Airfix Hawker Tempest Mk.V Post War

Hawker Tempest V: A Pinnacle of Second World War Aircraft Design

The Hawker Tempest V is an aircraft that must be considered one of the finest aeroplanes of the Second World War. Its design lineage can be traced back to the Hurricane fighters, which proved so decisive during the Battle of Britain only two years earlier. This aircraft represents the absolute zenith of piston engined fighter design.

Design and Development

When accomplished designer Sydney Camm was looking to produce his 'Super Hurricane' replacement for the aviation saviour of the Battle of Britain, the aircraft he surely had in mind was the Tempest V. The Tempest is often confused with its predecessor in Royal Air Force service, the Typhoon, even though the two are very different aeroplanes.

The original fighter replacement for the Hawker Hurricane was the Typhoon, an aircraft which attempted to combine the most powerful piston engine available at the time with a small, yet strong and heavily armed airframe. However, the Typhoon would eventually find its aviation niche as a hard-hitting ground attack aircraft, particularly during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The Birth of the Tempest

Aware that their Typhoon had great potential but was in need of improvement, the Hawker design team started work on a new fighter project. This new aircraft was initially referred to as the Typhoon Mark II, but this was changed to Tempest as the prototype aircraft's first flight approached. The new Hawker Tempest featured a newly designed laminar flow wing, which was much thinner than the wing used on its predecessor and allowed the new fighter to slip through the air at incredible speed.

Service and Performance

The Hawker Tempest V entered Royal Air Force service in early 1944. In advance of the D-day landings, Tempests were being used in a similar ground attack role to the one being flown so effectively by Typhoon squadrons. However, the Tempest was much more suited to air combat operations mid-mission, possessing significantly greater range than the Typhoon.

As the fastest Allied fighter at low and medium altitudes, Tempest squadrons were held back for home defence duties in the weeks which followed the successful D-day landings, due to the onslaught of a sinister new weapon, the V-1 'Doodlebug' pulse jet flying bomb. The Tempest proved to be an excellent V-1 killer, using the speed of the fighter, effectiveness of its guns and bravery of its pilots to destroy large numbers of these terrifying weapons before they could wreak their havoc on British towns and cities.

With the V-1 threat diminishing, the RAF's Tempest V squadrons were free to embark on aggressive seek and destroy missions into occupied Europe, using the speed, range and firepower of their latest fighter to great effect. The Tempest began to show that it was undoubtedly one of the most capable fighting aeroplanes in the world.

There is no doubt that the Hawker Tempest V was a real brute of an aeroplane, fast, heavily armed and possessing performance which could better any fighter the Luftwaffe had in service. Although appearing relatively late in WWII, the Tempest V still takes its place as one of the most effective piston engined fighters of the Second World War and was perhaps the 'Super Hurricane' designer Sydney Camm had always envisaged developing.