I just finished reading Hurricane Combat: The Nine Lives of a Fighter Pilot, by K. W. Mackenzie. William Kimber & Co Ltd (1987). The author, Wing Commander K. W. Mackenzie flew both types and shares his impressions:
The next day I was introduced to the Hurricane. This was brief and to the point, with a short cockpit check on the operations of the retractable undercarriage and flaps in one of the aircraft on trestles in a hangar. It was in fact an updated Hind, Hart or Fury without the top wing, with a closed cockpit and retractable undercarrieage and more powerful Rolls engine. A fully grown up monoplane Hawker, just asking to be used.
Before flying the Hurricane we were given a quick check flight in Harvard I. My instructor was a Flying Officer Jackman; this was to accustoms us to the lack of forward vision on the apporach and round out and demonstrate a "fighter"circuit and the use and effect of flaps and retractable undercarriage.
After two short flights I was briefed for my first Hurricane solo. It was glorious. Here was an aircraft that could be danced in the air, flown to the limit, tight-circuited and side-slipped like a Hind or Hart, inspiring great confidence and encouraging the pilot to become as one with it. Responsive, strong, stable and forgiving, except for spinning, which required considerable height in hand for recovery.
We flew intensively; formation, height climbs, aerobatics, experimenting with the tightest possible turns ... 'greying out', recovering, sustaining the turn until 'blacking out'; learning to tighten the stomach muscles, tensing up, to increase one's 'black out' threshold. We practised pairs dog fights, formation aerobatics, air firing, sighting, cine-gun pairs flying, getting the feel of the guns, spot landings, night flying and instrument flying. Flying the aircraft to the limit; the only way to become master of it, as one with it. It was exhilarating and the average of three sorties a day never seemed enough.
Using the guns showed us what a stable gun platform the Hurricane was, but those of us with a firearms' background immediately wondered about the adequacy and effectiveness of the 8 × .303 calibre machine guns, small bore short range weapons with no real weight of metal, no hitting power. We felt that spot harmonisation at, say, 250 yards, would be more effective than the standard setting. However, being new at the game, we were a voice crying in the wilderness; we had to accept it, but our misgivings were proved to be right later in squadrons in the Battle.
The general lack of experience in shooting, using the guns, using the aircraft as a weapon and the inadequacy of the .303, except at close range, was to be the greatest shortcoming in Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. An additional factor was that 'limit flying' had not been introduced or taught before the war: that is, getting the maximum performance out of an aircraft compatible with the configuration and loading at the time. In short, using it to the absolute maximum of its capability, taking it to the limit of its construction and flying capabilities and those of the pilot himself. Thus many pilots, including instructors, did not get the best results from their aircraft or weapons. This aspect of flying has, of course, been introduced to good effect worldwide since the war.
Mess life at Sutton Bridge was lively as, between flying such a magnificent new aeroplane, men were comparing experiences,
30-31
At this time we heard that we were going to re-equip with some Spitfire Mk 1's, and possibly some Mk 2's from Exeter, secondhand really, but no matter, they were to be collected as soon as possible. It was, however, with some mixed feelings that I contemplated losing the faithful Hurricanes. The Mk 1, with the constant-speed propeller, was a wonderful fighting aircraft with an exceptional combination of rugged dependability, stability and ease of control.
A stable gun platform with absolutely viceless flying characteristics, a forgiving aeroplane. In the hands of a capable pilot it was more than a match for the Bf109. Its only shortcoming, which applied to the Spitfire too, was the inadequacy of the .303 calibre machine guns even though there were eight of them. We, certainly I, would be sorry to see them go, they had served us well and saved us many lives
95
With time to spare, I took a Hurricane down to Exeter on 24th April to look the Spitfires over and learn the cockpit - just like a Hurricane in most respects, with a few controls different and in different positions, rather more cramped, less forward view on the ground, smaller, but one seemed to be "more part of it" in consequence.
...
Lovely to fly, tricky to taxi, lighter in every respect, better acceleration and climb, certainly not such a roomy cockpit and some of the ancillary controls not well positioned, but promising. The main snag seemed to be the abnormally heavy aileron control above around 250 knots; most of them still had the fabric ailerons unfortunately. They were in fact a fair b-; faster than the Hurricanes they were good for aerobatics, stable, forgiving, capable of being side-slipped and precision-landed but the narrow undercarriage called for more care than the Hurricane. Forward visibility made fast taxiing difficult and they over-heated quicker on the ground having smaller area radiators. Flick maneouvres were out, whereas the Hurricane was good for flick rolls down to 400 feet.
96
I flew both machines and liked them both, but preferred the Hurricane, as mentioned previously, for its ruggedness, stability and relatively light controls with viceless flying characteristics. It could take anything that you could give it and out turn anything flying at the time; well flown, a match for anything.
The Spitfire was smaller, lighter and slightly superior in all-round performance, but suffered from incompatibly stiff aileron controls above 250 knots. Both suffered from having normal carburrettored engines versus the German patrol injection system, much to our initial disadvantage when diving after them.
100
The comment on the roll rate is interesting. I did not expect Hurricane to be much better in this regard.
