WINGS OF FREEDOM 2019 - HURRICANE-BUCHON-SPITFIRE CHASE
Hispano HA-112 MIL Buchon (G-AWHK)
• Aircraft Type: Hispano HA-112 MIL (Buchon)
• Operator: Aircraft Restoration Company
• Year of Manufacture: 1959
• Powered by: Rolls Royce Merlin 500-45
• Colour Scheme: Luftwaffe ‘Yellow 10’ (Battle of Britain movie)
The Buchon is essentially a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine Messerschmitt Bf109. The Luftwaffe-manned Condor Legion upon its return to Germany in 1939, lefty around 40 Bf109B/E’s for the Spanish Air Force to use. In 1943 the Spanish government agreed to licence production with Messerschmitt to produce 200 Bf109G’s. As the war worsened, Germany was unable to supply the remaining components for the airframes. Improving relations between the Spanish government and the West from 1952, saw the powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engine sourced from Britain fitted to the airframe. The combination of ex-German airframe and British powerplant was successful and the first prototype flew in 1954. This particular aircraft was built by Hispano Aviacion in Saville in 1959. This aircraft was one of 27 purchased at auction from the Spanish Air Force by Spitfire Productions for use in the making of the 1968 film “Battle of Britain”. After filming this aircraft was acquired by Wilson C Edwards and shipped to the U.S.A. She was acquired by the Old Flying Machine Company and arrived back in the U.K in 1996. After being sold on to The Real Aircraft Company who initiated a full rebuild to airworthy condition she was acquired by Spitfire Ltd in 2006. This aircraft is now owned by Historic Flying Ltd and flown in the movie ‘Valkyrie’ starring Tom Cruise.
THE STORY OF V7497 HURRICANE MK.1 501 SQUADRON
V7497 is a Hurricane Mk 1, manufactured in mid 1940 by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. Flown operationally at the very height of the Battle of Britain from the famous fighter station, RAF Kenley, East London, the aircraft was lost during an operational patrol on 28th September over Sutton in Kent.
V7497 was part of the fourth Hawker production block by Hawker Aircraft Limited, manufactured at the new Langley facility near Heathrow (then a tiny grass airfield) in Berkshire to Air Ministry Contract no. 62305/39. The aircraft was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin 111. Hurricane deliveries from this block commenced on the 2nd July, 1940 and were completed on the 5th February, 1941. The average rate of production about two aircraft per day.
Like many fighters at the height of the Battle of Britain, its service career was short lived, and it was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf109 over Kent on 28th September after only seven operational sorties. The airframe came to earth in Sutton and the pilot, P/O E.B. Rogers survived the incident by taking to his parachute.
SD-X designated aircraft where flown by notable 501 Squadron pilots including Squadron Leader ‘Ginger’ Lacey and Wing Commander K.W. MacKenzie (V6799). SD-X designated aircraft also appeared in the movies; `Reach for the Sky’, the story of Douglas Bader, starring Kenneth Moore, T4107/SD-X and appropriately filmed at Kenley.
SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE MK.IA
Built at Southampton in 1939, this Supermarine Spitfire Mark 1a was issued to No. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford in April 1940. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. By the end of May 1940, Germany's rapid advance through north-west Europe had forced Allied troops back to the coast of the English Channel.
Stranded on the beaches of the French port of Dunkirk, the BEF faced certain capture that would have meant the loss of Britain’s only trained troops and the collapse of the Allied cause. The Royal Navy hurriedly planned an emergency evacuation – ‘Operation Dynamo' – to get troops back to Britain.
On 26 May operation Dynamo began, which included the Royal Air Force sending all available aircraft to protect the evacuation. No. 19 Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson piloted Spitfire N3200 on its first and only operation as he led his squadron on a patrol to cover the evacuation of Allied forces.
After shooting down a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber, Stephenson was himself shot down. He crash-landed on a beach at Sangatte, near Calais, and was captured. Stephenson remained a prisoner for the rest of the war, including a period spent at Colditz Castle, while his Spitfire gradually sank under the sand.
Stephenson continued his RAF career after the war but was killed in 1954 while test-flying in America. His Spitfire was recovered from the French sands in 1986 after strong currents revealed it, more than 45 years after it sank. The wreckage was excavated during the spring of that year and, though largely intact, very few parts could be salvaged.
The Spitfire was restored to flying condition and returned to the air in 2014, before it was donated to IWM in 2015. During a visit to the museum in July of that year, the Duke of Cambridge watched an air display by the Mark 1a fighter, sat in its cockpit and visited Duxford’s Battle of Britain exhibition – housed in the very same hangar that No 19 Squadron’s Spitfires were kept during the war.
WINGS OF FREEDOM 2019 - HURRICANE-BUCHON-SPITFIRE CHASE
Hispano HA-112 MIL Buchon (G-AWHK)
• Aircraft Type: Hispano HA-112 MIL (Buchon)
• Operator: Aircraft Restoration Company
• Year of Manufacture: 1959
• Powered by: Rolls Royce Merlin 500-45
• Colour Scheme: Luftwaffe ‘Yellow 10’ (Battle of Britain movie)
The Buchon is essentially a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine Messerschmitt Bf109. The Luftwaffe-manned Condor Legion upon its return to Germany in 1939, lefty around 40 Bf109B/E’s for the Spanish Air Force to use. In 1943 the Spanish government agreed to licence production with Messerschmitt to produce 200 Bf109G’s. As the war worsened, Germany was unable to supply the remaining components for the airframes. Improving relations between the Spanish government and the West from 1952, saw the powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engine sourced from Britain fitted to the airframe. The combination of ex-German airframe and British powerplant was successful and the first prototype flew in 1954. This particular aircraft was built by Hispano Aviacion in Saville in 1959. This aircraft was one of 27 purchased at auction from the Spanish Air Force by Spitfire Productions for use in the making of the 1968 film “Battle of Britain”. After filming this aircraft was acquired by Wilson C Edwards and shipped to the U.S.A. She was acquired by the Old Flying Machine Company and arrived back in the U.K in 1996. After being sold on to The Real Aircraft Company who initiated a full rebuild to airworthy condition she was acquired by Spitfire Ltd in 2006. This aircraft is now owned by Historic Flying Ltd and flown in the movie ‘Valkyrie’ starring Tom Cruise.
THE STORY OF V7497 HURRICANE MK.1 501 SQUADRON
V7497 is a Hurricane Mk 1, manufactured in mid 1940 by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. Flown operationally at the very height of the Battle of Britain from the famous fighter station, RAF Kenley, East London, the aircraft was lost during an operational patrol on 28th September over Sutton in Kent.
V7497 was part of the fourth Hawker production block by Hawker Aircraft Limited, manufactured at the new Langley facility near Heathrow (then a tiny grass airfield) in Berkshire to Air Ministry Contract no. 62305/39. The aircraft was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin 111. Hurricane deliveries from this block commenced on the 2nd July, 1940 and were completed on the 5th February, 1941. The average rate of production about two aircraft per day.
Like many fighters at the height of the Battle of Britain, its service career was short lived, and it was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf109 over Kent on 28th September after only seven operational sorties. The airframe came to earth in Sutton and the pilot, P/O E.B. Rogers survived the incident by taking to his parachute.
SD-X designated aircraft where flown by notable 501 Squadron pilots including Squadron Leader ‘Ginger’ Lacey and Wing Commander K.W. MacKenzie (V6799). SD-X designated aircraft also appeared in the movies; `Reach for the Sky’, the story of Douglas Bader, starring Kenneth Moore, T4107/SD-X and appropriately filmed at Kenley.
SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE MK.IA
Built at Southampton in 1939, this Supermarine Spitfire Mark 1a was issued to No. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford in April 1940. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. By the end of May 1940, Germany's rapid advance through north-west Europe had forced Allied troops back to the coast of the English Channel.
Stranded on the beaches of the French port of Dunkirk, the BEF faced certain capture that would have meant the loss of Britain’s only trained troops and the collapse of the Allied cause. The Royal Navy hurriedly planned an emergency evacuation – ‘Operation Dynamo' – to get troops back to Britain.
On 26 May operation Dynamo began, which included the Royal Air Force sending all available aircraft to protect the evacuation. No. 19 Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson piloted Spitfire N3200 on its first and only operation as he led his squadron on a patrol to cover the evacuation of Allied forces.
After shooting down a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber, Stephenson was himself shot down. He crash-landed on a beach at Sangatte, near Calais, and was captured. Stephenson remained a prisoner for the rest of the war, including a period spent at Colditz Castle, while his Spitfire gradually sank under the sand.
Stephenson continued his RAF career after the war but was killed in 1954 while test-flying in America. His Spitfire was recovered from the French sands in 1986 after strong currents revealed it, more than 45 years after it sank. The wreckage was excavated during the spring of that year and, though largely intact, very few parts could be salvaged.
The Spitfire was restored to flying condition and returned to the air in 2014, before it was donated to IWM in 2015. During a visit to the museum in July of that year, the Duke of Cambridge watched an air display by the Mark 1a fighter, sat in its cockpit and visited Duxford’s Battle of Britain exhibition – housed in the very same hangar that No 19 Squadron’s Spitfires were kept during the war.