How many Hurricanes at Duxford?

Wed Jun 16, 2004 6:54 am

How many Hurricanes are there at Duxford? I was just there and counted two real and one plastic replica. Can anyone confirm?

BTW... Which Hurri suffered the landing gear colapse? I assume that it is one of the two real examples that I spotted at Duxford on June 1st?

Regards,

Mike

Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:21 am

The BBMF Hurrie suffered the prang.

Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:24 am

Two Hurricanes (HAC's and TFC's) + 1 plastic rep is correct. The a/c that had the taxi incident on 6th June was LF363 of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, and not one of the Duxford based a/c.

Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:25 am

At the moment there are 4 real Hurricanes and the Glass Fibre replica sitting on the gate.

Flying Hurricanes
HAC's Hurricane XIIa 'Z5410' - G-HURI (Hangar 4)
TFC's Hurricane IV KZ321 - G-HURY (Hangar 2)
BBMF Hurricane IIc - LF363 (The one that had the landing inncident)

Static Hurricane
IWM Hurricane - Z2315 (Hangar 4)

Glenn

Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:25 am

Two Hurricanes (HAC's and TFC's) + 1 plastic rep is correct. The a/c that had the taxi incident on 6th June was LF363 of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, and not one of the Duxford based a/c.

Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:32 am

Anonymous wrote:Two Hurricanes (HAC's and TFC's) + 1 plastic rep is correct. The a/c that had the taxi incident on 6th June was LF363 of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, and not one of the Duxford based a/c.

Glenn's post is quite correct. The BBMF Hurricane is still at Duxford (although normally based at Coningsby). In addition, the IWM's static example Z2315 is a genuine example. Therefore, there are currently 4 genuine Hurricanes and a plastic replica (on the gate) at Duxford.

Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:31 pm

I just got the scans back from the lab. I guess I didn't see...

IWM Hurricane - Z2315 (Hangar 4)

...at Duxford when I was there on June 1st. Does anyone have a relatively recent picture of this one?

Regards,

Mike

Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:40 pm

It's difficult to miss that one. You walk into hangar 4 and it's right infront of you with a dummy standing up in the cockpit. The crached 109 is to the right of it. I may have a photo.

Rob

Wed Jun 16, 2004 3:24 pm

Robbo wrote:It's difficult to miss that one. You walk into hangar 4 and it's right infront of you with a dummy standing up in the cockpit.

Ahhhh.... Right! I do have a pic and I found it. It was a little dark and I skipped right by it when looking at the thumbnails. The 109 tip took me almost right to it.

Thanks for the tip. I saw so much there that day it is hard to remember it all two weeks later.

Mike

Wed Jun 16, 2004 3:42 pm

Of all the photos I've taken at Duxford (I'm a fairly regular visitor) I could only find one of that plane and it's not a good one - someone walked infront of my tripod during the exposure and I must have given up on it after that.

The manekin is a bit cheesy and the panel fit isn't a patch on the other Hurricanes at Duxford.

Rob

Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:38 pm

I've got several of it, including some taken during the restoration, but am not sure how to post them here (not having my own webspace - can I do it as a file attachment?)

A cosmopolitan selection of Hurricanes at Duxford nowadays. TFC's Mk IV out of Israel, with wings fron India, HAC's a Mk XII out of Canada, and the IWM's, a Mk I later converted by the factory to Mk II configuration, out of Russia. Not to mention the temporarily-resident (slightly bent :cry:

) BBMF Mk II with a UK history.

You must be slipping, Rob, I thought you'd have at least a dozen shots of the IWM's aircraft by now! :wink:

Wed Jun 16, 2004 5:21 pm

Mike, that's one of the few that don't figure highly in my portfolio. I don't like the way the engine cowlings just don't fit and that cheesy dummy in the cockpit. It looks as if the restoration was spoiled by a rushed final stage.

Wed Jul 14, 2004 3:27 pm

Robbo wrote:You walk into hangar 4 and it's right infront of you with a dummy standing up in the cockpit. The crached 109 is to the right of it.

Robbo wrote:Mike, that's one of the few that don't figure highly in my portfolio. I don't like the way the engine cowlings just don't fit and that cheesy dummy in the cockpit. It looks as if the restoration was spoiled by a rushed final stage.

OK... Here is a question. Is this a restoration or is it a replica? Or maybe somewhere in between? Can anyone tell me about the history of this airframe?

Mike

Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:26 pm

Mike's more in the know about this one than I am, but I'd say it's a restoration.

Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:08 pm

It's a restoration.

There was a frame from Russia and parts (I guess) from the IWM spares holding, and an ID attached to the frame. A Replica normally doesn't have an original ID.

Robbo's also correct that the restoration was, I believe, rushed at the last stage - due to other pressures at the time. When it was put into the display, it wasn't quite complete - engine parts etc being missing; NOT the IWM's finest hour!

Cheers
James