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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1332.PDF
468 FLIGHT. MAY 12, 1938. THE HURRICANE WITHIN: SOME DETAILED AND I There were scores of other problems, but these were fundamental. In the end the familiar type of con- struction won, and the justification for the decision is to be found in the fact that the Hurricane is now in service with several R.A.F. squadrons, and that so far the fabric cover- ing has not given any trouble. The performance is up to estimates, and, best of all, the young pilots who have to fly the machines have found no difficulty in handling them after a brief training on Miles Magisters. That the machines have to be treated with respect is but natural. For instance, an aeroplane as clean as the Hurricane picks up speed very quickly, and it doe's not do for the pilot to go wool-gathering and to let the machine get into a dive without him realising it. Otherwise he is apt to lose a lot of height before he is aware of the fact, and to get up to very high diving speeds. This is, of course, more particularly risky when the altitude is not great. But provided he re- members that he cannot stand the machine on its nose for many seconds, there is nothing in the handling of the Hurricane to worry the younger generation of pilots. Qeneral Layout The external appearance ot the Hurricane is already well known to readers of Flight from the photographs pub- lished from time to time, and particularly the double-page picture in last week's issue. The machine is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable undercarriage, a cabin roof over the pilot's cockpit, and a Rolls-Royce Merlin II liquid-cooled engine beautifully cowled. Intended as it is for day and night flying, the Hurricane carries a very extensive military equipment, and its armament consists of no fewer than eight machine guns, which are housed inside the wings, four on each side. Fuel for something like two hours at full speed of the Merlin engine amounts to a good deal, and the ammunition for the machine guns is no small item either, so that, for a single- seater fighter the Hurricane is neither very small nor very light. Its loaded weight is in the neighbourhood of 6,000 lb., and the wing span is about 40ft. It has already been mentioned that structurally the Hurricane follows those general principles which have been such a successful feature of the long series of Hawker machines which began with the Hart and all its variants and were employed in the Fury biplane, the fastest of the Hawker family until the advent of the Hurricane. In the side elevation above but asmall percentage of the equipment of the Hurricane can be shown.For instance, the eight machine- guns are placed in the wings, fouron each side, and operated by remote control. The "motif" of the wingconstruction is well brought out in the sketch on the right.The drag members produce, with the spars, a structureremarkably stiff in torsion.
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