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
Tom and Alex,
Many thanks for all the details about the Camel!
Ben
Hello Alex,
Many thanks for the Camel photos, they are lovely! Do you know who and where the replica was build?
Ben
… If you want more, let me know.
Hello Alex,
Yes, please! 😀 I would be very pleased also to see some photos of the Sopwith Camel.
Ben
Hi stewart1a,
I believe it’s a Pilatus P-2.
Cheers,
Ben
Silver bird
oscar duck,
The silver bird which was on display @ la Ferté-Alais this year is owned by the Messerschmitt Foundation of Ingolstadt/Manching (Germany).
Ben
Ben,
I have a problem with my email account. It should be fixed by monday.
My PM box is now cleared.
Mark
Noticed Mark 🙂
BR,
Ben
Attn Mark12
Mark,
Could you clear your PM box, please? I have tried to send you a message but I get the following message: “Mark12 has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.”
Thanks!
Ben
Papa Lima,
As per the Warbirds Directory (4th Edition) by Geoff Goodall, C-GBUI is a Canadair Sabre CL-13B Mk.6
History information:
To Luftwaffe as S6-1710; JB+240
D-9541 Dornier, Oberpfaffenhofen: op. for Luftwaffe 70/77
Ormond Haydon-Baillie, Duxford, UK .77/79 (stored dism., Wroughton UK .78/79)
N89FS Tracor Flight Systems Inc, Mojave CA 5.81/96
Sold to Canada: struck-off USCR 1.98
C-GBUI Airspray Ltd, Red Deer ALTA 18.3.98/02 (flown on military target-towing contracts)
Ben
Last batch of shots.
Ben
# C-47
# Canberra
# Meteor NF.11
# Bréguet Alizé
More photos taken during the last open days (2003).
Ben
# Bréguet 1001 Taon
# Bréguet Br 941S
# Caudron CR.760
# Skyraider Bu126979
D.520 s/n 408 – F-ZWVB
I was told recently by a friend that parts of the tail cone are now with the naval air museum of Rochefort. I know drawings & plans are existing and there is some Hispano-Suiza engines available in France. I hope one day we’ll have the chance to see a reproduction / replica flying.
Ben
© Hervé Champain
Whiskey Delta,
I suggest you to read the following article written by Dennis Bergstrom: Bent-wing History DB
Ben