Still a few hours left to vote for best fighter of 1939, but here is the next poll. Choose the fighter you think was the best in 1940. Again, the options are chosen from fighters in service by 1940, not from the year of first flight.
The hurricane had more superior firepower and possibly a more pwerful engine. The spitfire was faster and more manueverable that the Hurricane.
Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but they had the same armament and the same engine... The Spit's guns were arranged less effectively than the Hurri, so a bonus to the Hurri there. The Spit got a higher performance out of its engine, so a bonus to the Spit there.
My (un)trustworthy "Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II" says that Hurricane IIb was armed with 12 mg's. But, apparently at the same time, you could get cannon armed Spitfire...
The Spitfire version concerned here has 2 (Reliable!) 20mm Hispanos and 4 .303s. The Hurricane MKIIs of this period had not yet recieved the 12 .303 or 4 20mm armament (Both appeared for the first times in 1941 I believe), so in every practical respect except turning circle the Spitfire MkIIB is superior to the Hurricane MkIIA. IIRC The differing Spitfire wing armaments throughout the war were: "A" - 8 x .303s "B" - 2 x 20mm, 4 x .303s "E" - 2 x 20mm, 2 x .50 "C" introduced the universal wing, but gun wise was the same as "B", and there was also the very late war 4 x 20mms, not sure what if anything "D" was. And Hurricanes also IIRC were: "A" - 8 x .303s "B" - 12 x .303s "C" - 4 x 20mm "D" - 2 x .303s (I think), 2 x 40mm or bombs In all fairness the Spitfire MkIA is probably more representative of 1940, since the MkIIs didn't appear until very late in the year, but of the options I believe the MkIIB is the better aircraft. Apologees for any errors as this is purely going from memory.
I think I have that game. Don't remember the hurri even being mentioned but I haven't watched the movies (or even played the game) in a while.
I was always under the impression that the hurricane had Hispano cannons and had a different engine, which is why they were used more against bombers than spitfires.
Nope not initially anyway. Both were powered by Merlins, and during the BoB both largely had the 8 x .303 fit, there were a few Spitfire MkIBs but they were mostly refitted to A standard due to reliability issues, and I think one cannon armed Hurri was trialled. The difference in the two "A"s was that the Hurricane's guns were much more closely packed together which led to much more concentrated fire, plus it's lower overall performance meant it was better suited to engaging the slower bombers than the faster and more nimble fighters.
hurri pilots were told if encountering 109s ,dont dive ,dont climb ,dont loop ...turn turn turn its your only hope..