Hawker Typhoon in Action

A nice movie about the Hawker Typhoon.

Hawker Typhoon

G. Hawker Engineering Co Ltd, formed in 1920 as a successor to the old firm of Sopwith, had soon become world-famous for its excellent fighters. The first of these was the Woodcock, which began production in May 1925. It was not surprising therefore that, after supplying the Service with this and a succession of other outstanding fighter aeroplanes, this aircraft constructor was successful in obtaining the contract for the Hawker Typhoon.

The Typhoon, however, came close to being aborted before its last-minute birth as a distinguished destroyer of the enemy in the air and on the ground. Its survival to play a prominent part in the RAFs battle order was, as the Duke of Wellington said about the Battle of Waterloo, ‘the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life’. This aircraft was intended to succeed the Hawker Hurricane as an interceptor fighter, which had itself been innovative: not only because it was the RAFs first monoplane fighter and its first to exceed 300mph, but also because it was Britain’s first to have a monococque fuselage and, later, stressed steel wings as well. Hawker’s duralumin tube and steel type of construction, which was one of the features that the two fighters were to have in common, was also unique to the manufacturer: so a lot was expected of the Typhoon. The Hurricane was sweet to handle, but its bulky successor turned out to be a maverick; hence the reluctance, at one stage, to proceed with its development.