The Hawker Hurricane I was born in December 1934, when the British Air Ministry issued specification number F.36/34, calling for a new monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. At that time, Hawker's chief designer, Sidney Camm, was working on a little low-wing monoplane fighter with a fixed cantilever spatted undercarriage powered by a 660 HP. Rolls-Royce Goshawk steam cooled motor. Designated as the Fury Monoplane, it was supposed to enter production in 1935, but it was canceled as Hawker found out that Rolls Royce had successfully completed its PV 12 engine, which had an output of 1025 HP. The Fury project was modified accordingly, and only eleven months later, on the 6th of November 1935, the Hurricane prototype took off for the first time. As it was the first British single-seat monoplane fighter with a fully retractable undercarriage it created quite a sensation.

The Hurricane entered production in October 1937, and by the early 1938, the 111st Fighter Squadron was equipped with the new fighter. The plane was a clean, low-wing monoplane, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine rated at 1025 HP at 5000 meters. The fuselage was mainly a metal tube covered with fabric, oval in section. Wings were divided in three main parts : a central section and two outer wings, all of them built around framework of light metal ribs covered initially by fabric, but since 1938 completely new stressed-skin outer wing was designed. The landing gear had two Vickers shuck-absorber struts retracting inwards and a fixed tail wheel. A Rolls Royce Merlin III engine driving a Rotol three-bladed, constant-speed, airscrew was selected as powerplant. The plane had a bullet-proof windscreen and was armed with 8 Browning 7.7 mm ( 0.303 inches ) machine guns ( four in each wing ).