Hawker Typhoon Mk IB

From The Air Combat Wiki

Contents 1 Fighter Ace Screenshots 2 Fighter Ace Ratings 3 Fighter Ace Performance 4 Historical Statistics 5 Strengths 6 Weaknesses 7 History 8 Sources 9 See Also

Fighter Ace Screenshots

Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ
Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ

Fighter Ace Ratings

Durability: 3

Speed: 7

Maneuverability: 5

Firepower: 7

Climb Rate: 4

Ground Attack: 4

Fighter Ace Performance

Top Speeds						Climb Rates
	Sea Level	4921' 1500m	9843' 3000m	19685' 6000m	Best Speed	Best IAS	to 1000m	to 3000m	to 6000m
mph	355	372	374	401	405@ 18045'	186 mph	1:18	3:28	7:12
kph	571	599	601	645	652@ 5500m	300 kph

Historical Statistics

Service Date: September 1941

Primary Guns: 2x Hispano Mk.II 20mm cannon with 140 rpg in wings

Secondary Guns: 2x Hispano Mk.II 20mm cannon with 140 rpg in wings

Ordnance: 2x 535 lb (242 kg) or 2x 910 lb (413 kg) bombs or 2x 317 lb (144 kg) drop tanks or 8x 83 lb RP-3 A2G rockets under wings

Engine(s): 1x Napier Sabre IIA in-line rated for 2,180 hp at sea level

Int Fuel Capacity: 943 lbs (428 kg)

Ext Fuel Capacity: 634 lbs (288 kg)

Maximum Speeds: 374 mph (603 kph) at 5,500 ft (1,676 m), 405 mph (652 kph) at 18,000 ft (5,486 m)

Ceiling: 34,000 ft (10,363 m)

Loaded Weight: 11,400 lbs (5,171 kg)

Wing Area: 279 sq ft (26 sq m)

Wing Loading: 40.9 lbs/sq ft (198.9 kg/sq m)

Strengths

Speed: A top speed in excess of 400 mph is quite impressive for late 1941.

Ground Attack: The Tiffie was a legendary ground attack plane, capable of carrying either 2,000 lbs. of bombs or eight 3" rocket projectiles.

Firepower: The four 20mm Hispano cannons come with an ample supply of ammunition and pack a good punch against both planes and tanks.

Weaknesses

Handling: At slow speeds the Typhoon is quite a handful and a stall can flip the plane over on its back.

History

Even before the production Hurricane had taken its maiden flight, the brilliant Sydney Camm was hard at work on his next design. Having heard about the new 24-cylinder power-plants that were being developed, Camm decided to focus his new design around one of these humongous engines.

Two months after the first Hurricanes were delivered, the Air Ministry issued specification F.18/37, which called for exactly the type of plane that Camm was designing, using either the Napier Sabre H-block engine or Rolls-Royce's Vulture, of X-block design. The Vulture engine was the first to be delivered and the resulting airframe was dubbed the "Tornado". The Tornado featured a ventral radiator beneath the wings, however flight tests revealed that the design caused buffeting and compressibility at speeds in excess of 400 mph and so the radiator was moved to the "chin" position under the engine.

The Napier engine was finally delivered on December 30, 1939 and the first Typhoon took to the air on February 24, 1940. However, due to wartime production needs, development of the Typhoon was delayed while the factories concentrated on churning out Hurricanes. This proved to be a boon for the fighter because of the teething problems of the new Sabre engine.

Finally in October 1940 interest in the project resumed and production was scheduled for the following year. The first production Typhoon IA was flown on May 26, 1941 with its standard armament of twelve Browning .303 machine guns. However, production of this version was very limited and it was mainly used for training and as a test bed for new equipment.

The Typhoon IB was fitted with four 20mm Hispano cannon in place of the .303s and Squadron delivery commenced in September 1941. Unfortunately, the Napier engine was still having reliability problems and combined with a tail assembly that tended to come off in high-speed power dives, it received a reputation as a plane as dangerous to its pilot as it was to the enemy. Its poor low-speed handling characteristics only helped cement this reputation.

Despite these problems, operations continued and as the Napier become more reliable, operational losses dropped back down to that of a "normal" fighter plane. With the addition of underwing bomb racks and rocket rails, the Tiffie as she was dubbed by her pilots, finally came into her own. By D-Day, the RAF was fielding twenty-six squadrons of Typhoons, being particularly useful in disposing of at least 137 tanks around the Avranches area during the Battle of Normandy.

Sources

Green, William; Famous Fighters of the Second World War; Hannover House, Garden City, NY; 1960.

Scutts, Jerry; Tempest/Typhoon In Action; Squadron/Signal Publications; Carrollton, TX; 1990.

See Also

Fighter Ace Planes Inventory

Hawker Aircraft, Ltd.

Aircraft Manufacturers During World War II