The Hurricane wasnt used as a fighter out of desperation, it was concieved as a fighter to start off with.

And in the Battle of Britain the hurricane could dogfight with the 109 as well as the spitfire.

During the battle of britain is was said that hurricanes were to engage the bombers and spitfires to deal with the fighter escort. It didnt quite work out this way and in the end spitfires and hurricanes were both attacking bombers and fighters.

Point being the hurricane could tangle with a 109E quite well. The spitfire just caught the publics eye and imagination, much like the B17 caught the american pulbics eye, leaving the B24 out in the cold.


I will defend the hurricane to the hilt lol, its an incredible aircraft.

Also...

the only VC (victoria cross) awared during the whole battle of britain went to a hurricane pilot :-P

And on a side note...i think the nicest spitfire was the MkIX (9) but thats just me. I will always prefer the hurricane :grin:

the hurricane was outdated at the start of the war the tempest 2 planes down the line was brilliant though

I beg to differ. By the end of 1940 it was out dated as a fighter, but prior to this it did an adequate job.

It then went on to be an excellent night intruder (flying over france at night attacking airfields, causing alot of trouble)

superb anti tank platform in africa

carrier and catapult launched fighter, boosting moral superbly of the merchant shipping crews.

Recon (early parts of war, but most notably in africa)

bomber


truth is the hurricane was built until wars end, served in every theatre, was the most versatile aircraft in our arsenal and did a sterling job. :grin:

outdated as a fighter i ment

Ah right ok, no worries. Will agree with you then.

Though i do believe the first 109F or G to be shot down was by a hurricane piloted by a polish pilot.

Though... it was a hit and run job lol. Basically the 109's were flying over england on patrol or on an intruder mission, they were low..... the hurricanes were high, and un noticed. So they dived down on the unsuspecting 109's and got a single kill. Only one to be shot down by a hurricane, though hardly a fair fight!!!

Im not here to say the hurricane is the best fighter, im just here to make sure she gets some of the credot she deserves :)

if only the hurricane was made of metal it could of been like the p47

We had the Spitfire for recon/fighter so we were covered in that dept quite well, and with the upcoming Hawker Typhoon we were covered in the air to ground role, taking out columns of tanks, troops etc (though it was concieved to be a fighter!!).


We were on quite a budget to, so things were tight!! so all remaining hurricanes were sent over seas or converted for one role or another, also used as training aircraft.

One thing we (RAF) didnt do ALOT of was provide fighter escort, but mainly because we bombed during the night, and during the day the P51 was armed with long range tanks to do the job. Good co operation between the UK and the US.

What about controlls?

"All of the engine controls (throttle, mixture, propeller pitch, radiator and cowl flaps, and supercharger gearbox) had separate levers which served to distract the pilot during combat to make constant adjustments or risk suboptimal performance. For example, rapid acceleration required moving no less than six levers. "
Shameless copy from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavochkin_La-5

By the description one would have to be able to multitask well just to fly it, must have been a nightmare during dogfighting.

You know what the russians are like!

they were trying to buld as much as possible as quickly as they could though, they needed to do what they could to halt the germans and take the fight to them. They had some amazing aircraft.

Well this is a most intrestin thread, Glad you know the hurricane did it fair share :)