I’ve had a few hours with the new Hurricane Mark II, an IL-2 Great Battles Collector Plane, and I wanted to share some of my first impressions of the aircraft in my flights to date.
Turning fight fun
It’s hard for me not to jump to the conclusion with this aircraft because the impression it made on me was almost immediate. This aircraft is fun!
The handling in the Hurricane makes it a real joy to fly around. It’s a quick turning aircraft and it combines that with one of the most stable turns of any aircraft in the sim. Limited rudder will help keep you coordinated but that’s about all you need to do. You fight with the Hurricane… it doesn’t fight you like so many other fighters do!
Virtual pilots so far have not yet adapted to fighting the aircraft either as my first few flights saw Bf109s and MC.202’s try to turn fight with the Hurricane. The mistaken impression that this aircraft is not able to hold and beat those aircraft in the turn seems to be working well to Hurricane pilots advantage at the moment.
The Hurricane can also take a hit or two. The pilot doesn’t seem particularly well protected but the aircraft itself can definitely take a few hits and keep on going. Even after several dozen machine gun rounds into it, the Hurricane can continue on although a hit to the control cables is, like any other type, typically the end of the line.
Not fast at all
Although the Hurricane is tons of fun to chuck around the sky, one thing it is already clearly not is fast. With a top speed at sea level that is beaten by the I-16 Type 24, there’s little for the Hurricane to do when it comes to running away from a fight. Virtually everything else is going to overtake it.
So that means relying on the robust nature of the aircraft and its quirk turn and ease of handling are the things that are going for it.
It can pack a punch!
My early experiences with the eight and twelve .303 machine guns is that they make a terrific noise and spray tracer all over the place but they aren’t able to back that up with any real hitting power. Bombers and larger aircraft shrug the hits off with sometimes minimal damage while fighters require repeated hits to cause any serious damage. Upgrade those for some cannons, however, and the story changes dramatically.
The Hurricane Mark II can pack a wallop with the four Hispano Mark II 20mm cannons (previewing the same armament for the Typhoon I might add) and the Russian field modified variant with two ShVAK 20mm cannons and two 12.7mm UB machine guns is essentially just as destructive. I need more testing but the 40mm Vickers S cannons are useful against lighter armored vehicles but seem to struggle with some of the sturdier tanks. They can one shot a fighter though!
More to come!
I’m writing my full review of the aircraft now and I have a few other surprises planned for next week so stay tuned!
Stormbirds 
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