At the time that the first hawker Hurricane rolled out of the factory in 1937, Hawker started thinking of a successor. They wanted to create a more advanced fighter to replace the Hurricane when the time wasd there. The design team, headed by Sydney Camm, thought up a fighter that was very close to the F.18/37 requirement of the British Air Ministry. This requirement was looking for an advanced fighter, powered by the Rolls Royce Vulture X-type or the Napier Sabre H-type engine, and heavier armament in the way of 4 × 20 mm cannons. Hawker decided that 12 × 0.303 inch (7,7 mm) guns would also increase the firepower by 50%, so they included that option as well.
Two airframe variants were developed, the R-type (for the Rolls Royce Vulture engine), and the N-type (for the Napeir Sabre engine). These were to be named the 'Tornado' and Typhoon' respectively.
The design emphasized on strength and maintainability, in stead of elegance, and was also one of the first design to have a 'bubble'-like cockpit like also seen on the North American P-51D or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
The Rolls Royce Vulture was the most promising of the two prototypes, so the Tornado took to the air before the Typhoon in October 1939. Initially 1.000 aircraft were ordered: 500 Tornado's and 500 typhoons. After the invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940 the order for the Typhoon was canceled so Hawker could concentrate on the Hurricane in stead. After the defeat of the Luftwaffe in October 1940, the order was reinstated again. Soon after the first production aircraft of the Tornado was delivered, the cancellation of the Rolls Royce Vulture engine made sure no other Tornado's would fly.