Spitfire vs Hurricane

Springfield

Active member
I found this article on a website about the Spitfires and the Hurricanes and it talked a little about which one of the planes was better and which one was more of a success. Post any other information or your opinion if you want about these two planes in here.

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Contrary to popular belief, it was the Hurricane, not the Spitfire that saved Britain during the dark days of 1940. The turn-around time (re-arm, refuel etc.) for the Spitfire was 26 minutes. That of the Hurricane, only 9 minutes from down to up again. During the Battle of Britain the time spent on the ground was crucial and as one fitter/mechanic of No. 145 Squadron quipped: "If we had nothing but Spits we would have lost the fight in 1940."

The Spitfire was an all metal fighter, slightly faster, had a faster rate of climb and had a higher ceiling, while the Hurricane had a fabric covered fuselage, was quicker to repair and withstood more punishment. With the for's and against's of both fighters they came out about even. The majority of German planes shot down during the four month period were destroyed by Hurricanes. For much of the Battle of Britain, the Spitfires went after the German BF 109s at the higher altitudes, while the Hurricanes attacked the bomber formations flying at lower altitudes. This cost the enemy a total of 551 pilots killed or taken prisoner. During the war a total of 14,231 Hurricanes and 20,334 Spitfires were produced. The famous Rolls-Royce 'Merlin' engine evolved through 88 separate marks and was fitted in around 70,000 Allied aircraft during the six years of war.

In the hectic battles in the sky over southern England many pilots returned to base utterly exhausted and routinely fell asleep as they taxied their plane to a stop. Ground crews often had to help the sleeping pilot from the cockpit after he returned from combat.
 
Hurricanes and Spitfire are the best airplane in my opition.
I like Spitfire they are looks good but their cockpit is too small for me to get in. LOL!
 
It sounds like the Hurricane could take more damage than the Spitfire which I would like better than speed and agility.
 
Well, the Spitfire was the better plane.

It was the impliamentation of the two planes that made them so effective. Instead of trying to phase of Hurricaines or put them in reserve duty or something, they specialized and used the spittfires to busy the fighters while the slower hurricaines powered through the lumbering bombers.

The truth is that the Hurricaine is underrated because it was the work horse, not the race horse... but by the same token if England had only Hurricaines they would have all been knocked out of the sky.
 
The Hurricane was a very reliable aircraft and was a fantastic gun platform but it was a cross between the old WW1 aircraft and the more newer designs. Much of the body work on a Hurricane was just cloth which was stretched over a frame and doped to make it firm. This made it very light and easy to repair, also the explosive bullets would go straight threw it with out exploding. The draw back was that there was no room for the this design to be upgraded to much. One of it's great success stories was in the western desert where fitted a 40 mm cannon under each wing and it was used to smash the Germans tanks and was so successful it was nicknamed the can opener. The other thing that should be remembered is that this plane accounted for two thirds of all German Planes shot down in the Battle Britain. This came about as there far more Hurricanes that Spitfires, also the Spitfires took on the German fighter escorts while the Hurricanes got stuck into the Bombers.

The Spitfire was far faster and the design of the Aircraft allowed it to be upgraded over 20 times and was still in service with the RAF until the early 1950's. It had it engines mountings stretched to take far greater power plants. It was one of those planes that say if it looks right it feels right and you never hear a bad word spoken about it from any of the pilots. The pilots always reckoned that you strapped the plane on to you and it became one with you.
 
Whispering Death said:
Well, the Spitfire was the better plane.

It was the impliamentation of the two planes that made them so effective. Instead of trying to phase of Hurricaines or put them in reserve duty or something, they specialized and used the spittfires to busy the fighters while the slower hurricaines powered through the lumbering bombers.

The truth is that the Hurricaine is underrated because it was the work horse, not the race horse... but by the same token if England had only Hurricaines they would have all been knocked out of the sky.

You've got a good point there. I see how it would hurt if either one of the planes was never manufactered. If the Spitfire was never made, there would be no planes to distract the enemy so that the Hurricanes could shoot them down. But if there were no Hurricanes made, then there would be no plane to actually shoot down the enemy. The two planes kind of tie together and come as one.
 
It should be remembered that the speed difference between the Spitfire and Hurricane was not a great deal on the early marks. As I said earlier the Hurricane was mainly fabric covered which made it very light and it could out turn any German fighter. By 1941 the Spitfire with increased power in its engines was now pulling well ahead of the Hurricane and the Hurricane could not be upgraded due to its design and from this point and was used as fighter bomber and was shipped of to the Middle East and the Far East.
 
yep..spitfires managed to be better. Twas built for it. Was goodn everything. Just listen to that engine of hers 8)
 
actually it was the hurricane that one the battle for the raf think about it it took at least 30mins for the spitfire to get refuelled and about 10 for the hurricane think about it the germans had better armour, firepower and could climb better. but they only had enough fuel for a one way trip. the hurricane could refuel and be back up before the spitfire crew had even finished the damage report. plus the hurricane was cheaper to produce the spitfire was a much better plane but it was no wear near as cheap as the hurricane plus the tok half as long as it did for the spitfire. in my opinion the spitfitfire and the hurricane won it through team work. its not the plane who wins it its the people behind the controls. the germans didn't use half as much teamwork as the british and look at 1944 onwards they couldn't even defend germany and they had much better planes and equitment than the british did in 1940 so in my opinion the spitfire might be better but the hurricane was much more cost affective. i think that they all did a splendid job
 
As I said earlier the Hurricane could be repaired far quicker as it was mainly covered in fabric. You just stitched another bit over the hole stuck some dope on the patch and let it dry for a few minutes and the repair was completed. The problem was that the fabric was at it top end for the speed that the plane was being flown at if the Hurricane flew much faster episcopally in a dive then the fabric could be ripped off
 
It was mostly the Hurricane that did most of the job on the battle of Britain. It was later improved by placing cannons and having put long barrels that stick out of its wings..Later versions were improved but its armour was still weak. Then came the figting purpose Spitfire which was equipped with better armour and guns. The size of the Spitfire also differed as its purpose was fighting. Overall, a spitfire downs a Hurricane.
 
Two thirds of the fighters of all the fighters in the Battle Of Britain were Hurricanes, this came about as the wings on the Spitfire were so revolutionary they at first had problems in the manufacture of the Spitfire. Once this problem had been sorted then the plane went from strength to strength and by the time they had fitted the Griffin engine into it with two four bladed counter revolving propellers it was hitting speeds on the level at close to 500 mph. On a dive it was getting close to the sound barrier as when it was in the 600 mph it was being hit by strong vibrations
 
Its normal that the Hurricaine is credited with more Kills than the Spitfire. The Battle of France proved that the Hurricaine was inferior to the Me-109E-1/E-3. Therefore RAF Fighter Command made the smart decision to let the Hurricanes deal with the German Bombers where there low-altitude speed and ruggedness would be an asset and let the Spitfire I (which was slightly superior to the ME-109E-3) deal with the Escort Fighters. Therefore the Hurricane got the lions share of the kills as shooting down bombers as far easier than attacking fighters.
It should also be noted that the Hurricane MK.I was replaced as a day-fighter right after the BOB on the European Front. It was replaced by the hurricaine MK.IIb/c and resassigned as a maritine escort (convoy protection), fighter-bomber, recon aircraft, and night fighter. It was still used as a fighter in Africa and in Russia.
 
Yes. Hurricanes were pretty handy. Without it Britain would have gone elsewhere. The Hurricane is a part of RAF great history.
You also have the other Hawker planes. Hawker Typhoon and Tempest were also pretty good. There was another variant of the spitfire which was called "Seafire", basically spitfires that were used aboard carriers.

I got 2 scale 1:48 die-cast collectors models of a Spitfire MkII and a Hurricane MkIIb night fighter. Both used by the British during WW2.
 
Just read about Spits and hurricanes. Vickers Supermarine chose to upgrade Spitfires for the whole of the war incl fitting 2000 +hp RR Griffons rather than build new design. but Hawker were already planning new designs even before B of B. The Hurricane was designed around the pre-war bi-planes like the Hind, Hart, Nimrod and Fury and was basically obsolete as a front line fighter by the end of B of B. Hawker went on to build the Typhoon " Tiffy" with its Napier Sabre 2000+ hp 24 cylinder " H" configuration power unit . This formidable machine began carrying 8 60lb rockets as well as 20 or 30 mm cannon and scared the " Jerrie's" s**tless. Coupled up with the P47 Thunderbolt " Jug" they went on regular " Rhubarbs", shooting up any thing that moved in occupied territory. The Typhoon led to the Tempest 2 and 5 the latter being powered by an awesome Bristol Centaurus 18cyl sleeve valve radial, the Brit equivalent to the Wright Cyclone. The RAF cancelled after WW11 because of the Meteor Jet but the RN took on the navalised version which became the Sea Fury,which was the fastest most powerful piston engined fighter ever. At least One Sea Fury took on and defeated Mig15's in Korea. If anyone thinks my info is incorrect in any way, please let me know.
 
Very good assessment Vulcan and I agree with you about the Typhoon, a very good aeroplane. However, what must be remembered the Spitfire was designed as a short range interceptor, it was never intended to be anything else, despite the MkVIII being a fighter bomber version and of course the PR. The Hurricane, despite being old technology proved to be a robust, reliable and hard hitting design, there were 12 gun as well as 40mm "Tank Buster" versions, something the Spitfire airframe couldn't cope with.

The Westland Whirlwind twin engine fighter was designed in mind to replace the Spitfire, while a very good aircraft it had serious engine problems. I have no idea why the Rolls Merlin's were never fitted, it might have been a far better aircraft then it was.

If Frank Whittle had been supported right from the start, the Battle of Britain could have been fought with jets.
 
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spit v hurricane

I know and agree that the Hurricane carried on being a brilliant aircraft, it helped with the aging and obsolete Gladiators to defend Malta. Then as you say, went on to do such a great job as a fighter bomber supporting the " Desert Rats". Although Hawker went on to build other designs, Hurricanes where produced, or so I believe, until 1944. About the Wirlwind, it has always been the case of wrong place wrong time. My understanding why Merlin's were not used was because they couldn't be produced in big enough numbers, with priority going to " Spits" etc.A lack of foresight to me. The Wirlwind did what it said on the tin and then some. The same attitude from the Air Ministry prevented Frank Wittle from producing his jet in the Twenties and as you say, the B of B would have been fought with Jets. However, I could go a step further by saying, if we had had a Jet fighter in the Thirties and more importantly had not allowed the Germans to see the designs, we would most probably have been the only country, in Europe at least, to possess such a superior fighter. This could have persuaded Hitler to not mess with us. In 1944/5, the ME262 scared the allies because of its blistering performance, so what would our Meteor have done in 1939/40. Just a thought Cheers:jump:
 
As a matter of interest, the chap who designed the Whirlwind went on to design the English Electric Lightning. My last operational station was equipped with Lightnings, I still remember the awesome sight and sound of them taking off on after burn AND the wonderful smell of burnt aviation fuel.

Oh happy days.
 
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Just read about Spits and hurricanes. Vickers Supermarine chose to upgrade Spitfires for the whole of the war incl fitting 2000 +hp RR Griffons rather than build new design. but Hawker were already planning new designs even before B of B. The Hurricane was designed around the pre-war bi-planes like the Hind, Hart, Nimrod and Fury and was basically obsolete as a front line fighter by the end of B of B. Hawker went on to build the Typhoon " Tiffy" with its Napier Sabre 2000+ hp 24 cylinder " H" configuration power unit . This formidable machine began carrying 8 60lb rockets as well as 20 or 30 mm cannon and scared the " Jerrie's" s**tless. Coupled up with the P47 Thunderbolt " Jug" they went on regular " Rhubarbs", shooting up any thing that moved in occupied territory. The Typhoon led to the Tempest 2 and 5 the latter being powered by an awesome Bristol Centaurus 18cyl sleeve valve radial, the Brit equivalent to the Wright Cyclone. The RAF cancelled after WW11 because of the Meteor Jet but the RN took on the navalised version which became the Sea Fury,which was the fastest most powerful piston engined fighter ever. At least One Sea Fury took on and defeated Mig15's in Korea. If anyone thinks my info is incorrect in any way, please let me know.

The fastest piston engined fighter was the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil, it had a max speed of 474 mph, the Sea Fury had a max speed of 460. The US Vought F4U Corsair 453 mph and the Republic P-47N Thunderbolt 467 mph. The most powerful fighter was the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt with a 2,535 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59. The Sea Fury had a 2,480 hp Bristol Centaurus XVIIC. The Vought F4U was equiped with a 2,325 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W. The Do-335 had two engines, one in the front and one in the back.
 
It's AEROPLANE not Airplane!

The aeroplane was a combination invention of the British/French (with some help from the USA a bit later).
 
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