Hurricane V7497 78 years after it was shot down over Kent

I should add that after she flies, I will hope to photo her column with her. Before anyone asks, the grip is far to damaged to be fitted to her

Totally agree. The fly em brigade want everything to fly. The ground em all for posterity want em all in museums. They are both wrong. Like all engineering, it is a compromise… if it flies it needs to be 100% safe so can be as replaced as much as needs be. If it’s a museum piece, it should be as close to 100% real as it can be.

Indeed.

I’ve never understood it myself, given that in-service many aircraft were rebuilt/repaired or had parts from other aircraft used anyway, why get hung up on new-build….?

If it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck and looks like a duck…it is a duck as far as I’m concerned.

Happily, I think we are moving into a new era when folk no longer feel the need to be snarky and sarcastic about the origins of these re-creations, and just enjoy them as living , breathing Hurricanes ( in this instance) , which they certainly are. We are very lucky to have them presented for our entertainment.

Totally agree. When you think of the time, and money that these folk invest, and the risk that any pilot takes who displays an a/c… you can only have contempt for some nitpicker who objects to the a/c being new build. What difference does it make? When a veteran is reunited with the plane they flew, do they care that parts have had to be replaced??? When future generations can see inside a Halifax (one day a Stirling) and see what their Grandfather flew, does it matter if it is new build or the props are not quite right?

I think in order for that to happen, restorers should be more honest, with regards to originality, (or not); instead of filling all the aviation magazines (including the online variations) with bullsh!t about how this or that was painstakingly restored; a friend of mine has a Spitfire, he reckons to have about 70% by weight, however it was totally destroyed, and I doubt one piece is usable.

Happily, I think we are moving into a new era when folk no longer feel the need to be snarky and sarcastic about the origins of these re-creations, and just enjoy them as living , breathing Hurricanes ( in this instance) , which they certainly are. We are very lucky to have them presented for our entertainment.

Hi All,
HR keep pumping them out congratulations to all involved and may you have many more to come. I would love to see all the Europe Hurricane’s in
formation at Legends in the future, just cannot get enough of these restorations no matter what aircraft it’s all good for us enthusiasts….:eagerness:

Geoff.

Still looks and sounds good, and probably has as many original parts as any Hurricane that has been working for the last 78 years.

HRL reckon 30% of original components from the crash site re-used.

And yes, I don’t believe the Merlin III is the one dug out of the hole…..especially not from the angle and speed it went in at, and HRL infer from the wording on their website that it is a Merlin III sourced from elsewhere, and restored by Eye Tech.

I shall have a look at the pics if I can find them (I’m not going to post here as they’re not my copyright to do so), but I’m sure the engine came out in shards – you can’t see in the image I posted, but there’s a ridge of greensand rock and it hit right at the top (I went to school at the bottom of the hill – they dug it in the school holidays, or we’d have been all over it!).

Having said that, I now need to dig the pics out to ensure that I am not making fake news!

Still looks and sounds good, and probably has as many original parts as any Hurricane that has been working for the last 78 years.

Adrian

Perhaps the biggest part is the original engine?

“Quite how a data plate survived to be rebuilt is beyone me”

As I always used to say “why didn’t they build the A/C out of the same metal they made the data plate from? as they all seemed to survive!

Obviously spread about a bit – I have a piece about as big as my thumb of the Form 700! And some scanned prints of pics of the size of the lumps that came out of the hole in the rock. Quite how a data plate survived to be rebuilt is beyone me 😛

Crashed near the top of this big field… https://www.google.com/maps/place/East+Sutton/@51.2183124,0.6239627,499m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47df2ee0ffc23df1:0xf5996be39a03bc8b!8m2!3d51.2040066!4d0.6129265

Adrian

EB Rogers. I have the original grip

Thanks Firebird! I don’t have my references at hand. (Then again, I could have Googled it! Doh!)

Nice to see a Hurricane in 501 Squadron markings though.

Is that Ken Mackenzie’s Hurricane then?

No.

His SD-X was V6799.

That is lovely! Is that Ken Mackenzie’s Hurricane then?

Nice to see Phil Parish in the cockpit for the engine run.

Fantastic, thanks for posting
Looks like a Hamilton prop not Rotol ?

Jules

Fantastic.