Hawker Typhoon Profiles and Logos

Profiles and Logos

The Hawker Typhoon, known as the Tiffy in the RAF was a single seat fighter-bomber. The Typhoon was the intended replacement for the Hawker Hurricane and the design of the Typhoon started before the Hurricane entered service.

The first flight of the aircraft was on 24 February 1940 but the development had many issues with the prototype having a structural failure at the join between the forward fuselage and the tail unit, just behind the cockpit but the pilot managed to land the aircraft. When the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 entered service with the Luftwaffe the only aircraft that could match it was the Typhoon so the aircraft were rushed into service with 56 and 609 Squadrons in late 1941 but many aircraft were lost dot due to enemy action. When test flight led to a structural failure and crash it was discovered the the tail was liable to flutter and structural failure at the fuselage to fin junction. A modification was introduced to strengthen this area. The aircraft matured and became more reliable, moving to the ground attack role in September 1942 when the aircraft were fitted with 500lb bombs and from September 1943 rockets fitted under the wings.

The aircraft was withdrawn from RAF use by October 1945.