Hawker Sea Hurricane
Catapulted from merchant ships and flown from carriers to guard the convoys · In service 1941
The Sea Hurricane began as an emergency answer to German long-range aircraft shadowing Atlantic convoys. The Mk IA was a Mk I modified by General Aircraft for launching by rocket catapult from Catapult Armed Merchant (CAM) ships; with no deck to return to, the pilot had to reach land or bail out or ditch beside the convoy. The first Sea Hurricane IA kill, a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, was scored on 2 August 1941.
The Mk IB added an arrester hook for carrier operations. Around 300 were converted, operating from HMS Furious from July 1941 and later from merchant aircraft carriers; the type's first kill, a Dornier Do 18 flying boat, came on 31 July 1941. The four-cannon Mk IC and about 60 new-build Mk IICs with the Merlin XX followed.
Sea Hurricanes achieved an impressive kill-to-loss ratio defending the Malta convoys; during Operation Pedestal in August 1942 Lt R. J. Cork was credited with five victories. The Shuttleworth Collection's Canadian-built Sea Hurricane IB Z7015 is the only airworthy example.
