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- 0001-05-26 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 88.0 (dbd:second)
- Another thing we did was to devise a manoeuvre which was aimed at getting us out of a difficult corner if we ever got into one. This may sound very extraordinary, probably, to practising pilots today, but it consisted of putting everything into the left hand front corner of the cockpit. If you saw a 109 on your tail, and it hadn't shot you down at that point, you put on full throttle, fine pitch, full left rudder, full left stick and full forward stick. This resulted in a horrible manoeuvre which was, in fact, a negative g spiral dive. But you would come out of the bottom with no 109 on your tail and your aeroplane intact. (en)
- The 109 was faster, had a better climb and much better altitude performance, which constantly enabled it to attack with the advantage of height but the old 'Hurri' provided some considerable comfort in its ruggedness and extreme manoeuvrability. I certainly had the feeling that with this ruggedness and manoeuvrability no one could get me as long as I could see him coming (en)
- Then, with tail trimmer set, throttle and mixture lever fully forward... and puffs of grey exhaust smoke soon clearing at maximum r.p.m. came the surprise! There was no sudden surge of acceleration, but with a thunderous roar from the exhausts just ahead on either side of the windscreen, only a steady increase in speed... In retrospect that first Hurricane sortie was a moment of elation, but also of relief. Apart from the new scale of speeds that the pilot had to adapt to, the Hurricane had all the qualities of its stable, secure biplane predecessor the Hart, but enhanced by livelier controls, greater precision and all this performance. (en)
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_Squadron_RAF_with_one_of_their_Hawker_Hurricanes,_October_1940._CH1535.jpg){kind=link}
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