Hurricane Mk II B

    Sidney Camm, chief designer for the Hawker Engineering Company, had vision to see that the biplane era was nearing its end. In 1925 he designed a monoplane (never built ) knowing that this was the fighter type of the future.In 1933, under Camm's direction, Hawker began work on a monoplane which was an adaption of their successful Hawker Fury biplane. It initially used a 660 hp Rolls Royce engine, but was changed to the higher potential I Rolls Royce PV12, that became the famous Merlin engine. In late 1934 a mockup of the "interceptor Monoplane" was begun, and approval was received for a prototype on 21 February 1935. It flew for the first time on 6 November 1935 with George Bulman at the controls. An order for 600 Mk. 1 Hawker aircraft was received on 3 June 1936, and the name Hurricane was approved that same month. The Hurricane Mk.1 early had fabric outer wing surfaces, a fixed two blade Watts wooden propeller, early ejector exhaust pipes and a tall tail antenna. The Mk. 1 late had all metal wings, a three blade DeHavilland or Rotol variable pitch propeller, type II exhaust stacks; short tail antenna and a rear view mirror on the windscreen. The Mk.1 Hurricane was at the forefront during the Battle of Britain in WWII and is credited, along with the Spitfire, with saving England from invasion by Germany, during that dark period in history.
    One of these was the Mk.IIB, which sought to boost the plane's effectiveness in the ground attack role by boosting wing armament to twelve 303 cal. (7.7mm) machine guns as well as adding wing mounts for bombs. This modification of the Hurricane first went into service in April, 1941.

DATA:
Crew: 1;
Wingspan: 12.192m;
Length: 9.81m;
Height: 3.987m;
Max Gross weight: 3,175kg;
Engine: Merlin XX (1,260hp);
Max speed: 530km/h @ 5,500m;
Armament: 7.7mm machine gun x 12