Browning
machine guns and introduced bomb racks in 1943. The IIC was typically tropicalized with a Volkers filter. The IID was armed with
two 40mm
Vickers S guns and two 0.30 Brownings. The IV added rails for
eight
rockets or other specialized stores. A carrier version of the IIB with a strengthened undercarriage was also produced starting in early 1941, and a carrier version of the IIC went into production in early 1942. About 800 Sea Hurricanes were produced. |
The Hawker Hurricane was the workhorse
fighter of the Battle of Britain
and was responsible for bringing down
more bombers than the more famous Spitfire. The prototype first flew
on 6 November 1935, and the aircraft entered production in October
1937. It was flown by virtually every Allied air force except the United States and was the most
numerous British fighter until well into 1941.
The fighter was an excellent gunnery platform, and it
had a very tight turn radius, but lacked the performance of more modern
fighters. Like most fighters developed for use in Europe early in the
war, it was
too
short-ranged for effective use in the Pacific. Nevertheless,
it was the
best aircraft the British could spare against the Japanese
at the start of the Pacific war.
The aircraft was eventually relegated to a ground
attack role, and a number were armed with 40mm cannon for use as tank busters.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index
