Lets talk Hurricanes.

[Rich46yo]

Its no secret the Hurricane won the BOB. What made it so good in real life? Why isn't it remembered better?

Was it tactics? Pilot skill?. Or was it just to damn stubborn to be killed? It should be the iconic fighter of the BOB, the one airplane that saved Democracy to fight another day. Instead its hardly remembered, dang shame.

This was no light weight opponent it faced but the pride of the FatherLand, at the height of morale in world class machines. Yet the Hurricane triumphed.

A remarkable period of History.

[GScholz]

The Spitfire allowed the Hurricane to win the BoB by taking on the 109. Sort of like later in the war the 109 allowed the 190 to slaughter Allied bombers by taking on the 47/51.

[Wmaker]

Its no secret the Hurricane won the BOB. What made it so good in real life? Why isn't it remembered better?

Because of BoB, it is actually remembered very well. Based on reading its performance and handling characteristics I actually consider it one of the most over rated combat aircraft of WWII...which is largely due to BoB.

Mark Hanna for example considered that he'd be better off with an I-16 in a combat situation. Of course this comment of his somewhat ignores range and altitude performance of the engine IMO. But I think it still is something that someone with casual knowledge of WWII aircraft would be surprised to hear.

[GScholz]

Let's not rag too hard on the poor Hurri... Yes, the Spitfire and Bf 109 were the cutting edge of fighter technology in 1940, but the Hurricane was easily one of the best second line fighters of the war. Its performance was on par or better than the front line fighters of all other nations except Germany and Britain at the time of the BoB.

Most people just don't realize how far advanced the Spitfire and 109 was.

[bozon]

Both the media and the public tend to pick one hero and focus on that. Sometimes it is not even the plane that did most of the work - just the more shiny one. I mean look at the Beaufighter - it served the entire war from start to finish. After the LW switched to night bombing of Britain the Beau was the best night fighter to hold them off till the arrival of the mosquito. It served as a ground pounder in all combat theaters and was also a staple of coastal command anti shipping campaign.
Who remembers the Beau today?

And what about the mosquito that replaced the Beau on most of its roles and then added some. The best allied night fighter, the best long range photorecce, a revolutionary bomber. A plane whose main complaint about was that "there never seem to be enough of them".

American rides? The P47 and F6F that did most of the work against the toughest odds and had their thunder stolen from them by the P51 and F4U.

This is how fame works. It tends to get concentrated.

[glzsqd]

F4U stole the F6Fs thunder?  I don't know about that, I knew what a Hellcat was long before I found out the F4U existed.

[danny76]

Hurricane is a beauty, has been my favourite since I was knee high. Although the intake version seems to have become strangely and suddenly useless

[darkzking]

Hurricane > 109s just ask Anarchy 

[Gman]

IMO I think it was how the RAF used the Hurricane in conjunction with the Spitfire, using radar/intel/etc to try and match the Spitfire against fighters and fighter bombers when possible, and have the Hurricanes hit the slower aircraft.  I suppose this can be overstated, as I'm sure fighter command sent whatever they had a/c wise to intercept whatever was needed, and couldn't always pick and choose what fought what and where, but I do know this was the preferred match up.

I think the ruggedness of the Hurricane played a major part of its success against both fighters and bombers.  I've also read that the way the .303 guns were grouped closely together provided a more dense pattern of bullets at the ranges they were shooting at the bombers with the Hurricane, but again, due to the RAF's policy regarding harmonization and convergence, and that many squads apparently "did their own thing" in this regard, it's likely hard to say what kind of effect this had.  I know I've seen it come up in various books and documentaries regarding the Spit's spread out armament, and the Hurricane's focused and tightly grouped guns.  I personally don't know, just find it an interesting subject regarding the differences between the two primary British fighters, and an important one, since the guns are really the bottom line of any fighter when it comes right down to it, since they are what causes the enemy to go down after all the other stuff like aircraft performance and the like.

Like the OP said, I'm sure British/RAF tenacity played a role with both British fighter types vs the Luftwaffe.  Fighting over "home turf" in friendly radar cover can't be overstated either IMO, and obviously had an equal impact on both Spit and Hurricane.  

IMO the major factors in the Hurricane's success were its ruggedness, the more simple materials allowing easier repair and maintenance, it's ability to out turn Luftwaffe fighters that in the heat of the moment decided to turn fight with it, it's more focused firepower, a noteworthy subject due to the very limited firepower of the .303 round - every little bit makes a huge difference type of idea.  IMO it was sort of the dark horse of the Battle of Britain, that one factor that ended up surprisingly punching well above its weight class versus a much vaunted opponent.  

[glzsqd]

Hurri was also more available than the spitfire during BoB.

[Bruv119]

Hurricanes are awesome,  rugged, reliable and unforgiving to any Bosch Bomber pilot.   

A stretch to say it isn't remembered well, every airshow I go to has at least one plucky Hurricane still showing.     

[MiloMorai]

The Hurrie also was one of the first fighter-bombers and had a 40mm under each wings for tank busting.

[Rich46yo]

The Spitfire allowed the Hurricane to win the BoB by taking on the 109. Sort of like later in the war the 109 allowed the 190 to slaughter Allied bombers by taking on the 47/51.

Except that for every 1 Spit there were at least 3 or 4 Hurri's in the BOB. Hurri's mixed it up with 109's all the time.

Fact is it was very durable and heavily armed fighter fighting on its own ground. Hurri's most Def held their own against 109's and they chewed up Stukas while performing well against Bombers. The Hurricane was a very sound design that passed all tests.

[GScholz]

I'm afraid the Hurries didn't hold their own against the 109E. They didn't even hold their own against the 110C in an even fight. They simply didn't have the speed to compete in 1940-41.

[BaldEagl]

There were simply more Hurricane's available than there were Spitfires.  Had there been more Spits the Hurris may never have seen combat.