Page 7 - July2020

Canadian Hurricanes “The initial Hurricane order was for 40 planes, built to Mk 1
Hurricane I - Canada Car & Foundry - Fort-William
In late 1938, as World War II loomed over
Europe, Great Britain was concerned over the
safety of their aircraft factories.
The Hurricane was regarded as such an
important weapon to the British, that early in
1939, the British Air Ministry contracted with the Hurricanes were leaving the plant at the rate of 15 per
Canadian Car and Foundry Co., Ltd. (sometimes
referred to as CCF, or CC&F, or CanCar) of
Montreal, Canada to build what would amount
to a total of 1,451 Hurricanes and Sea
Hurricanes.
The RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) had
received 19 Hurricane I’s built by Hawker Aircraft
in England, before the War started. On 2 March
1939 the British Air Ministry released a
manufacturing pattern aircraft (L1848) along
with complete plans on microfilm; to be shipped
to Canada. Production of the Canadian-built
Hurricanes took place at the CanCar factory in
Fort William (now called Thunder Bay) in the
Province of Ontario.
The first Canadian-built Hurricane I (seen below
on 8 January 1940) flew its maiden flight at
Bishop’s Field, Fort William, Ontario, Canada on
10 January 1940.
The following are excerpts from an article in the
Beaver Magazine, June / July 1992 “Hurricane”
by David D. Kemp
“…in January, 1940, with World War II only 5
months old, a sleek monoplane fighter aircraft
was rolled out at the Fort William Works of the
Canadian Car and Foundry Company Limited
(CCF). This plane was the first of more than 1,400
such aircraft”
“In November 1938 CCF was awarded a contract
to produce Hawker Hurricanes for the RAF at its
Fort William plant”
specification with British-made Rolls-Royce Merlin III
engines and eight .303 Browning machine guns in the wings
Rolls-Royce Merlin III engines and eight .303 Browning
machine guns in the wings.”
“With the outbreak of war, shipping delays and losses
created problems with such a system, and shortages of
imported British materials regularly threatened production”
“The situation was serious by early 1941, and the later Mk 1
machines were shipped without engines, instruments or
armaments”
“In time , with new Canadian sources of supply and the
introduction of the Packard Merlin built under licence in the
United States, these problems were overcome, and in 1942
week.”
“… in total 160 Mk 1 Hurricanes were built. Most of these
were sent directly to Britain, where they were distributed as
the need arose rather than being assigned by batch to any
one squadron – this being made possible by the
interchangeability of components among the British and
Canadian-built planes. Twenty were delivered before the
Battle of Britain, and participated in the fierce aerial fighting
of August and September 1940.”
“Although Can-Car proved itself with the Hurricane 1, most
of the aircraft built at Fort William were Mk X, XI and XII
variants. These designations were reserved for the Canadian
aircraft, and reflect combinations of power plant and
armaments which distinguish them from the British-built
equivalents. All were equipped with Packard engines, for
example the Merlin 28 in the case of the Mk X and XI, and
the Merlin 29 in the Mk XII. Both the Mk X and the XI were
built with 8 machine guns, compared to the 12 of the XII,
but later specific aircraft were modified to carry cannon and
rockets as the Hurricane evolved into its intruder and
ground attack role.”