This is a companion painting to "Spitfire 1940" and "Bf109 1940", and it shows the RAF's Hurricane fighter.

The Hurricane was the most important fighter that Fighter Command possessed in that summer of 1940. There were twice as many Hurricanes available as there were Spitfires, and the Hurricane was easier to fly, was tougher, a better gun platform and could turn more tightly than the Spitfire.

That said, the Hurricane was an evolutionary dead-end, using as it did, obsolete technologies that harked back to the biplane era. However, at that time, it was right for the job and it did that job extremely well, as every Hurricane pilot testified.


The painting shows Hurricane Mk1 GN A, 249 Squadron, flown by F/L JB Nicolson VC from  Boscombe Down in August 1940.