The RCAF's UK-BUILT HURRICANE IS: PART 2: Into Service with No l (Fighter) Squadron

摘要

The first and most logical operator of the RCAF Hurricanes was No 1 (F) Sqn, RCAE This unit, under one name or another, had been in existence since 1927 operating the RCAF's only pre-1939 fighter type, the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin. In its early years it had achieved a considerable measure of fame in both Canada and the United States for its aerobatic performances with the nimble little Siskin. As the 1930s wore on the RCAF, although handicapped by its limited resources, concentrated to an increasing degree on becoming an effective military force. Therefore, No 1 (F) devoted most of its effort to becoming an operational fighter unit despite the antiquity of its equipment. In 1938 it had moved to RCAF Station Calgary, Alberta whose comparatively modern facilities it shared with No 3 (B) Sqn and its Westland Wapitis. The sight of a military aerodrome with a Siskin and a Wapiti squadron would seem to be more appropriate to an airfield in the late 1920s rather than early 1939!