Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 P2921 | Peter Monk/Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar
Hawker Hurricane P2921 was built by Canadian Car and Foundry as a Hurricane MkI, with the serial AE977, in the spring of 1940. It joined the RAF in September 1940 but was later transferred to the Fleet Air Arm who had it converted to a navalised Sea Hurricane X. While based at Yeovilton it was involved in a mid-air collision during December 1942 and subsequently written off. It was recovered from the crash site in 1960 and spent many years in storage, before its purchase first by well-known warbird recovery specialist Jim Pearce and then New Zealand collector Sir Tim Wallis and Tony Ditheridge of Hawker Restorations, who embarked on its rebuild in 1994.
In June 2000 she took to the air again painted as Douglas Bader’s No 242 Squadron mount from 1940. She then went to the United States in 2001, joining the Friedkin family collection at Chino, California. During 2012 she was shipped back to the UK and repainted as Hawker Hurricane P2921, a No 32 Squadron Hurricane based at Biggin Hill in 1940 and flown by then Flt Lt Pete Brothers.