Hawker Hurricane

what is it?

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in the campaign and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · tail-wheel gear · 12.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 547 km/htop speed
• size 3,951 kgmax take-off weight
• built 14,532made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 91 years ago, in 1935.
• 🏎️Top speed is 4.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12.2 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.2× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1935-11-06

introduced

1937

number built

14,532

role

fighter aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Hawker Aircraft

engines

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX / Rolls-Royce Merlin

length

9.8 m

wingspan

12.2 m

height

4 m

max take-off weight

3,951 kg

top speed

547 km/h

range

—

ceiling

10,973 m

landing gear

tail-wheel gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.