The Hawker Tempest was a RAF fighter aircraft of World War II, an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon and one of the most powerful fighters used in the war.
While Hawker and the RAF were struggling to turn the Typhoon into a useful aircraft, Hawker's Sidney Camm and his team were rethinking the design. The Typhoon's thick, rugged wing was partly to blame for performance problems, and as far back as March 1940 engineers had been investigating the new "laminar flow" wing, which the Americans had implemented in the P-51 Mustang.
Design
The Tempest featured a thinner, semi-elliptical wing with a laminar flow profile, providing much better high-speed performance than the Typhoon. The fuselage was lengthened and the radiator relocated. The result was one of the fastest and most effective low-altitude fighters of the war.
Operational Service
The Tempest V entered service in early 1944 and quickly proved itself as an exceptional fighter. It was particularly effective against the V-1 flying bombs, destroying 638 of the weapons — more than any other aircraft type. Tempests also excelled in the ground attack role during the final campaigns in Northwest Europe.
Variants
- Tempest V — Napier Sabre engine, main production variant
- Tempest II — Bristol Centaurus radial engine
- Tempest VI — Napier Sabre V engine, tropical variant