Hawker Sea Hurricane X11A (BW853 / G-BRKE)

Looking through this thread , blimey £10 an hour labour costs ,almost slave wages nowadays. Nice to see the progress made , well done to him.

This Hurricane is doing very well, and  the facebook contributions in the Hawker Hurricane Aircraft and Cockpit Projects group by Julian Mitchell suggests that he is the owner. I am not certain of the final intended status of the completed project.

This is his photo, and as he has put it in the public domain, I hope he will not mind keen followers of the project seeing the excellent progress which he has made. 

I can confirm it is currently in Oxfordshire, it has recently gained a pair of wings and a Merlin 29.
I can’t say too much more at this stage, but will update very soon.

It’s since moved on from Kevin, I saw it only recently at its new home.

FB

I think this was the one that Kevin Wheatcroft bought – he was at the auction and it was so cheap he couldnt say no! 🙂

Reviving a long dead thread here. What happened to it. It is stated as just a fuselage, and stored at Kemble on the Hurricane survivors website, and in the 2016 Military Aircraft Markings, but no mention of it in Wrecks and Relics.

What it went for!!!!!!!!!

I had a peek on Bonhams site the monday after the event, would you believe it sold for £8050 pound inc buyers premium…… It would appear that a lot of people know the true cost of a Hurricane rebuild and were not ready to have their pockets cleaned out before they’d even started!

Mind you it did make me think….I could have scratched up £8K from somewhere and owned a Hurricane! all be it a very ‘tech’ one.
Just imagine the talk at the clubhouse……” yeah the a/c’s in the hangar at the mo”, “oh really I didn’t know you had one, what sort?”…..”Sea hurricane.”:D

At least someone bought it and hopefully it will rise from the ashes in the near future.

Its ‘worth’ whatever anyone is prepared to pay for it.

To date, I am unaware of any Hurricane that has sold for £2m, let alone 3.

As Galdri says above, if you want a cheap aeroplane, then buy one that is already flying. If you want a Hurricane restored, then take it to HRL – it wont be cheap, but they have the experience, expertise and tooling to make it happen. No-one else does…..

Bruce

A lot of the info I used came from the HRL web-site – so to sum up the very valid points made by Galdri and Bruce above and to borrow a well known advert:

Cost of rebuilding a Hurricane – Whatever it costs

Owning a Hurricane – Priceless

Very true – which makes the £2m post restoration price tag more of an indication of costs involved which again ties up with another report I read of a completed Hurricane being worth £3m, so the 50% profit figure also fits.

Mark

Its ‘worth’ whatever anyone is prepared to pay for it.

To date, I am unaware of any Hurricane that has sold for £2m, let alone 3.

As Galdri says above, if you want a cheap aeroplane, then buy one that is already flying. If you want a Hurricane restored, then take it to HRL – it wont be cheap, but they have the experience, expertise and tooling to make it happen. No-one else does…..

Bruce

There is NO profit in restoring aircraft. Newly restored aircraft usually sell for LESS than the cost of restoration. So if you are in the market for old aircraft, buy a good restored example. That is the cheap way out;)

£10 per hour. Can I have some of that?

Commercial hourly rate would be either side of £40 ph.

…but to change the oil in your car, more than twice that. 🙂

Mark

Very true – which makes the £2m post restoration price tag more of an indication of costs involved which again ties up with another report I read of a completed Hurricane being worth £3m, so the 50% profit figure also fits.

Mark

£10 per hour. Can I have some of that?

Commercial hourly rate would be either side of £40 ph.

…but to change the oil in your car, more than twice that. 🙂

Mark

Okay, since my initial post I have looked in to the subject of Hurricane restoration a bit more.

Various articles I have found quote 40,000 / 50,000 man hours to complete the airframe so lets say at an average of £10 per hour which gives a labor bill of £500k.

Another article from 2001 quoted £600k of parts needed so again lets go for £750k in todays terms.

Add on another £150k? for the airframe and you are now looking at a total bill of £1.4m to get it in the air again which when taken in to consideration with a post rebuild sale price of £2m i.e. an approx. 50% profit on a 3-4 year rebuild investment it brings it all in to perspective.

And it dosent end there…

Annual insurance of approx. £50k
Annual servicing another £30k approx.
£1k per hour additional operating costs (fuel, oil, hangarage etc.)

So to fly it for 50 hours p.a. you are looking at an ongoing annual budget of £130k.

I guess we are looking at a minimum of a double roll over to make it feasible – unless of course I can talk my wife out of her need for a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes!

Mark

Panzer – Most Hurricanes go through the rebuild process of inspecting and replacing most of the fuselage tubes. Add to that an expensive rebuild of the centre section and I don’t get the feel of a 200K project.

Love this bit!- ‘A restored Hurricane must be proved to be 100% genuine to be CAA registered and ‘BW 853’ is already recognised and registered as ‘G-BRKE’, this having been done some 19 years ago’

and -‘Most importantly: it also retains the original date plate – another item essential for qualification as a totally ‘genuine’ Hurricane.

Nearly spat me coffee out!

Hurricane looks good value, no wings though unless just not photographed….i would be surprised if it went for less than £100k

Doesn’t seem to need much doing to it, just an engine ,some wings another stuff. I reckon it will go for over £200k.

Bonhams also have a Spitfire up for auction on 14 September, this coming Sunday, at Nelson New Zealand.

http://www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au/videos.php?article=220

Mark

Hope tom blair or stephen grey know about it!!

I don’t know if this has been discussed on here before although I am sure I have read about it somewhere but maybe not here and I did try searching on the serial numbers to no avail. If it has, Mods please move this post.

In 10 days time (3 lottery draws to go) , the above Sea Hurricane is being sold by Bonhams at the Goodwood Revival Auction with a guide price of £30-40k which seems remarkably cheap.

Interesting story behind it

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4051812&iSaleNo=16252&iSaleSectionNo=2

Hope the link works, if not go to www.bonhams.com, look for lot 319 at the Goodwood Revival Auction on 19th September.

Off now to buy a lottery ticket or two

Mark

It looks like it spent more time in the repair shops than flying 🙂
I wonder what the final cost of restoring it would be,it says “With a completed value in excess of £2m “
Be lovely to think she could stay here and be restored back to flying.
Must check my lottery as well 🙂