Sweden's Radial Hurricanes

**Spinners** · September 13, 2023

Hawker Hurricane Mk.III - F 9 Säve, Flygvapnet, 1941

The Hawker Hurricane entered service with the Royal Air Force at the end of 1937 when No.111 Squadron re-equipped with the type at RAF Northolt. By late 1938 the production capacity for Hurricanes at the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft group of companies was sufficient not only to meet the needs of the RAF's ambitious expansion scheme but also to allow exports to Yugoslavia, South Africa, Romania, Persia, Belgium, Poland and Turkey. Belgium and Yugoslavia had already negotiated production licences and with war clouds looming Sweden soon followed suit selecting the Hurricane as a replacement for the obsolete Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters used by the Flygvapnet for air defence. In August 1939 the Swedish government obtained a production licence for 120 Hurricanes but with Saab running at full capacity building Saab 17 and Saab 18 bombers, a new firm and factory was commissioned to licence-build Hurricane airframes powered by Merlin engines supplied by the British government under a seperate contract. The new company was called Flygförvaltningens Flygverkstad i Stockholm (FFVS) and was headed up by the talented Bo Lundberg.

However, there was an urgent demand for Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for the RAF's day fighters and also for the Boulton & Paul Defiant and Bristol Beaufighter night fighters. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was keen to block the sale of Merlin engines outright but Sydney Camm at Hawker considered that the Hurricane airframe could be adapted to take a different engine and, with one eye on export sales, Camm had previously schemed the Hurricane Mk.III using the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder radial piston engine rated at 1,050 hp. Camm sent a small team over to FFVS at Stockholm to effect the changes and the new company performed miracles in keeping to their original schedule of a first flight before the end of 1940. There was no Hurricane Mk.III prototype as such and the first two production aircraft off the Stockholm production line were thoroughly tested by Bill Humble of Hawker's and Gloster's chief test pilot Gerry Sayer who both praised it's flying characteristics noting that "the aircraft is simple and easy to fly and has no apparent vices" although the stalling speed was 8 knots higher than a standard Merlin-engined Hurricane.

Entering service with F 9 Säve (located at Säve airport near Gothenburg) in the Autumn of 1941, the Hurricane's were popular with Flygvapnet pilots although they were increasingly short on speed when compared to aircraft from other nations that had inadvertently strayed into Swedish skies. The Hurricane Mk.III continued in low-rate production well into 1943 and was finally retired in 1947.