Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat monoplane fighter designed by Sydney Camm and built by Hawker Aircraft, entering Royal Air Force service in 1937 as Britain's first monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit. Though overshadowed in popular memory by the more advanced Supermarine Spitfire, the more numerous Hurricane actually shot down a greater number of enemy aircraft than any other RAF type during the Battle of Britain in 1940, its sturdy, easily repaired fabric-and-tube construction proving well suited to the intense pace of that campaign. The Hurricane went on to serve in a wide range of roles beyond home defense, including as a ground-attack aircraft, a naval fighter launched from merchant ship catapults, and in the North African, Mediterranean and Far Eastern theaters, remaining in frontline service through much of the Second World War alongside its more famous stablemate.