Hangar 11 News

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NEWS UPDATE 9TH JUNE 2009

June 09, 2009

Progress at Hangar 11 has been very positive on all fronts. The highlight of the month was the return to the skies of “Jumpin Jacques” on the 8th of May, when she undertook her first flight since the fitting of her overhauled engine and the complete refurbishment of all areas in front of the firewall. Brief summary of the news is below.

P51 Mustang Jumpin Jacques

First shake down flight on 8th May 2009 went perfectly. Since that time, she has displayed at Southend airshow in front of 500,000 spectators, Old Warden and a number of other corporate events. Performance from the engine and ancillaries has been exceptionally good and the whole team are delighted

PL 965 MK XI Spitfire

On line since her annual inspection in December , PL 965 has been really busy with airshow commitments in UK and Europe. Peter flew her to northern Holland last week for a super airshow. After his solo display he joined with the unique DC2 “Uiver” from the museum at Lelystad for a special one off formation which also included a P51 and Hurricane. Other than Holland she has been pretty busy around the skies of southern England with a series of displays and flybys. She will be down for maintenance for 3 weeks towards the end of July but not before she goes back to Belgium for an airshow and undertakes a number of other private displays.

P40 Kittyhawk

After the “mission” to Prague for filming of Red Tails, “little kitty” was soon pressed back into action at 2 airshows in early May. Both shows enjoyed great weather and hopefully a good omen for the coming season. She has several high profile commitments in June including Cosford airshow and Biggin Hill International. Her new colour scheme has been really well received and caused a lot of positive comment and we hope to have a key article in one of the top aviation magazines over the next few months all about this rare and wonderful aircraft. Some super new air to air photos will be added to the website shortly.

Hurri Bomber MK 11b

The key elements required to return her to flight are on schedule and we are still confident of returning to the skies within the next 4 weeks. Engine has been rebuilt and looking great and other core components that were removed for checking ready to be re-assembled onto the airframe. We are all really excited and looking forward to flying all our remaining commitments in the season, starting at Yeovilton on 11th July 2009. She will be resplendent with her 250lb dummy bombs attached and our season culminates in a trip to a major show in Germany in September. Must be some irony in there somewhere J

General news from Hangar 11

May was a busy month for the collection with all 3 aircraft being flown and displayed extensively. The season opener was at Abingdon, a show which has grown massively over the last few years and this time was no exception, with good weather bringing huge crowds. Peter displayed our P40 and then flew to Old Warden for the first display of the season for the Shuttleworth collection. Again large crowds were tempted by the lovely weather and car parks were closed well before the flying programme started.

Then came a number of private events, sadly including a flypast for the funeral of a lifelong Spitfire enthusiast plus a private Mustang display flown for perhaps the smallest audience in our memory of just 6 people on a private estate.

Highlight of the third week of May was the Southend seaside airshow, which had enjoyed very bad luck with weather in the last 2 years. So it was with real delight that a fabulous sunny and bright bank holiday unfolded. Peter flew “Jumpin Jacques” on a picture perfect day with endless sunshine and blue skies. The crowds at the seafront were absolutely huge on both days and a mass of faces below enjoyed a wonderful event. There were an estimated 500,000 folks on the beaches between the 2 days and certainly this was the most successful show at Southend in recent years.

Then at the end of May came the trip to display at Oostwold in northern Holland in PL965. She has of course a huge history in the Low Countries, having served with16 squadron RAF in Belgium during 1944/1945 where she completed 45 missions many over enemy territory in the final days of the war. Peter ferried her across the big pond coasting out over the white cliffs at Dover an evocative sight in the bright sunshine and coasted in at Koksijde in Belgium. Then the track passed to the east of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, whose airspace forced flight below 1200 feet to avoid Schipol movements J .That experience of flashing over the dykes of Holland at low level for the first time since the summer of 1945 was just brilliant and was a really poignant reminder of the history of this unique aircraft.

The track then passed over the Lelystad Museum and airfield which houses a great collection including the Dutch “Connie”. Then direct to Oostwold a relatively small grass strip which every second year hosts a major airshow with a programme of flying lasting some 5 hours, which would challenge most shows in the UK for sheer variety of aircraft and displays. These included Spitfire, Mustang, Hurricane, and several other excellent European teams .The total distance on track was 350 statute miles and in spite of a very stiff headwind time of flight was 1 hour 40 minutes at a steady 220 MPH indicated airspeed, burning around 45 imperial gallons per hour.

Next day Peter flew a superb display in our Spitfire in a strong “on crowd” wind and then came a unique opportunity to display with the DC2 “Uiver” an airliner which was flying passengers back in 1935 for KLM. He took the slot on the port side, whilst a Mustang sat on the right and Hurricane in the box ( at the rear) This resulted in the unique sight of a 4 ship passing the crowd at low level and we will have a few pictures on the Spitfire images section.

Next day it was back to Blighty, this time with the help of a decent 30 MPH tailwind which placed Pl 965 back at North Weald in just 1hr 30 minutes. So as May drew to a close we reflected on a fine month for weather and excellent crowds at the early displays of the season. The team is looking forward to several more shows in near Europe this year.

Hangar 11 Supporters club

This is an early indication that we will be making an announcement within the next few weeks of the new Hangar 11 Collection supporters club. Membership will bestow a number of privileges that will bring each member closer to the everyday workings of this living flying collection and be pretty special for enthusiasts. The full terms and conditions will appear on our site shortly, so watch this space

Dates for the Collection in June

1 June – Oostwold Holland

7 June – Old Warden

14 June – RAF Cosford

20 June – Old Warden

27/28 June – Biggin Hill International Airfair

In closing please take a look at the images pages where we have some nice new shots of the collection in action

Pasted thisv from the Hanger 11 web site.