Any fighter plane experts here ?
How different were the Spitfire and the Hurricane ...were they similar armed but one was faster than the other ?
This may be of some help.
"They were very different fighters designed in the mid 1930s by two different companies with two very different design philosophies.
Both were initially powered by the same engine, both were armed with 8 .303 machine guns.
The Hurricane was an evolutionary design that was called by the designers a "Fury monoplane" the Fury being the manufacturers in production biplane fighter for the RAF. The Spitfire was a completely new design that owed it's design inspiration to a series for racing planes built by it's manufacture.
The Hurricane originally used much the same manufacturing techniques used in the biplane predecessors. This includes fabric covering of wooden supports in the rear fuselage aft of the cockpit and initially, fabric covered wings. The fabric covered wings were relatively soon replaced by metal wings. The Spitfire used the latest stressed skin production techniques throughout. Ironically, when the war started, the "older" construction techniques used by the Hurricane proved to be something of an advantage since damage could be repaired at the airfield that the more modern Spitfire needed to be shipped to repair centers for.
Both aircraft were relatively short ranged which proved to be a problem as early as Dunkirk where neither fighter had the endurance to remain over the evacuation area for long. This also proved a problem when covering convoys in the English Channel and later in the Battle of Britain when the Germany bombers came mostly at night and Luftwaffe fighters were used for daylight harassment raids.
After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire continued in production through the war and beyond and continued to be a front line fighter for the rest of the war due to continuing improvement in engine and armament. Its short range was always a problem in offensive operations. The Hurricane was found inadequate for daytime offensive fighter operations and was modified for use as a night fighter and fighter bomber. Hurricane production ended in 1944.
Both aircraft played vital roles in the war.
Ironically, it was the Hurricane that was credited with the most kills of a British produced fighter in the war."
Extracted from a website called Quora.
