1935 Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane came to be regarded as one of the most rugged and reliable fighter and ground attack aircraft in RAF service, but undoubtedly, it was its defensive role during the Battle of Britain in 1940 that forged its niche in aviation history. Designed by Sydney Camm to an Air Ministry Spec F36/34 for a new monoplane fighter for the RAF, the Hurricane prototype was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and made its first flight on November 6th 1935.

It had been appreciated at an early date that the basic Hurricane had considerable development potential, leading first to the introduction of the Merlin XX engine into the Mk.1 airframe, creating the Series 11 versions. These aircraft were generally similar to the Mk.1 with a small increase in fuselage length. In 1941, the Mk.11c came into production with the introduction of the four 20mm canon armament, of which 3,400 were built, seeing service worldwide and with the addition of an arrester hook was also used by the Fleet Air Arm from Royal Navy carriers in World War Two.

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