Rare pair

Air Classics, Apr 2002 by O'Leary, Michael

On 5 December 1942, Acting Sub-Lieutenant Trevor Keene (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve) was repidly turning his head as he pointed his Sea Hurricane AE977 downhill. Passing through 10,000 feet in very hazy skies over the pastoral landscape of Somerset, England, Keene was looking for another Hurricane. The two aircraft were doing a bit of tail-chasing during a camera-gun exercise. Racking the Hurricane in a right descending turn, Keene still had not spotted the other Hurricane when his aircraft suddenly felt as if it had hit a brick wall.

The aircraft flicked to the right as Keene pulled the throttle back. A quick check of the controls told him he was in big trouble. What had happened was that he had collided with Hurricane Mk. I Z4702 being flown by fellow pilot Midshipman John Samuel Bird (RNVR). Instinct and training took over - Keene shoved back the heavily-braced canopy, jettisoned the small wood side door, hit the quick release on his Sutton harness and went over the side as the Hurricane continued its fatal spiral to the ground.

Midshipman Bird was doing the wine thing and as they floated down under their parachute canopies, Sea Hurricane AE977 impacted the ground near the village of Godney at 1340 hr local time. The two aircraft were written off as just more casualties of the long and deadly war and were quickly forgotten on the lengthy road to victory.

CHINO: 17 JANUARY 2002

A small crowd had gathered at Planes of Fame ("Our original name is The Air Museum," started spokesperson Mark Foster, "but we want to be referred to in print from now on as Planes of Fame") in the late afternoon. We were all waiting for the arrival of two historic aircraft that would soon be calling Chino home. As the sun began to drop on the western horizon, the distinctive sound of Merlin engines could be heard and two fighters soon flashed overhead before entering the break for landing. One of the vintage fighters was a beautiful Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX. The other aircraft was a bit more bulky in appearance compared to the elegant Spitfire. What was it? It was Sea Hurricane AE977! How on earth did this aircraft re-emerge from a pile of World War Two wreckage to become a pristine example of the now-rate fighter? It's an interesting story.

THE HURRICANE

Hawker Sea Hurricane X AE977 was constructed by the Canadian Car & Foundry Company in Ontario, Canada. During the spring of 1941, the plane was shipped to Britain and went into service with the Royal Air Force as a Hurricane Mk. I. Its stay with the RAF was short since the fighter was transferred to the Royal Navy where it was modified to Sea Hurricane X specifications - albeit without a hook. When built, the aircraft was included in the second batch of Hurricanes built by Canadian Car & Foundry and was fitted with a Packard Melin 228 powerplant.

When involved in the mid-air collision, the aircraft was assigned to the Fleet Air Ann's 749 Squadron. The wreckage of the aircraft apparently lay where it fell until 1988 when the remains were recovered. AE977 was obtained by the Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka, New Zealand and transferred to Tony Ditheridge's Hawker Restorations Ltd. in Suffolk during 1996. The company specializes in the complex restorations of the Hurricane airframe and Was Well Suited for the undertaking. Hawker Restorations was created in cooperation with Sir Tim Wallis of the Alpine Fighter Collection and the company started collecting as much information, materials, and equipment related to the Hurricane as possible.

Because of the high cost of such a complex restoration, the company hoped to start work on five Hurricane projects. At least 50,000-man-hours and $900,000 worth of parts goes into each aircraft. The Hurricane has thousands of small parts - each made to close tolerances - and this is enough to drive most restorers mad. Hawker Restorations starts each project With the bare fuselage, engine mount, and center section. The center section spars are complex and very difficult to build since each is a nested twelve-sided roll formed of spring steel with one inserted inside the other. This assembly then clamps onto an inner tube which then has another liner tube inserted. Obviously, tolerances are very, very critical and this is why there have been so few Hurricane restorations - at least until now.

Guy Black operates another restoration company named Aero Vintage and, rather amazingly, he found one of the original spar-making machines. Once acquired, there was a big learning curve and much research was undertaken into the metals utilized. Several tons of metal were manufactured overseas, heat treated, and then cut to width. Over 120 18-inch diameter rollers had to be designed and manufactured for the spars that went into the center section. Also, the horizontal and vertical tails needed a similar number!

Although the fuselage is steel tube, the formers are wood and require an expert woodworker - especially for the complex and difficult wooden structure that surrounds the Hurricane's cockpit. The outer wing panels for AE977 were sent to Airframe Assemblies who subcontracted the work and attempted to utilize as much original material as possible. However, Hawker Restorations is now manufacturing its own wings.