Hawker Hurricane - The Mushroom Models Publications Book

Hawker Hurricane
Mushroom Models Yellow Series
© 2006
By Marek Rys – Color Illustrations by Jacek Jackiewicz
Reviewed by Ned Barnett
(Review Copy provided by Mushroom Models Publications)


“Another Hawker Hurricane book? Amazon lists 397 Hawker Hurricane books. Man, I need another Hurricane book like I need …”

That was my first thought when I received Mushroom Model’s latest release; seldom have I been more wrong. If I had to be limited to just one book on this critical transition-era fighter aircraft, I’d take this new volume hands-down. At least for modelers – though it’s useful for historians as well – this is far and away the best one-volume book on the Hawker Hurricane I’ve got in my collection.

The Hurricane was the first monoplane fighter in the RAF – as well as the first with a retractable landing gear (the Gladiator was the first with an enclosed cockpit) – as such, it is what I consider a “transition-era” fighter. Developmentally, this puts the Hurricane on a par with the Seversky P-35 and Curtiss P-36, the Polikarpov I-16 and the fixed-gear fighters by Mitsubishi and Nakajima – yet the Hurricane outperformed and outlasted all of them. Born in 1935, the Hurricane was the most numerous and effective RAF fighter in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 – and this remarkably long-lived fighter remained operational throughout the war and, in one rocket-equipped squadron flying in the Eastern Med, until 1947.

During the dozen years the Hurricane saw operational service, this remarkable aircraft went through three major designs – Mk. I, Mk. II and Mk. IV – along with literally dozens of minor variations. This book covers most, if not all of these variations, including foreign modifications that include a Yugoslav-built Daimler-Benz powered Hurricane and a handful of Soviet modifications – from re-weaponed combat machines to two-seat UTI Hurricanes – that were news to me. Reading through the book and studying the detailed 1/72nd scale line drawings of these variations, I was inspired to start off modeling a whole series of Hurricane conversions. For a modeler, it doesn’t get much better than that.

In addition to roughly 100 pages of text that include detailed drawings and contemporary black-and-white operational photos, this new Mushroom Models Hawker Hurricane book has 30 pages of side-view color profiles – the Luftwaffe- and Japanese-marked Hurricanes were especially interesting. The book also has 74 pages of color photos – primarily “walk-around” and detailed construction, cockpit, engine compartment and landing gear photos – of surviving flight-capable and museum Hurricanes. Photos of Sea Hurricanes show useful details of catapult spools, arresting gear and other navalized features, sure to be useful to FAA modelers.

The 70 pages of narrative text, which focuses on construction and development, rather than operational service, doesn’t chart a lot of new territory – for a plane as well-covered as the Hurricane that would be difficult – but what is covered is well-presented and interesting. The story of the Hurricane’s development holds together well, and in addition to recapping well-known information about this remarkable fighter, there are some intriguing new bits of information, such as plans to re-engine the Hurricane with Rolls-Royce Griffon and Bristol Hercules engines – sure to appeal to the “what-if” modelers.

For modelers and for those who are interested in the development of one of the most successful of the transition-era fighter aircraft, Mushroom Models’ new Hawker Hurricane title is a useful bargain and strongly recommende