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Many Hurricane fighters were also given, sold, or licensed to be built in other nations such as Russia, Yugoslavia, and Finland.

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The Free French air force, based out of Britain, also operated some Hurricane aircraft. Ww2dbaseDuring the war, Hurricane fighters also served in many of the Commonwealth military forces such as New Zealand and South Africa. In the latter, 70 Hurricane fighters fought off Axis forces of a greater quantity during Operation Pedestal even though carrier HMS Eagle was lost, the convoy successfully delivered large quantities of supplies as well as 36 Hurricane fighters to the garrison at Malta. Ww2dbaseAside from being fighters, Hurricane aircraft also served in close ground support, tank buster, and convoy combat air patrol roles. While the Spitfire fighters attracted more attention from their inception, Hurricane fighters could be said as the real workhorses of the RAF, for that Hurricane fighters shot down more hostile aircraft than any other aircraft models in British inventory during WW2.

Aside from the Battle of Britain, Hurricane fighters also played an important role in the defense of Malta, as well as other campaigns. While the more maneuverable Spitfire fighters engaged in dogfights with German fighters, it was often the Hurricane fighters' tasks to take down German bombers. In terms of production, the simple construction also meant that they could be produced in large numbers with relative ease during the Battle of Britain, Hurricane fighters consistently outnumbered their more capable and rather more famous successors, the Spitfire fighters. While the Hurricane fighters' fabric-covered wooden framing wings were legacies of the outdated Fury design, this weak link ironically saved many pilots' lives during the war, as explosive shells from German fighter cannons passed through them without detonating the use of fabric and wood also meant some of the front line mechanics could perform some of the structural repairs on the wings without having to send the aircraft to repair facilities in the rear.

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While many of the changes that took place over the production life were to upgrade the performance or to address problems, some were due to suit war situations for example, while Mark I aircraft burned glycol, Mark II machines stepped down to a 70-30 glycol ratio to ease on the consumption of this precious strategic material. Mark I machines, for example, were equipped with Merlin C engines and two-blade wooden propellers by the time the Mark V variant was available in the mid-1940s, the powerplant had been upgraded to Merlin 32 engines that directed power to Rotol four-blade propellers.

Although the general appearance would remain the same throughout the long production life of this design, the details would evolve throughout the years. Ww2dbaseGiven that the design had its roots in the Fury biplanes, these new fighters actually resembled much more like their WW1-vintage forefathers than their WW2-era contemporaries. About one year into the war, on, 2,309 were delivered. When the war began in Europe in Sep 1939, 497 were delivered. The order came in Jun 1936, for 600 machines, and it was not until later that month that the 'Hurricane' name was made official. Hawker was so confident of this design that it had geared their factories to produce 1,000 units before the British military placed its first order. Hawker officially submitted the design to the British Air Ministry on 4 Sep, and the prototype of what was to be named Hurricane took its first flight from Brooklands in Surrey, England, United Kingdom a year later on, with George Bulman in the cockpit. In Aug 1934, the team submitted the design to the Air Ministry, and it was indeed well received, so much so that within a month the ministry would request British aircraft manufacturing firms to compete for a new specification, F.36/34, whose requirements were nearly identical to the capabilities of this new aircraft design from Camm's team. His design team located at Canbury Park Road in Kingston upon Thames near London, England, United Kingdom initially named this project 'Interceptor Monoplane to F.5/34' (the latter being an Air Ministry specification reference number).

Ww2dbaseAircraft designer Sydney Camm of Hawker Aviation began working on a monoplane version of the Fury biplane fighter starting in 1934, knowing that the British Air Ministry had interest in such a development.

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