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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1754.PDF
2o8 FLIGHT AUGUST 24TH, I944 THE FIRST OF THE MANY : The prototype Hurricane, piloted by Fit. Lt. P. W. S. Bulman towards the end of 1935 The Last of the Many Hawker Factory Delivers Hurricane 10,000 Plus : Born 1935 and Still Qoing Strong THIS week marks the delivery of the last Hurricane from the production line of Hawker Aircraft, Ltd. At long last this old warrior, which first flew in November, 1935, must give way to faster and more power ful single-seater fighters, but this does not mean that the Hurricane is to be pensioned off and retired from service. Still far from being relegated to the past, the Hurricane is even now a first-line aircraft in several of the many different roles it has undertaken. As a close-support, low-attack fighter it is daily in action with the land forces in Nor mandy, Italy and Burma; as a fighter-bomber it carries two 500 lb. bombs; and as a rocket-firing cannon-fighter its fire power is equal to that of the Typhoon, the effect of which has been compared to a broadside from a cruiser. Of all the 24 different battle fronts on which the Hurri cane has seen action, its greatest achievement came in the Battle of Britain in 1940, when Hurricane squadrons formed the main equipment of Fighter Command, and Hurricane pilots shot down more than half the total number of enemy aircraft destroyed. Without detracting in any way from the magnificent courage, skill and endurance of the fighter pilots, the British victory was in some measure due to Hawker's who produced the aircraft in time and in suffi cient numbers to enable the pilots to turn the day. To no less a degree, Hurricane pilots were responsible for beating back the onslaught of the combined Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica on .Malta. When the position with regard to shipping losses was at its blackest, Hurricanes hastily fitted with catapult gear were mounted on mer^, chant ships and were launched against enemy bombers AND THE LAST : No more Hurri canes will be turned out by the Hawker factory. The pilot is Group Capt. P. W. S. Bulman.
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