Hawker Hurricane IV ‘KZ321’/ CF-TPM has been sold by Vintage Wings of Canada (VWoC) to a currently undisclosed owner in Belgium, and will soon be freighted across the Atlantic to its new home. The sale comes hot on the heels of VWoC relinquishing Spitfire XVI SL721, also recently acquired by a Belgian owner (see News, Aeroplane March 2018).
Both aircraft were once owned by Doug Arnold/Warbirds of Great Britain. Two Hurricane fuselage frames, complete with centre sections and main undercarriage units, were discovered by Robs Lamplough in a scrapyard in Jaffa, Israel during 1983. One, KZ191, was recovered to the UK by Lamplough, the other being acquired by Arnold, who had it shipped back to his facility at Blackbushe Airport, Surrey. It is thought that KZ321 was operated by No 6 Squadron at Torre Canne, south-eastern Italy and Prkos, Yugoslavia during the closing stages of the war. It was on charge with the unit — along with scrapyard stablemate KZ191 — at Ramat David in the British Mandate of Palestine during the summer of 1946, the unit by then being the last RAF squadron to operate the Hurricane.
The Hurricane project was sold to The Fighter Collection in 1991, and during 2001, now registered G-HURY, it went to Hawker Restorations at Milden, Suffolk.
The aircraft made its first flight at Earls Colne, Essex, on 25 April 2003, painted as No 6 Squadron Hurricane IV KZ321 with the codes JV-N, as based at Grottaglie, Italy, from February 1944. That aircraft was lost on 24 May 1944, Plt Off Grey dying after bailing out at just 1,000ft over the sea. After three seasons at Duxford, the Hurricane was sold to Mike Potter’s VWoC, arriving at Gatineau Airport, Ottawa in May 2006.
