The Hawker Hurricane was designed by Sydney Camm, Hawker Aircraft's chief designer, and was a monoplane fighter derived from the design of the Hawker Fury biplane. In 1933, the British Air Ministry issued a need for a new fighter aircraft, one which would replace their existing fighter aircraft such as the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon and Bristol Bulldog, all biplanes.

Camm's originally proposed design, effectively a larger version of Hawker's Fury biplane, was not a contender for replacing existing fighters so Camm proceeded to work on a new monoplane design. The aircraft was designed to carry 4 machine guns and would have a fixed undercarriage. It was to be outfitted with the Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine. Unfortunately, the proposed design did not impress the Air Ministry which meant no prototype of the aircraft would be built.

Camm pushed on with the design and modified the aircraft with retractable undercarriage and replacing the underpowered Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine with the new Rolls-Royce PV-12, which was eventually named the Merlin. A scale model of the type was built and sent for wind tunnel testing. These tests proved to show the efficiency of the aircraft and Hawker and Camm went to the Air Ministry with the design. They approved a prototype build in 1934.

The Air Ministry also concluded that the new fighter aircraft would need a minimum of 8 machine guns that were capable of firing at least 1000 rounds per minute. Construction was too far completed to modify the prototype Hurricane in early 1935 however, the production design was modified to allow for the 8 machine guns.

The first Hurricane prototype Hurricane, K5803, flew for the first time on November 8th, 1935. The prototype, outfitted with the new Rolls-Royce Merlin engine (which had not yet been given full certification) performed well despite restrictions. Flight trials went well, despite engine teething issues, with the level flight speed of 315mph and a climb to 15,000 feet in 5.7 minutes. One major issue with the aircraft was its poor spin recovery which was attributed to poor airflow over the rudder during spin. The issue was resolved by the RAE by extending the bottom of the rudder and adding a small ventral fairing.

The first order of 600 aircraft was placed by the Air Ministry. The Hurricane's maiden flight took place on October 12, 1937 by a Hurricane Mk I, outfitted with the new Rolls-Royce Merlin II. The first four aircraft entered service in December 1937 with RAF No. 111 Squadron at RAF Northolt with the squadron receiving at additional 12 aircraft in February 1938. By the breakout of war, more than 550 Hurricanes had been delivered to 18 RAF squadrons.

The Minister of Aircraft Production set up an organisation that had several manufacturing facilities repair and overhaul any battle-damaged Hurricanes requiring service. In Canada, the Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William, Ontario began producing Canadian built Hurricanes in February 1940, sending aircraft to England that participated in the Battle of Britain. In total, CC&F built 1451 Hurricanes.

Early production Hurricanes were built with a fabric covered wing with Hawker eventually switching to an all-metal stressed-skin wing made of duraluminium in April of 1939. The new metal wings allowed the Hurricane a higher diving speed than that of the fabric covered wing Hurricanes, increasing the dive speed by 80mph. The new metal wing could also handle a larger stress load than the fabric wing.

The construction of the Hurricane meant it could sustain more battle damage than that of the all metal constructed Spitfire. It also meant that ground crews on strength at squadron level could perform many of the repairs to the aircraft verses repairs often needed by the Spitfire, which were more complex.

Next week we'll have another look at the workhorse fighter of the Royal Air Force, the Hurricane, including some specifications and numbers.