Hope someone maybe able to help?.
Flt Thomas Bernard Fitzgerald is mentioned on the BBM website http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Fitzgerald.htm as having joined Hawkers at Langley as a test pilot in February 1942 and flying the original prototype (presumably they mean K5083?) in combat on the 23rd August 1942:
In late February 1942, at the end of his third tour, Fitzgerald was placed on the Special Duties List and went to Hawker Aircraft at Langley as a test pilot. On 23rd August 1942 Fitzgerald was flying the original prototype Hurricane, then camoulflaged and with a three-bladed propeller, when he was fired on by a Do17. He attacked and damaged it before other fighters shot it down into the sea.
I would imagine that the prototype Hurricane had long been inactive at this time so assume they must mean another of the prototypes, any clues?.
By: Graham Boak - 9th March 2017 at 18:32
That’s a fairly late employment for a Do.17. Langley did have a Hurricane for site defence, so I suspect that this was the aircraft concerned. There has long been discussion about the identity, or identities, of this aircraft and I do not know of any final decision, if there has been one. Possibly the Brooklands Museum might have an idea.
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March 9, 2017 at 4:50 pm