The Hawker Hurricane was preceded by British, German, and American work on tank-busting aircraft during the early and mid-1930s. A British attempt to adapt the Hawker Hart light bomber is one example. The broader pattern is that the appearance of a new weapon prompts work on counters almost immediately, including the early development of anti-tank guns alongside tanks. Wartime attack aircraft therefore grew from interwar experiments that combat urgency accelerated.
Notable Point · 3:45:27-3:45:47
Tank-busting aircraft ideas predated the Second World War
Britain, Germany, and the United States explored anti-tank aircraft before the Second World War, so wartime tank-busters grew from interwar countermeasure work rather than a sudden discovery.