Does the Hurricane catch fire?

[5./JG27.Farber]

Originally Posted by JG52Krupi

From what I recall reading the hurricane irl was very susceptible to fire due to its construction, mainly the wooden structure, the addition of metal wings obviously stopped this a bit.

Surely this also makes it less susceptable to Minengeschoss rounds and other explosive rounds if the round does not hit (or mabye even if it did) some solid part of the aircraft, for example if the round only passed through doped canvass?

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by 5./JG27.Farber

Surely this also makes it less susceptable to Minengeschoss rounds and other explosive rounds if the round does not hit (or mabye even if it did) some solid part of the aircraft, for example if the round only passed through doped canvass?

E1 ftw

[MB_Avro_UK]

Thanks for your replies

But, offline I cannot remember any example of my Hurricane catching fire. It doesn't happen.

Was it Galland who said that the Hurricane burns easily?

And neither in the Hurricane or Spitfire, has the petrol tank in front of the pilot caught fire during a game. This often happened in the Battle of Britain and resulted in horrific deaths and injuries to the pilot.

Here's a few screenshots of my Spitfire on fire. I have none of the Hurricane.












Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

[5./JG27.Farber]

Hurricane fuel tanks are in the wings arnt they? with a small reseve near the engine?

[notafinger!]

Hurricane wing tanks will burn easily. Shoot the wing roots with a mix of 8mm AP & I and they will catch fire quickly. 20mm hits will often result in tank explosion. In general the Hurricane is much easier to destroy than the Spitfire. Here is a collection of some poor souls from ATAG.

[David198502]

Originally Posted by notafinger!

Hurricane wing tanks will burn easily. Shoot the wing roots with a mix of 8mm AP & I and they will catch fire quickly. 20mm hits will often result in tank explosion. In general the Hurricane is much easier to destroy than the Spitfire. Here is a collection of some poor souls from ATAG.

exactly my experience!

hurricanes are really vulnerable!!!!
it is very easy to blow off wings from that crate as well, while i see it very rarely happen to spitfires.
the fuel tanks explode regularly while i have seen that only once happen to a spit in my whole COD career.
and to set a hurricane on fire is really easy as well....just like notafinger said, aim directly next to the fuselage on the root of the wings, and a 1second burst is often enough to set it up into flames.

[Moggy]

Originally Posted by 5./JG27.Farber

Hurricane fuel tanks are in the wings arnt they? with a small reseve near the engine?

That's right, 1 in each wing and the gravity tank in front of the pilot.

I'm reading a book about the Hurricane at the moment, 1 of pilots said that he reckoned most of the cockpit fires were caused by the wing tanks as opposed to the widely held belief that is was the gravity tank which caused cockpit fires.

I'll dig out the quote later.

[Sutts]

Originally Posted by Moggy

That's right, 1 in each wing and the gravity tank in front of the pilot.

I'm reading a book about the Hurricane at the moment, 1 of pilots said that he reckoned most of the cockpit fires were caused by the wing tanks as opposed to the widely held belief that is was the gravity tank which caused cockpit fires.

I'll dig out the quote later.

I remember reading something along those lines too in "Gun Button To Fire".

Some of the pilots used to fly with the cockpit open for better SA but soon stopped when they discovered that an open canopy caused wing tank fire to be drawn into and through the cockpit - through the open structure between the fuselage and the wing. For this reason, opening the canopy to bail out was a risky moment as a sudden surge of flame could rip through the cockpit as a result.

[NZtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Sutts

I remember reading something along those lines too in "Gun Button To Fire".

Some of the pilots used to fly with the cockpit open for better SA but soon stopped when they discovered that an open canopy caused wing tank fire to be drawn into and through the cockpit - through the open structure between the fuselage and the wing. For this reason, opening the canopy to bail out was a risky moment as a sudden surge of flame could rip through the cockpit as a result.

This is also stated in McKinstry's book on the Hurricane - the Mk I's fuel tanks were only isolated from the cockpit by the open wingroot structure; according to Stephan Bungay the gravity tank immediately in front of the cockpit also proved to be vulnerable and could burn like a blowtorch directly through the instrument panel; Dowding insisted that these tanks be covered with a fireproof coating manufactured by a company called Linatex and a fireproof bulhead was later fitted.