Hawker Hurricane Mk1

Often regarded as 'the poor relation' to the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane was in fact, a very capable fighting machine and again in fact, was responsible for 60% of Luftwaffe losses during the Battle of Britain. As a fighter, the Hurricane was no match for the manoeuvrability of the Messerschmitt BF109 but if a skilled pilot could bring those eight guns to bear, more often than not, the opposition was doomed amid a hail of concentrated fire. Those thick profile wings provided an extremely stable gun platform from which to shoot too. As the Battle developed, Hurricanes were assigned the primary role of destroying the waves of enemy bombers heading for British shores - Spitfires taking over the role of fighter interception and hence the more glamorous image.

During the Battle, the Hawker Hurricane made 'aces' of many of the young pilots flying daily to defend the shores of Great Britain. It fought in all the theatres of WW2, inflicting a massive amount of damage not only to enemy forces in the air but on the ground and at sea.

Much of this success was owed to its incredibly durable construction, enabling the aircraft to sustain huge amounts of punishment and still keep going. Cannon rounds would pass harmlessly, straight through the fabric of the rear fuselage structure without exploding and substantial armour plating behind the seat would provide protection for the pilot from rear attack.

There is little doubt, that without this iconic aircraft's rugged durability and the dogged determination of the RAF's Hurricane pilots, Britain's 'Finest Hour' might have lasted a lot longer than it did.

In this tribute package you will find not only the Battle of Britain Mk1 but also the Tropicalised version with Vokes filter under the nose and a Sea Hurricane equipped with fully functional tail-hook for carrier landings.