Hurricane Mk1 – first flight tomorrow

how good would it be to see an early hawker Bi-plane, Hurricane, Sea Fury, Sea Hawk, Hunter and Harrier in formation? id pay to see it!

You’d pay to see it? That would be so good I’d pay to see it twice I think.

I hope they have a good 2005 season with the aircraft!

I second that sentiment.

true 🙁

Stewart – think the Hunter might have some trouble matching speeds with the Hawker biplane in particular (presume you mean the Shuttleworth Hind); VNE 200 knots or so I believe…[/QUOTE]

Haven’t they done something similar in the past? Or did I imagine it? :confused:

i remember at Duxford when they had Sydney Camms tribute of Cygnet to the modern day had my grandad in tears so many memorys

how good would it be to see an early hawker Bi-plane, Hurricane, Sea Fury, Sea Hawk, Hunter and Harrier in formation? id pay to see it!

I hope they have a good 2005 season with the aircraft!

Hi folks. I have at long last managed to get some up to date info. Taliking to Peter and Polly today and the news is that R4118 is staying at Cambridge for this year’s display season at least as the support team are all there. The plan to keep the aircraft at Kidlington is on hold for this season and will be reviewed in the autumn. Much as I would like to see it based locally it makes sense to keep it where the support team are based for the first season on the circuit at least as they are the ones who worked on her so they will know what they are doing if anything needs tweeking at a later date.

She is still at Marshalls. As soon as I hear when she is due to fly again I will post the times/dates.

Are there any more planned test flights in the near future now the New Year has arrived or any other news.I assume she is still at Marshalls?

I’ll buy it! 😀

Hi Andy and Stieglitz,

I think the book cover is provisional – Peter Vacher’s book is due to be published in May 2005, so I’m sure they’ll change it.

Ben

Why do publishers do this? Maybe to get the book on the shelves shortly after the first flight. This is hot news and hot news sells. Maybe the second print will have a better cover.

That book could be a nice report of this aircraft. Certainly interesting.

J.V.

Book Cover.

Hi all
I’ll probably buy the book but it’s a shame they didn’t wait to get some pictures of the actual aircraft in flight for the front cover instead of using a picture of Z7015 (Shuttleworth Sea Hurricane).
Why do publishers do this?
Andy

I hadn’t realised until now how quickly they got the restoration done. I think the team deserve even more praise than they have already received on here. Well done to all concerned and many thanks to Peter Vacher for taking the trouble to get her home in the first place.

I wonder if they have sourced belted .303 live rounds for the guns yet! Only joking!

Find the belts and the loose rounds, I’d be happy to belt it up by hand(at least it would give me something to pass the time on night shift) 😀

Wow, what a beautiful sight.

Looks like they set it up rich judging by the faint trail of black behind it.

TNZ

I’ve noticed that Merlins tend to do that at high throttle settings, funny thing is I’ve never noticed it from Griffons

Hurricane R4118

Hello all,

Peter Vacher is going to publish a book about the recovery and the rebuild of his Hurricane. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon UK and would be certainly a MUST :p !

More details can be found here: Hurricane R4118: The Extraordinary Story of the Discovery and Restoration of a Great Battle of Britain Survivor

Synopsis:

One of Peter Vacher’s great passions in life is restoring Rolls-Royce motor cars. In March 1982 he was travelling in India on research when quite by chance in the grounds of a northern university he stumbled on the rusting remnants of an aircraft. It was a British plane, but unrecognisable. Peter was intrigued. Initially thinking it was a Spitfire, he managed to get the serial number from which he obtained confirmation that it was in fact a Mark I Hurricane, R4118, which had flown in the Battle of Britain! For years he did nothing but the fantastic idea of bringing it back to England and seeing it fly again stayed at the back of his mind. In 1996 he decided to act and made an offer to buy the remains. In 1997 the offer was accepted. There then followed six years of wrangling, committees, red tape, Indian Air Force involvement, and much patient lobbying before in 2002 Peter was given 24 hours to remove the plane. Then the truly difficult process began of restoration – a worldwide search for parts, careful reconstruction, flight testing, and finally, finally airborne again. Along the way he re-united three auspicious veterans – Peter Thompson, Bunny Currant and Bob Foster – with R4118, men who had flown her during the war. This is truly an amazing story, a dream come true, documented in words and pictures as it happened. History Channel involvement. Video, film under negotiation; TV coverage of R4118 in flight guaranteed; Massive newspaper, magazine coverage guaranteed

Happy New Year to all!

Ben

I wonder if they have sourced belted .303 live rounds for the guns yet! Only joking!

Superb Paul, have they managed to source film for it?