Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb – BE505 | Hanger 11 Collection

  • STATUS: Airworthy
  • LOCATION: North Weald
  • OWNER: Peter Teichman
  • ROLE: Fighter
  • BUILT: 1942
  • LENGTH:  32ft 3in\9.82m
  • WINGSPAN:  40ft 0in\12.19m
  • ENGINE: Rolls-Royce Packard Merlin 29
  • MAXIMUM SPEED:  484 kph\301mph
  • RANGE:  465 miles\748km
  • ARMAMENT: 10 x 0.303″ Browning Machine Guns, 2 x 250lb or 1 x 500lb bombs

Hawker Hurricane BE505 is owned by Peter Teichman as part of the Hanger 11 collection at North Weald in Essex. Originally built in 1942 by the Canadian Car & Foundry Company factory,   Hawker Hurricane BE505 has been restored to stock Mk IIB fighter-bomber status, the only flying example of the famous ‘Hurri-bombers’ in the world. The aircraft flew throughout WW2 with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) until being returned to the factory in 1943 to be upgraded to Mk.XII standard – this included the installation of the more powerful Packard built Merlin 29 engine.

At the end of the war Hawker Hurricane BE505 was sold off to the private sector, along with many surplus RCAF Hurricanes at the time, luckily being bought by collector Jack Arnold in the 1970’s. after passing through various private hands she was bought Tony Ditheridge of Hawker Restorations Ltd and returned to the UK as a future project. Restoration work began in earnest in 2005 at Hawker Restorations Ltd’s facility in Suffolk, and was taken on by Hanger 11 after they acquired her in 2007 and re-registered her as G-HHII. The restoration, estimated in the 30,00 hour mark was completed in January 2009 to in fighter-bomber configuration with the markings of BE505, a Manston based Mk IIB operated by 174 (Mauritius) Squadron in spring, 1942. The aircraft is known as Pegs after the pilot of the original aircraft, an Australian Flight Sargent named it after his wife Peggy and features the name and Kangaroo nose art.

Update – December 2017

In December 2017 it was announced that Hawker Hurricane BE505 which had been up for sale via Platinum Fighters Sales for some time had been sold. It has now been confirmed that the buyer is Hawker Restorations Ltd who did the original restorations in 2005-2007. She will shortly be moving to Elmsett from where she will emerge looking very different to her familiar “Hurribomber” configuration.

 

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