Then and Now

Hurricane and Typhoon

The Hawker Hurricane made its first flight on 6 November 1935. Designed by Sydney Camm, it featured an enclosed cockpit and provision for eight machine guns, and was powered by Rolls-Royce's new Merlin engine. Tests confirmed that the Hurricane's performance was considerably more advanced than any other British type of the time.

The government of the day was becoming ever more aware of German rearmament and the possibility of an impending European war. Against this backdrop, the Hurricane was ordered into large-scale production with an initial batch of 600 on 3 June 1936. In the Battle of Britain that would follow, the Hurricane was to prove decisive in turning back the Luftwaffe's air armada.

Seventy years separate the Hurricane from the Eurofighter Typhoon. Making its first flight on 27 March 1994 it represented the combined efforts of a pan-European consortium linking companies in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. The resulting Typhoon has given the RAF a superb aircraft which will equip its front line to 2030 and beyond.

Both the Typhoon and Hurricane represent – or represented in their time – state-of-the-art designs. Both excel as air superiority fighters – aircraft with a good degree of agility, able to 'mix it' in a dogfight and to control an area of airspace – and equally capable of employment in the interceptor role to meet and destroy enemy aircraft at great range. The differences between these two aircraft are based around speed and performance. Yet despite these differences – differences which are hardly surprising, given the relentless march of technology – closer examination reveals that there are actually far more points in common than a cursory examination might suggest. There are very few pilots who have flown both and who are in a position to speak with authority on the characteristics of each.

One pilot who has flown both the Hurricane and Typhoon is Flt Lt Antony 'Parky' Parkinson, now in his fourth season with the BBMF. Fortunately, flying Spitfires and Hurricanes with the BBMF is something which can be fitted in with instructing on the Typhoon, and did not require Flt Lt Parkinson to give up the day job: "It's a part-time, summer job. I've had the most wonderful RAF career. But I would say almost every pilot's dream is to fly the Hurricane and the Spitfire. So I applied and managed to get a slot. I flew with BBMF for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons and now we are into 2010, the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain."

Flt Lt Parkinson talks of the similarities between flying the two aircraft : "The pressures of flying, the joys, the highlights when you're striving to get your wings. Clearly the aircraft are different, but they were used to propellers and taildraggers. Today, it's that same principle of building blocks. Slowly does it at first. Learn the raw skills. Nothing's changed in terms of flying, aviating and airmanship."

Asked to compare the flying characteristics, rather than the absolute performance, of the Hurricane to those of the Typhoon, Flt Lt Parkinson offered: "In terms of flying any aircraft, the principle is the same – stick and rudder and the throttle. It's just that the throttle in the Typhoon gives you 40,000lb of thrust compared with 1,000hp from the Merlin in the Hurricane. In terms of the handling qualities you can see that they were both a delight to fly in their times. For example the roll rate of a Typhoon is so much faster than of a Hurricane."

"What you really want in terms of visual air combat is an aircraft that's quite easy to fly and that's carefree in its handling. And both of these aircraft are; they allow you to concentrate on fighting so you don't have to be too concerned that the aircraft will bite you when you're taking it near to the edge of its flying limits. In that respect they're very similar. Both are a joy to fly. In the Typhoon I've got fly-by-wire, so the stick moves exactly as in any aircraft but it's not rods and cables as it is in the Hurricane; it's wired to actuators and there are flight control computers which work out how much fuel and what armament load I'm carrying. As a result, I can pull full back stick on the controls and I cannot overstress the Typhoon airframe. Whereas if I got a Hurricane up fast enough and did the same, I could pull an awful lot of G which could damage the aircraft. In that respect, you have to be a lot more careful in the Hurricane."

This article is an extract from The Official RAF Yearbook 2010, which is available to buy now by clicking here.