Hawker Typhoon

British fighter-bomber Hawker Typhoon Mk 1B
History, development, service, specifications, statistics, pictures, video and 3D model.

Hawker Typhoon Mk 1B
Type: British fighter-bomber.

History:

The Hawker Typhoon’s early life was almost total disaster. Though the concept of so big and powerful a combat aircraft was bold and significant, expressed in Specification F.18/37, the Griffon and Centaurus engines were ignored and reliance was placed on the complex and untried Vulture and Sabre. The former powered the R-type fighter, later named Tornado, which ground to a halt with abandonment of the Vulture in early 1941.
The N-type (Napier), named Hawker Typhoon, was held back six months by the desperate need for Hawker Hurricanes. Eventually, after most painful development, production began at Gloster Aircraft in 1941 and Nos 56 and 609 Squadrons at Duxford began to re-equip with the big bluff-looking machine in September of that year.

But the Sabre was unreliable, rate of climb and performance at height were disappointing and the rear fuselage persisted in coming apart.
There was much talk of scrapping the program, but, fortunately for the Allies, the snags were gradually overcome. In November 1942 the Hawker Typhoon suddenly sprang to favor by demonstrating it could catch and destroy the fastest fighter-bombers, like the Focke Wulf Fw 190, in the Luftwaffe which were making low-level hit-and-run raids.

In 1943 ‘Tiffy’ squadrons shot-up and blasted everything that moved in northern France and the Low Countries, and in the summer of 1944 the hundreds of Typhoons – by now thoroughly proven and capable of round-the-clock operation from rough forward strips – formed the backbone of 2nd Tactical Air Force attack strength, sending millions of cannon shells, rockets and heavy bombs into German ground forces and in a single day knocking out 175 tanks in the Falaise gap.

Gloster built 3,315 of the 3,330 Typhoons, the final 3,000-odd having a clear bubble hood instead of a heavy-framed cockpit with a car-type door on each side.

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Animated 3D model Hawker Typhoon Mk 1B

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Specifications Hawker Typhoon Mk 1B

Specifications:

Armament:

Service statistics:

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Video from the action with Hawker Typhoon in video games

Mission with Hawker Typhoon and other British vehicles in a ‘Realistic Ground Battle’ of the free2play game War Thunder:

Who does not know the F2P tank and plane war game War Thunder can download it from here for free:

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References and literature

Combat Aircraft of World War II (Bill Gunston)
Technik und Einsatz der Kampfflugzeuge vom 1. Weltkrieg bis heute (Ian Parsons)
Das große Buch der Luftkämpfe (Ian Parsons)
Luftkrieg (Piekalkiewicz)
Flugzeuge des 2. Weltkrieges (Andrew Kershaw)
Kampfflugzeuge (Bill Gunston)
Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation, Volume I – IIIB (Nigel Askey)
The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II (Chris Bishop)
Krieg der Panzer (Piekalkiewicz)
Typhoon/Tempest in action (Jerry Scutts)

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