By contemporary standards, the new design's wing was very "thick", similar to the Hurricane before it. Although the Typhoon was expected to achieve over in level flight at 20,000 ft, the thick wings created a large drag rise and prevented higher speeds than the 410 mph at achieved in tests. The climb rate and performance above that level was also considered disappointing. When the Typhoon was dived at speeds of over , the drag rise caused buffeting and trim changes. These compressibility problems led to Camm designing the Typhoon II, later known as the Tempest, which used much thinner wings with a laminar flow airfoil.