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The Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane

Ref: 4306

In stock

Price: £15.00

sadly, flyingbooks is now closed.

{detailed description}Born into the troubled world of 1933, Sydney Camm's Hurricane was a contemporary of Willy Messerschmitt's Bf 109 and Mitchell's Spitfire. These three fighters were the principal antagonists in that greatest air battle of all time —the Battle of Britain in 1940.
With its great strength and operational flexibility, the Hurricane gained the distinction of being the most heavily committed Allied fighter during the first year of the War, and by mid-1941 had been in action in France, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Libya, East Africa, Iraq, Greece, Crete, Syria and Malta, as well as over Britain. It went on to operate as a naval interceptor, playing a vital part in our convoy protection. Hurricanes fought in Russia and throughout the North African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns; they were still in action against the Japanese when the atom bombs brought the War in the Far East to an end.
The Hawker Hurricane is lavishly illustrated with many carefully chosen photographs together with a series of full-page general arrangement drawings including one in colour. It traces the background of events which led to the conception of the Hurricane design and pays tribute to the test pilots and others responsible for its early development life. The many exploits of Hurricanes and their wartime pilots are recounted, some of them for the first time in print, while a chapter is devoted to a record of the individual aircraft built. Finally, there is a technical reference chapter with general arrangement drawings of the principal Hurricane variants.

One of military aviation's most outstanding machines, the Hurricane opened a new era in R.A.F. fighter equipment, being both the first interceptor monoplane to be adopted by that service and its first combat aircraft to exceed 300 m.p.h. in level flight. Capable of absorbing a tremendous amount of battle damage, it was numerically the most important British fighter in service until the end of 1940, and its supreme versatility was never surpassed, nor was its propensity for adaptation.
Powered by a 990 h.p. Merlin " C " engine driving a Watts two-blade fixed-pitch airscrew, the prototype (K5083) flew for the first time on November 6th, 1935, being delivered to Martlesham Heath for official trials during the following February. The results of these trials met the most sanguine of expectations, and Hawker Aircraft prepared plans for production of one thousand machines on their own initiative. On June 3rd, 1936, an initial quantity of six hundred was officially ordered and three weeks later the name " Hurricane " was approved.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Francis K. Mason
Published by Macdoanld 1962 1st edn. 175pp illustrated with b&w photos, line drawings, index. appendix.19x25
{condition}very good in slightly torn d/j.
{delivery info}
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U.K.
first class (1-2 days)£4.75
second class (2-3 days)£4.25



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