Soviet Hurricanes - where, when, ...?

[Graham Boak]

Kalendar: By late 1941 the Hurricane was outclassed by the Bf 109F, that is clearly true. But not every opposing fighter was a 109F, not every combat was fighter vs fighter, and not every mission involved aerial combat. "Dead" is too much an overstatement. By the same standard so was the Brewster Buffalo, if not more so, yet the Finns gained much success, even later than 1941. This is because of what Andrei says above, that combat involves much more than just the comparative performance of the most capable types on each side.

It is worth adding that the RAF underwent immense expansion during 1941, so the average experience of its pilots in the Middle East was well below the average of the Germans facing them. Pilot experience is one of the prime ingredients of success. The Russian air force in 1942-43 found itself in a similar position, and paid the same penalty. In both campaigns the Germans failed to convert the ability to gain local air superiority into overall success - but that would open a much wider discussion!

Franek; More thought about the Hurricane canopy. It was one of the first successful enclosed canopies, but one reason for its success was its flexibility - as it slid back it widened. The Spitfire improved its visibility by moving to a blown canopy with improving technologies: I'm sure that this required thicker material which would be less flexible and thus a more significant redesign for the Hurricane. Plus removing the "hump" would have required an enlarged fin to compensate for the reduced side area (as on the P-51D and P-47D after similar redesigns. Teardrop canopies are also draggier than their faired equivalents - the Hurricane didn't need extra drag.

I did model a late-war Hurricane with a Typhoon canopy some years ago - "Oscar killer" I called it. So I am sympathetic to your idea, but can see reasons why it didn't happen. I'm sure the core reason is that Hawkers did not expect to be producing Hurricanes well into 1944, so would not "waste" rare design resources on an outdated design, thought to be out of service soon.

Malcom did produce a blown design for the Hurricane: it was tested but not adopted for production. It would be interesting to read the reasons why.