Does the Hurricane catch fire?

[MB_Avro_UK]

But try flying the Hurricane yourself. It NEVER catches fire.

Yes, I have had engine damage, pilot wounding and death. And also collision damage. But never when flying the Hurricane, has it burned.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

[topgum]

Originally Posted by MB_Avro_UK

But try flying the Hurricane yourself. It NEVER catches fire.

Yes, I have had engine damage, pilot wounding and death. And also collision damage. But never when flying the Hurricane, has it burned.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

In deed, for instances I can't remember that I went down in a burning Hurricane, shot down by an enemy. So I had a look in my screenshot-folder. It is also rare in other fighters, so I can only show two 109 in flames (different situations), one in a spit.
B109 innen brennend.jpg
Bf 109 innen_brennender flügel.jpg
Spit innen Totalschaden.jpg
Except from the infernal ablazing Hurricane external screenshot which I took this afternoon, there's nothing which fits in that criteria. But i couldn't make a screenie from inside because I was dead within seconds. But you have to blow up one of those large storage tanks, though. The smaller ones have just no impact, neither to a Hurri

[He111]

Talking of catching fire, i always thought having your main tank inFRONT of the pilot gave it some protection from damage, where as the 109 had it behind the pilot, right in harms way. You hear stores of 109's just exploding when hit, i wonder if that is the reason ?

.

[kendo65]

This is FIRE!

Can't remember when this was posted, but i think those flames have been turned off for a long time. Here's hoping we get this and more back again

edit: date is in the image name 22nd Feb 2011

[kendo65]

Three more amazing shots from the archives (only one Hurri, and not even on fire )

[*Buzzsaw*]

Salute

Let's remember a number of things when people quote anecdotes from the Russian front from Finnish pilots:

1) The Hurricanes used by the Soviets were unable to use maximum boost because of the poor Soviet fuel, the +12 boost we might see in the West was only possible because of 100 octane fuel, something not available to the Soviets in 1942-43 when the Hurris were in service with the VVS. In addition, many of the Hurris sent to the Soviets were in well used condition, after service in N Africa or Britain.

2) Because of the poor Hurricane performance on Soviet fuel, in an effort to get more speed, the Soviet pilots typically removed much of the armour plating on these aircraft, both behind the pilot and the armour between the fuselage tank and cockpit and above the tank. For that reason, the Soviet Hurricanes were far more prone to catching fire.

It is a fact that the early production models of dual pitch Hurri used in the pre-BoB phases and to a limited degree in the actual battle itself were not equipped with the armouring on the fuel tank, some used in France did not have the back of seat pilot armour either. These were quite a bit more likely to catch fire. Whether or not the game models these versions without the armour is open to question.

As has been mentioned, the issue of the fuselage tank catching fire as well as the problem of lack of pilot armour came to the attention of Dowding and he took steps to make sure these problems were rectified.

HOWEVER:

In reality, ALL plane engines are prone to catching fire given incendiary AP bullets in contact with oil and fuel, doesn't matter what the make or nationality. The typical smoke you see in a game when a plane's engine has been hit IS fire. In reality the only question was how long it was going to take before it became a raging inferno. The game seems to be a little more relaxed in the tendency for small fires to accelerate. It seems damage either causes a major fire or it doesn't. There doesn't seem to be any modelling which would allow small fires to grow.

[SQB]

I'm seeing some great screenshots here.. why are you guys not posting to the screenshots thread!?

[NZtyphoon]

Originally Posted by He111

Talking of catching fire, i always thought having your main tank inFRONT of the pilot gave it some protection from damage, where as the 109 had it behind the pilot, right in harms way. You hear stores of 109's just exploding when hit, i wonder if that is the reason ?

.

The big problem with the tank in front of the cockpit on the Hurricane was that it, and the pilot, were almost completely unprotected -a single stray bullet, let alone several aimed ones, piercing the unprotected half-full tank meant that there was a good chance that the fuel would burn right through the instrument panel and flare into the pilot's face and chest "with blowtorch intensity" (Stephan Bungay): as soon as Dowding found out how many Hurricane pilots were being badly burned he demanded a layer of fire-resistant "Linatex", which was wrapped over the tank, and a proper fireproof bulkhead between the tank and the instrument panel - the former was done very quickly, the latter didn't happen until the Mk IIs emerged.

[dflion]

I took this grab as the Hurricane attacked the Heinkel, suddenly it dramatically exploded and then caught fire. The Heinkel was badly damaged and later lost an engine.
DFLion

[MB_Avro_UK]

Originally Posted by topgum

In deed, for instances I can't remember that I went down in a burning Hurricane, shot down by an enemy. So I had a look in my screenshot-folder. It is also rare in other fighters, so I can only show two 109 in flames (different situations), one in a spit.
Attachment 9982
Attachment 9983
Attachment 9984
Except from the infernal ablazing Hurricane external screenshot which I took this afternoon, there's nothing which fits in that criteria. But i couldn't make a screenie from inside because I was dead within seconds. But you have to blow up one of those large storage tanks, though. The smaller ones have just no impact, neither to a Hurri

Thanks for the screenie of the Hurricane on fire from the pilot's view. In all my hours in the Hurricane (100's), I have never seen a similar view. Maybe I'm just lucky?

Best Regards,
MB_Avro,