Warbird Information Exchange

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Paul

Paul--

Wow, that's cool. A question...somebody on here will know...I had assumed "L7180" on CAvM's restored Afghan Hind had been an arbitrary application. But (like the Iraqi Furies) were some of the Afghan Hinds reconditioned ex-RAF birds, and if so, is CAvM's aircraft genuinely L7180?

S.

From Guy Black’s Aero Vintage/Historic Aircraft Collection site: http://www.historicaircraftcollection.l ... story.html


Hawker Hind, L7181, manufacturers serial number 41H.82971, is an Afghanistan Air Force survivor. It was constructed in 1937 and originally issued to 211 Squadron RAF in September 1937. In April 1938 it was sold to the Royal Afghanistan Air Force. Little is known about its use in Afghanistan prior to its discovery at Kabul Airport in 1967.

In 1970, the Afghan Government donated four airframes to Shuttleworth Collection, the RAF Museum and National Aviation Museum of Canada, the whereabouts of the fourth was a mystery, until it was learned that the Canadian museum took two aircraft, to make one out of the two. Both aircraft however, were in similar condition, and thus only one was restored (ie "L7180"), whilst the fourth remained in storage. This fourth aircraft was acquired by Aero Vintage in 1995, and its restoration is now well established.

It is now known that the aircraft’s identity is L7181. This was shown following the removal of the clip on one of the interplane struts, which had for years been hiding the RAF serial number. During the recovery process from Afghanistan, all the data plates were removed from the aircraft for safekeeping by a member of the recovery team. After some hunting the original data plate has now been reunited with the aircraft, which confirmed its identity as L7181. The Kestrel V engine for the aeroplane was missing, but an unused Kestrel V was obtained from a museum in Holland.
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211 Squadron Hawker Hinds
http://members.aardvark.net.au/clardo/audax___hind.html

Taking its Hinds on charge from August 1937, 211 Squadron initially received K6851-K6855 and L7174-L7181, and later K6632 and K6633. Geoff Grierson’s log extracts record many Hind flights, and others are readily identifiable in his photographs. Taking these sources together, the following aircraft saw service in 211 Squadron:

Mildenhall & Grantham
K6851-K6855, L7174-L7181, K6632, K6633
Grierson’s flights: K6851, K6853, K6855, L7175, L7177, L7179 and L7181

Middle East
K5409, K5430, K5457 (AO-M), K5620, K6618, K6642, K6696, K6833 (211, later AO-N), K6851, K6853, K6854, K6855, L7174, L7181.

Hawker Hind L7181 subsequently passed to the Royal Afghan Air Force. One of four Hinds donated to museums by the Afghan government in 1970, this machine is now under restoration with Guy Black’s Aero Vintage/Historic Aircraft Collection. In more recent developments, Black and co have idnetified a number of other Hind wrecks in a military scrapyard at Kabul
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Don Clark
211 Squadron RAF site:
http://members.aardvark.net.au/clardo/