RAE Hurricane

Royal Aircraft Establishment Aero Club · United Kingdom · first flew 1923 · light aircraft

The RAE Hurricane was a single-seat, single-engined light monoplane built by the Aero Club of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. It was designed for the 1923 Lympne Motor Glider Competition.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, tapered
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	Narrow, almost parallel fuselage tapering to a thin triangle in cross-section
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Shoulder-mounted cantilever wing, tapered mainly on the trailing edge with clipped tips
Narrow, almost parallel fuselage tapering to a thin triangle in cross-section
Flat-twin engine in the extreme nose with exposed cylinders

Look for a small single-seat shoulder-wing monoplane with a clipped, tapered wing and a slim fuselage. The engine cylinders project at wing level in the nose.

Specifications

The RAE Hurricane has a length of 5.38 m (18 ft).
It has a wingspan of 7.01 m (23 ft).
Its maximum speed is 137 km/h (85 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

The wooden, fabric-covered shoulder-wing monoplane probably first flew in the late summer of 1923. With its original 21.5 hp Douglas engine it was underpowered and unreliable at the Lympne trials.

Variants

Only one aircraft was built, registered G-EBHS. In 1924 it was re-engined with a 32 hp Bristol Cherub II and given a squarer tailplane and taller fin.

Where you'll see it

Re-engined, it raced at several meetings and won the light plane handicap at Lympne in August 1925. Its greatest success was first place in the 1925 Grosvenor Challenge Cup.

Related aircraft

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