Hawker Hurricane L1639

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Member for

8 years 7 months

Posts: 427

Just been looking at Wikipedia and under the restorations there's Hurricane L1639 being restored at Little Gransden to airworthy status.

Does anybody know anything about this project?
I personally had never heard of it.

cheers

Original post

Member for

9 years 5 months

Posts: 172

Is that the Cambridgeshire Bomber and Fighter Society's static/taxiable project? I'll hunt my Hurricane surviors book out.

Member for

8 years 7 months

Posts: 427

It says on Wikipedia
Hurricane Mk1 L1639 of No.85 Squadron RAF from Battle of France is being restored to airworthy condition by Cambridge Bomber and Fighter Society at Little Gransden Airfield in Cambridgeshire.

It's probably the same one

Member for

19 years 2 months

Posts: 5,196

Interesting as it was always to be static/running

Member for

15 years

Posts: 297

I have visited the aircraft many times and know the owners well, as far as I am aware it was never going to be a airworthy example. Nothing has been signed off by the CAA and it is made up of new and restored original parts from at least 3 different aircraft,
It has another 8-12 years of work to finish then it will move to a new home at a museum as a static exhibit ( I can't remember which one ) I also am not 100% sure if the engine will run or the aircraft will taxi, certainly will not fly. They are a small dedicated team of mainly retired engineers and others who have done a good job of saving another Hurricane for the future. Ant.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,435

They have their own Closed FB group, and they’re also working on a Mk 1 Hawker Fury. Both to static condition.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,183

Air Britain's "L-file" simply has 85/504 Lost in France 5.40

So not a lot of help on the aircraft providng the ID.

Adrian

Member for

14 years 5 months

Posts: 3,447

Static, running. I assembled the engine bearers and reverse engineered / planned / assembled the wing primary structure. There is no way I'd want to see those parts flying! :eek:

It does contain parts of 1639, found in a ditch in France.

But no, the plan was never anything other than a static, and no-one on the project, including the owners, have ever said anything different. With a one-off new-build Warren-truss 'early' wing built with no involvement with any 'authorities' and in closest-match materials only, no matter how well-constructed it is (and it is) it would never in a million years be certified to fly.

Wikipedia is wrong - who'd have thought it, eh?

Member for

20 years

Posts: 3,902

If the will and the £££ was there, though that current assembly of parts could not fly, the soul/identity ( call it what you will ) of the Hurricane could surely rise again. We have seen this several times.

I would be amazed if the group has not had numerous formal or informal approaches, but clearly the present plan works best for the group, and they have a super Hurricane project to enjoy !

Looking ahead to ongoing Hurricane projects, John Terrell on Warbird Information Exchange lists these .

His formidable global warbird survey thread is here http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=65826

RCAF 5708 at Ray Middleton's shop in Colorado, USA (former Lone Star Flight Museum example, and is set to be completed/flying next year - the aircraft is now owned by the Dakota Territory Air Museum (previously Texas Flying Legends))
- RCAF 5447 at Vintage Wings of Canada
- RCAF 323 at Hawker Restorations in the UK
- Z5207 at Kaelin Aero Technologies in Germany
- AM274 at FAST Aero in Belgium (project sold/imported from the US several years ago, but work on continuing the restoration forward to completion reportedly only just commenced earlier this year)
- BE505 undergoing conversion to two-seat configuration at Hawker Restorations in the UK

There are 15 Hurricanes flying in the world:
Australia: 1 (5481)
Belgium: 1 (KZ321)
France: 1 (DR393)
Germany: 1 (5487)
United Kingdom: 9 (AE977, LF363, P2902, P3700, P3717, PZ865, R4118, V7497, Z7015)
United States: 2 (5667, BW881)