Hawker Tempest

The Hawker Tempest was a single-seat fighter developed from the Typhoon to cure that aircraft’s poor performance at altitude. A new, thinner laminar-flow wing of elliptical plan and a lengthened fuselage transformed its high-level handling and speed, while it kept the Typhoon’s heavy four-cannon armament. The main wartime version, the Tempest V, entered service in 1944 powered by the Napier Sabre engine and quickly became one of the fastest piston-engined fighters in the world at low level. It made its name intercepting V-1 flying bombs over southern England in the summer of 1944 — destroying more than any other type — and then as a ground-attack and air-superiority fighter over north-west Europe, where its speed allowed it to engage even the German Me 262 jet. About 1,700 were built.