Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane was a single seat fighter aircraft and one of the “heroes” of the Battle of Britain. The Hurricane saw action in almost every theatre of the second world war, including in Canada.

The Hurricane was designed and built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. in the United Kingdom. The RAF wanted a modern monoplane fighter in the early 1930’s and based on that, Hawker built the Hurricane prototype in 1935. It first flew in November of that year. In 1937 Hurricanes entered service in the RAF. The RCAF received Hurricanes in 1939.

The Hurricane was a low wing monoplane, had retractable landing gear, and fuselage construction was of steel tubing with a fabric cover. Wings were originally fabric covered as well, but later were made of stressed aluminum.

Hurricanes were built in large numbers at several locations in the UK, eventually almost 14,500 Hurricanes were built. In 1938, the Canadian Car & Foundry of Fort William (Thunder Bay) was contracted to build the Hurricane. The Canadian manufacture of Hurricanes came under the guidance of the first female aeronautical engineer, Elsie MacGill. 1,451 Hurricanes were built in Fort William between 1939 and 1943.

In Canada, the Hurricane saw service at the Central Flying School (CFS) in Trenton, at some Operational Training Units (OTU), and for home defence. One of their tasks was to find and shoot down Japanese incendiary balloons (Fugo balloons) that made it over western Canada. (Watch the videos below to learn more about the Hurricane, Elsie MacGill, and the Japanese balloon threat). A simple internet search will garner numerous sites about the Hurricane if interested.

Our Hurricane is a replica, although it does contain original Hurricane parts.