Hawker Tempest Fighter Plane at the RAF Museum

Can you believe the Hawker Tempest could reach speeds of over 460 mph at over 24,000 feet?

The Tempest was a fighter plane built around a powerful engine – the 2,500 hp Napier Sabre IV. Developed from the Typhoon, the Tempest was designed to solve a few performance issues encountered with the Typhoon and the first aircraft took to the skies on 2nd September 1942, just 6 months before the flight of Britain’s first operational jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor.

Now I have a few difficulties telling the Tempest and the Typhoon apart, so I compared the two and spotted a few differences. The Tempest has as the addition of a more aerodynamic-looking dorsal fin and is fitted with an all-round, Perspex canopy. It also features a thinner wing and the wingtips have a slightly clipped appearance.

Without any external armament, the Tempest was quick enough to counter the V1 flying bomb threat and they’re credited with shooting-down over 600. The type also took part in ground support attacks throughout Operation Market Garden and was used extensively to disrupt the German transport infrastructure, by attacking trains at low level. So adept was the Tempest’s performance, that it was a worthy adversary of the deadly Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

The Tempest could be fitted with a wide range of weapons such as bombs, heavy cannons and rockets.

Later versions of the Tempest would be powered by the Bristol Centaurus engine. Following the end of the Second World War a number of squadrons operated the type in West Germany until 1949. They also saw service in both the Indian and Pakistani Air Forces, where they remained in service until the year Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, in 1953.