Hawker Hurricane Mk.I P3717 (G-HITT) | Hawker Hurricane Ltd

  • STATUS: Airworthy
  • LOCATION: Old Warden
  • OWNER: Hugh Taylor
  • ROLE: Fighter
  • BUILT: 1940
  • LENGTH:  32 ft 3 in\9.84 m
  • WINGSPAN:  40 ft 0 in\12.19 m
  • ENGINE:  Rolls Royce Packard built Merlin 35 1,460hp
  • MAXIMUM SPEED:  318 mph\511 km/h
  • RANGE:  460 mi\740 km
  • ARMAMENT: 8 .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns

Battle of Britain veteran Hurricane P3717 (G-HITT) was built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd in 1940 as a MkI Hurricane and handed over to the RAF in June of that year. Initially flown by Polish Pilot Officer, W. Samolinski less than seven weeks later, the aircraft was heavily damaged in combat with Messerschmitt BF 110’s. Following lengthy repairs P3717 was reissued to 257 Squadron to see further service.  P3717 was later returned to Hawker for major works a second time and modified to MK 2 standard after which it was then sent to Russia. It was from here that she was recovered in the late 1990’s and the long road to returning to airworthiness started finally completing in March of 2017.

The Hawker Hurricane entered RAF service in December 1937 and outnumbered Spitfires two to one at the outbreak of WW2. Created as a derivative of the Hawker Fury, the Hurricane was a single seat fighter although bombers (known as the Hurribomber) and naval versions (known as the Sea Hurricane) were also produced.

 

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