World War II Database

The Typhoon fighters were designed as the replacement for the Hawker Hurricanes. The design began in Mar 1937 by Sidney Camm. It received the confirmation to continue in Jan 1938 when the design matched what the British Air Ministry was requesting in the next generation of fighters. The first fighter of this design took flight in Oct 1939 with a Rolls-Royce engine; it immediately impressed the Royal Air Force, but the first batch of these fighters delivered was full of problems. The original designation for these new fighters was Tornado, and they suffered compression effects and a slow climb performance. The next batch, delivered in Feb 1940, named Typhoon, suffered from a damaging engine vibration problem. The design was cancelled by the RAF in May 1940, but in Oct 1940 the demand for aircraft gave this design another chance. In early 1941 the first Typhoon fighters rolled off the production line (actually, their design was of the Tornado). The first few fighters were rushed to the front lines to dogfight with the German Fw 190 fighters, and they performed poorly; their tails sometimes broke off when pulling out of dives. Subsequent Typhoon fighters were equipped with strengthening plates at key locations to remedy this problem. Another problem these production Typhoon fighters suffered was the leak of exhaust fumes into the cockpit, which required the pilots to always use oxygen. Despite the problems, the Typhoon design continued to be in production due to the demands of the war.

Robert Rogge recalled seeing Typhoon fighters overhead as he fought in the Canadian Army in Normandy:

By 1943, most of the production problems with the Typhoon fighters were worked out of the system, and new fighter-bomber variants were being released. Some of the newly equipped fighter-bombers performed superbly in the landing phase of the Normandy Campaign, destroying over 100 German vehicles and armor and disrupted German reinforcements. In the following months, hundreds of Typhoon fighters formed the backbone of the 2nd Tactical Air Force and operated around the clock from rough forward airfields against German ground forces.

Sources: Aircraft of the Second World War, Fearsome Battle, Wikipedia.

SPECIFICATIONS

1B

Machinery	One Napier Sabre II 24-cylinder flat-H liquid-cooled engine rated at 2,180hp
Armament	4x20mm Hispano cannons, optional 8 rockets or 2x227kg bombs
Span	9.99 m
Length	9.73 m
Height	4.66 m
Weight, Empty	3,992 kg
Weight, Loaded	6,010 kg
Speed, Maximum	664 km/h
Service Ceiling	10,730 m
Range, Normal	821 km
Range, Maximum	1,577 km

Photographs

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