Hawker Hurricane Mk I

Plane: Hawker Hurricane Mk I

Mass: 2822kg

Engine: 1,030hp Merlin III

Horsepower:  990hp max brake horsepower

Wing Area: 23.97 meters^2

Weapons:

Ammo belting:

7.7mm MG: ap, ap, ap, ap, tracer

Stall Speed: 113kph(70mph) clean/106kph(66mph) dirty

Best Climb Speed IAS: 238kph(148mph) IAS

Maximum Reasonable AoA: 14.5 degrees

Top Speed Chart:

WEP Top Speed: 400kph(247mph)

Climb Rate chart:

Roll Rate:

Turn Rate: (sustained) Flaps Up:   150kph(93mph), 93m(305ft) radius, 26 deg/sec

Turn Rate: (sustained) Flaps Down:  130kph(81mph), 79m(259ft) radius, 26 deg/sec

Visibility:  Good, somewhat difficult to check behind.   

Control Feel vs Speed:  Decent, but a bit overdamped, gets stiff at high speeds

WEP power boost percent: 3%

Safe WEP time: Over 10 minutes

General Comments:

The Hawker Hurricane was the primary fighter available to the British during the opening of the war.  While the Spitfire was the better overall fighter, the Hurricane flew in far larger numbers until after the Battle of Britain was decided.  Despite being inferior to the Bf109E in many ways except turning ability, the Hurricane is the reason that the British were able to keep control over the skies of England during WW2.  Quite frankly, the Hurricane was instrumental in winning the Battle of Britain.

However, WW2OL does not consist of a Battle-of-Britain style combat, where you are flying a defensive high altitude war in the Hurricane, being vectored in to enemy bomber formations by radar control.  Most air combat in WW2OL involves fighter vs fighter combat, and the Hurricane does not fare well against it's primary opponent, the Bf109E.  One could argue that the Bf110 might have fared much differently if Germany and England's roles had been reversed.

The two primary problems with the Hurricane Mk 1 are speed and climbing ability.  The Hurricane is the slowest plane in the game, slower even than the Bf110.  It is 50kph slower on the deck than a Bf110, 95kph slower than a Bf109E4, 85kph slower than a Spitfire Mk 1, and 175kph slower than a Fw190a4.  You will not run anyone down with this plane.

No other fighter can turn as well as a Hurricane.  In fact, no other fighter even comes close.  Even the H75, which is arguably the better dogfighter due to its agility, is a poorer turnfighter than the Hurricane.  If you like turning and nothing else, this plane is for you.  Unfortunately, most Luftwaffe pilots learn real quick that they don't want to turn with a Hurricane.

Do not follow Bf109s into spiral climbs, because they will get above you, then come back down when you are wallowing at stall speed.  Stick to flat turns, and only go vertical if you've got a surplus of energy.  Your turning is so good that if you spot a pass, you can ruin it by turning hard.  Very few pilots can hit a hard-turning Hurricane when they're in the middle of a Boom and Zoom pass.  You cannot get away, but you can stalemate them if you time your defensive moves right, and they might eventually make a mistake you can take advantage of.

The Hurricane has eight machineguns, similar to the Spitfire Mk 1.  These babies can hurl out over 150 bullets per second.  However, the ammunition supply is only about 16 seconds, but if you hit you're going to do some damage.  The guns are packed in tight packages, meaning you have two streams of death.  Unfortunately, most German fighters are well protected from a direct six shot.  If you can get them to turn, however, those machineguns will hose down the cockpit and give you an easy kill.

The machinegun package is also rather well suited for strafing.  You won't penetrate any armor, but you can rip up anti-tank guns, trucks and infantry.  Be careful around anti-aircraft guns, since you are very slow and thus a relatively easy target.

The Hurricane is easy to take off, and is a very stable aircraft.  You won't find yourself flopping out of the sky due to an abrupt rudder movement or aileron movement in this plane like you would in some other fighters.  The stall, both 1g and accelerated, is very gentle, with lots of warning. 

The biggest issue is the speed.  You will constantly be frustrated at finding yourself out of gunnery range.  Every time you get your nose on someone they're too far to hit reliably.  If you want to fly this plane seriously, even after Spitfires are available in numbers, you must learn to hit quickly when the target is close, so you can maximize your opportunities when the opposition gets in front of you at point blank range.  This plane has insufficient ammunition to waste on targets more than a quarter circle away.

This plane is quite possibly the best of the starter planes in the game, despite being so slow.  It turns so good that you don't have to remember which planes outturn you.  It's guns are decent enough to get kills early in the campaign.  It's handling, both on the ground and in the air is very good for a beginner.  The pilot is better protected against enemy fire than the H75.  And unlike the Bf110, it has options when the brown stuff hits the spinny thing. 

One quirk of the early Merlin engines was the carburetor system that was unable to deliver fuel under negative G loads.  This means that if you push the nose over, you will lose power until you pull positive G again.  This can be annoying when you want to fly inverted to examine the ground, and when trying to follow a fighter who does a negative G evasive maneuver.

However, if you get serious about air-to-air combat, you want to upgrade to a Spitfire as soon as possible.  The Spitfire is the equal of the Bf109E in many ways, and can turn almost as good as a Hurricane.

Specific Matchup Comments:

Hurri1 vs Bf110C:  The Hurricane is one of the few planes that the Bf110 can outrun.  However, if it doesn't try to run, you should have a much better time staying close to one of these planes than any other Luftwaffe fighter.  A relatively easy kill, and your turning ability should help you get an edge in the feeding frenzy that occurs any time one of these stumbles upon a group of British fighters.  Watch out if his tailgun starts to fire while he's maneuvering.  That indicates he's carrying a gunner, which can be trouble as you turn onto his six.

Hurri1 vs Bf109E4: The Hurricane is outclassed by the Bf109E4.  This will be made painfully clear time and time again as it either outclimbs you, extends away from you, or sneaks up on you.  One asset (if you can call it that) is your slow speed.  A Bf109E4 is almost guaranteed to overshoot any time it makes a pass at you.  If you get good at shooting at them after they overshoot, you will bag an unusually large number of Bf109E4s.  Otherwise you will be restricted to 109s that either try to turn with you, or ones that are distracted by other fighters (such as a 109 trying to not get shot down by Spitfires).

Hurri1 vs Bf109F4: The problems only get worse with the Bf109F4.  It now has a substantial acceleration advantage, has a huge climb rate advantage, and gained another 35kph speed advantage on the deck (for a total of 130kph better top speed).  When these planes start showing up in numbers, a switch to a Spitfire is long overdue.

Hurri1 vs Ju87b: This is included here because many pilots don't know how to handle a Stuka properly.  They think "Oh, it's a bomber, it can't turn" and promptly get shot down as the Ju87b outturns them.  The Hurricane Mk 1 is the only fighter on the allied side that can turn as good as a Stuka.  Note the fact that I said "as good", not "better".  You can still get yourself in a lot of trouble trying to turn with a Stuka.  If he drops flaps, he will outturn you..  Now before you grab the pitchfork and head down to CRS, there are a few things to point out.  The Ju87b has one of the lowest wing loadings in the game.  It has huge thick wings, which generate a lot of lift (and a good amount of drag).  It turns so good for a lot of the same reasons the Hurricane does.  It is designed to haul a big airframe, two crewmembers, armor, bombs, and lots of ammo on a relatively low amount of power.  It also has to do this while being draggy as heck.  It accomplishes this by having huge thick wings (remember how gliders fly with no power?  big wings).  What this means is that this airplane can turn.  Just like a light biplane that has only 100hp, but can turn on a dime, the Ju87b can use its huge wings to turn well.  It *will* outturn you if you flatturn it.  The two biggest problems a Stuka has are speed and climbing ability.  If you go vertical, the Stuka will die.  If you fly fast, the Stuka will die.  If you try to run away, you will get away (even in a Hurricane).  If you try to turn with it for an extended amount of time, it will eventually drop its flaps, outturn you, and get a nice canopy shot on you meaning  you will die.  It also flies so slowly that you will easily overshoot it if you are not careful.  Most turnfighters used to beating 109s in turnfights don't know how to handle a better turning plane.  Learn, or you will become very frustrated with the Stuka.