name. Famous for its untiring support of allied forces during the Normandy campaign, rocket firing Typhoons employed by the 2nd Tactical Air Force were a symbol of dread to many a German soldier. However, perhaps less well known are the less than stellar origins of the Typhoon. In fact, it would perhaps be fair to say that it began its service life as nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.



The Hawker team began work on the Typhoon in 1937, knowing full well that the then new Hurricane would still need a replacement at some point. The prediction proved to be accurate – in January 1938 the British Air Ministry issued specification F.18/37, calling for a replacement for the Hurricane and Spitfire which should be armed with twelve machine gunsand have a top speed in excess of 400 mph. The two engines available were the Rolls-Royce Vulture and the Napier Sabre, both predicted to deliver some 2000 hp; Hawker developed two prototype lines to coincide with the two engines. The Hawker Tornado would be powered by the Vulture whilst the Hawker Typhoon would be fitted with the Sabre.



Both engines suffered significant problems during the development phase and Rolls-Royce, already snowed under with both the production and the development of the Merlin, opted to abandon the Vulture, despite orders for 500 Tornadoes having already been placed following the successful first flight of the prototype. This left Napier with the Sabre powered Typhoon project, which first took to the skies on February 24th, 1940. Testing continued until May 1940,