General info for Tempest Mk V

• Country Britain
• Vehicle role Fighter / Strike fighter
• Rank 4

• Battle rating in
  • arcade battles 6
  • realistic battles 5.7
  • simulator battles 6

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Wiki info about Tempest Mk V

Official War Thunder wiki

From its initial conception, the Hawker Tempest was conceived of as a replacement for the Typhoon, a fighter-bomber created by the Hawker company in 1941. The Typhoon had many deficiencies such as an unreliable engine, insufficient structural strength leading in some cases to the entire tail detaching, sub-standard rate of climb and a poor high altitude performance. Because of these it could not compete with the latest fighter of the time, the German Focke-Wolf FW190, and the Typhoon’s was removed from its planned role as an interceptor and used mainly for ground strike missions. The Tempest prototype, first flown in February 1943, inherited some of the traits of its older brother, but experts took into account Hawker’s negative experience and did their best to refine the aerodynamic shape of the new aircraft. The wing was slightly shorter, the profile more slender, and the back edge elliptical. To compensate for the fuel capacity lost in the new, thinner wings, another fuel tank was added to the fuselage which accounted for the increased length of the aircraft. Consequently, the tail section was also modified, most noticeably by a fairing fitted to the vertical fin’s leading edge and an increase of the tail plane chord. Due to the unavailability of Napier Sabre Mk IV engine, which was supposed to keep the new aircraft from having the Typhoon’s “beard” radiator, the same Sabre Mk IIA engine, rated at 2180 HP, had to be installed; this was fitted with a de Havilland four bladed propeller. On the first batch of Tempests (100 aircraft) the armament stayed unchanged, but subsequent fighters had the long-barrelled Hispano Mk II gun replaced with the more rapid and light Hispano Mk V. The ammunition was also increased from 140 to 150 rounds per gun. Thanks to the strength of its wings, the aircraft could carry a substantial bomb load or two 500 lb or 1000 lb bombs, two 45 or 90 gallon fuel tanks, or eight 76mm rockets. The Tempest proved far more successful and popular with its pilots than the Typhoon, eliminating its predecessor’s shortcomings. Front line service for the Tempest began in April 1944, when 50 Tempest Mk Vs formed the first Tempest Wing at Newchurch. The Tempest Wing was particularly active in the build up to D-Day, but when the first German V-1 flying bombs began to fall on British soil, the Tempest was found to be one of the only fighters fast enough to counter the new threat. Fast, manoeuvrable and heavily armed, the Tempest was also able to prove a threat to the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, with 20 262s being destroyed by Tempests. Some 1700 Tempests were manufactured until the aircraft was phased out of service with the RAF in 1949.