The Rarest And Only Surviving Sea Hurricane | Restoration Classics | Spark

[Music] [Music] a lovely sound of a Merlin engine powering one of the beautifully restored aircraft based here at Duxford aerodrome it's a familiar sound to many of the quarter of a million visitors who come to this thriving part of the Imperial War Museum each year but that aircraft the berlin that pals it and its engine note are unique the last surviving C hurricane is powered by the only air worthy Merlin Mark 3 engine making it the oldest hurricane of any type flying anywhere in the world now based at Oxford the C hurricanes ed 701 5 made its first flight for 52 years on the 17th of September 1995 nine years nine months and nine days after the C hurricane crew started work on this magnificent restoration project giving a new lease of life to one of the world's rarest aircraft david lee duxford deputy director is responsible for all the Imperial War museums aircraft and decides how they best can be used to convey the museum's message in the early 80s we didn't have a hurricane at all the Ducks I felt to be Spitfire orientated hurricane has always been in some ways fires back to Britain's concerned and that was the most important period from duck sirs history the Huracan was far more important to Spitfire and we've we wanted to have a hurricane at Duxford when the shock of collection were looking for somebody else to take on and work on this see our restoration they approached us and we said yes all right we'll we'll give it a go Chris chipping ttan Duxford conservation manager coordinates the work of the volunteers and staff restoring the museum's aircraft we're trying to preserve as much as we can of the original aircraft that took place in these in this conflict so that future generations understand what warfare was about and conducted all of our restoration conservation work is towards a static aircraft the the sea hurricane is unique in that it's the only aircraft the museum has restored to flying condition it's important obviously because of its role in the Second World War and primarily its role in the Battle of Britain I think the hurricane in the public art certainly has always taken second place the Spitfire although restored and now maintained at Duxford the sea Huracan will eventually return to join the other aircraft in this unique collection of air worthy aeroplanes at al worden airfield in Bedford ship Jonathan peal shuttleworth general manager oversees the running of the museum and the continued preservation of the collection the process that the hurricane has now gone through is exactly the same process that the that our Spitfire mark 5 went through that was that was originally restored here and spent some of its time alternating between here and here and old warden for the first few years of its life as you know it's now long-term based at old warden the slogan that we've used for many years time flies at Old Warden applies just applies just as much to the people who work there as it does to what happens shuttle is trust still owned the airplane yes the deal is basically if at any time in the future they decide to sell the aircraft they have to offer offered to us first and we have a quite considerable but if far more than I'd ever envisioned stake in the airplane now and a lot of money we put in to bring it up to flying standard in the latter stages they have become much more involved in it involved in in a timber work in the fabric work and the painting so they have got more involved in in the last year or so but most of 99% of the work has been done here at Duxford with the present team the sea hurricane restoration and its progress has for many years been a focal point for duxford visitors but now it's air worthy again how will the Imperial War Museum operate a shuttle with aircraft the shuttle earth will operate it and there provide the pilots and the and the operation of the aircraft the first two years it be based at Duxford and operating from ducks vamoosh shutteth team maintaining it and operating it after that the next two years it'll be on a 50/50 basis half time here and half time of shuttle earth we've left the period past that open the agreement between the shuttle with collection and the Imperial War Museum means that the sea hurricanes future is now secured but this story is about its past about the stubborn dedication of the Huracan team and their nine years love/hate relationship with this aeroplane the history of the sea hurricane is just one chapter in the overall story of the Hawker hurricane to understand its evolution from a land-based fighter to carrier aircraft we must go back to the origins of the Hawker hurricane itself so Sidney cams first military aircraft design was the hoarsely under the direction of WG carter chief designer at hawker his first design to be built in significant numbers was the metal-framed hawker heart this was followed in 1930 by the Hawker fury both aircraft were powered by the rolls-royce Kestrel Inge and several design variants and types were developed from including the demon or dak Osprey hind and Hector this ex Afghan Air Force hind meticulously restored and flown by the Shuttleworth collection is a fine example of cams design progression it clearly shows the profile that was to emerge as the hurricane on the 6th of November 1935 the prototype hurricane k5o 8-3 powered by rolls-royce pv 12 or merlin as we now know it took to the air at Brooklands for its first test flight piloted by hawkers chief test pilot PWS george Bulman based on the success of the test flights and in anticipation of an air ministry order can proved his confidence in the hurricane by setting up production at Kingston for a thousand aeroplanes in December 1937 the first nine hurricanes to enter Royal Air Force service joined treble 1 squadron at Northolt to replace their aging Gloucester gauntlets these were the first out of an initial air ministry order for 600 that would increase over the next 7 years to a production total of nearly 15,000 aircraft the history of the hurricane is an epic story too vast to relate in any one documentary the sea hurricane however is a small but very important chapter in that story the hurricane was never intended for carrier duties its evolution from land to sea was out of necessity rather than foresight that cams rugged design was quickly adapted for Fleet Air Arm use when needed is further credit to its versatility at the outbreak of the Second World War the Fleet Air Arm was a very young branch of the Royal Navy q Popham Fleet Air Arm historian who flew the C hurricane in combat explains you've got to go back really to 1917 when the Royal Naval Air Service was merged by Smuts of all people with what was then the Royal Flying Corps so there was one service John Christian Smuts was a South African general who drew up the plan in 1917 for a single Air Force that could absorb both the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval flying service his plan was accepted by the War Cabinet and the Royal Air Force was the result his plan worked well for the formation and development of a land-based air force but was to have serious consequences for the future of flying in the Royal Navy the Navy had no control over its own pilots aircraft or anything else until later arms of the thirties really it wasn't until 1937 that the Royal Navy regained control of the Fleet Air Arm but the transition was far from smooth officers with flying experience were few and the naval aircraft issued to the Fleet Air Arm were old and of obsolete design service because by then it was too late because the main frontline carrier aircraft were a skewer albacore Fulmar and swordfish like this beautifully restored and maintained pair operated by the Royal Navy's historic flight when I first it was a small service but it always had this feeling of terrific spirits I think partly because the airplanes were so awful you know the Admiralty's attitude to aircraft was as it was to ships they should never be built for a single purpose or flown by a single pilot without observer or navigating and then eventually torpedo carrying the necessity for dedicated fighter aircraft had never been envisaged by the Admiralty at the outbreak of war and in fact their use had been ruled out after exploratory tests at the Royal aircraft establishment with hurricanes the Admiralty didn't believe you could operate a single seater monoplane from a carrier they were to be proved wrong in the Norwegian campaign by the Royal Air Force in June 1940 forty six squadrons hurricanes had been shipped to Norway to cover the troop evacuations and had been successfully flown off the aircraft carrier HMS glorious to operate from hurriedly prepared airfields in Norway following the rapid German advance Squadron Leader cross received orders to either destroy his hurricanes or send them of the ground crews to the far north coast here the aircraft would if possible be dismantled and shipped home by freighter Kraus considered both plans to be a waste of valuable aeroplanes following consultations with the captain of glorious flew 46 squadrons 10 hurricanes out to the carrier now steaming at maximum speed into wind they'd waited their hurricanes tails with sandbags in the rear fuselage but in the event they all landed on with plenty of deck to spare all ten forty six squadrons hurricanes landed on board glorious with only one minor incident damaged to cross his tail wheel sadly glorious was caught on route to Britain by the German capital ship Scharnhorst and her escort Meissner and sunk with the loss of all aircraft and 1515 men only 43 survived including Squadron Leader cross and his flight of tenant Jameson both of whom went on to have long and distinguished careers in war and peace I think that was a very important event because if the RAF could do it without hooks and surely then what other significant chapter see Huracan story was prompted by the Menace of the focke-wulf 200 condor long-range reconnaissance bombers operating out of bordeaux marion yak which were harrassing convoys in the atlantic far from the reach of shore based fighters the first solution to this problem was for ships to be fitted with catapult rails on which a fighter could be launched for one attack on the shadowing Condor this left the pilot with the choice of flying to any land within range or parachuting back to the ship after combat the Fleet Air Arm was equipped first with four fighter catapult ships X banana boats with Royal Navy crews and pilots of 804 squadron Fleet Air Arm late in 1940 35 Marquand hurricanes were converted with catapults Bulls for use on fighter catapult ships CA M or catapult armed merchant ships were similar to the fleet air arms but cargo carrying ships crewed by merchant seamen and volunteer Royal Air Force pilots from the newly formed merchant ship fighter unit at speak Liverpool these were the first C hurricanes or hurricanes but in the event they were seldom used in anger out of the 200 cam ships planned for in 1940 only 35 were ever converted sailing on 175 convoy protection voyages I mean a camera ship you know it was terrible decision to have to fire this thing off you knew that was the only one you had you wouldn't get it back but then of course from there we moved into into the Woolworth carriers mostly Americans actually because I served in one of them the campaign yeah which is a British carriers and that was the beginning of proper convoy protection or a further link with the Fleet Air Arm that's made Duxford an appropriate place to restore the sea Huracan is the Sakonnet of naval pilots to Royal Air Force squadrons during the Battle of Britain one of the Fleet Air Arm pilots based here under Douglas Barr was liftin and RJ Cork he gained his first experience flying hurricanes for the Royal Air Force long before they were introduced to the Fleet Air Arm Corp served here with distinction and went on to become the Navy's top scoring part flying sea hurricanes but sadly he was killed in a flying accident in 1944 by late 1940 it became apparent to all concern that there was contrary to naval philosophy a great need for a high-speed single-seat carrier-based fighter the Huracan with its rugged versatility was the only suitable aircraft available in sufficient quantities for conversion and in 1941 the Fleet Air Arm started converting pilots men with hurricane experience like cork were to smooth the hurried transition and lead the way with tactics learnt in combat during the Battle of Britain the first true sea hurricane with the rester hook catapults pools and naval radio fish completed test flights following conversion of a prototype by hawkers the subsequent sea hurricane conversions were handed over to general aircraft limited at hand 'with who produced their first sea hurricanes by mid 1941 and went on to complete nearly 700 versions for the Royal Navy this aircraft was one of that first batch converted and out of the 700 C hurricanes it's the only one left in existence researching said 701 fives own personal history has taken Owen Dinsdale the team's historian almost as long as the restoration itself it was started here by another team that they took for the ocean society we took it over as a kit of parts Keith and I have a saying that we start off with a color scheme back from that records proved that this aircraft center section had been laid down at the Hawker aircraft works Kingston as a mark 1 hurricane in 1939 but this was the first twist in the tale as no further records existed until a standard mark 1 hurricane recorded as ed 701 5 arrived from Canada nearly two years later in an effort to secure a safe manufacturing base away from the impending war in Europe Hawk has signed an agreement with Canadian Car & foundry based at Fort William or Thunder Bay as it's now called in Ontario Canada every drawing part and jig of the Kingston assembly line was micro filmed and shipped to Canada there is a possibility that the 1939 Kingston built center section was shipped out to Fort William as well as a pattern for the 1451 Hurricanes that were built over the next three years in Canada returning to Britain as part of the complete Hurricanes ed 701 5 in 1941 this is one possible solution to the Hurricanes british-canadian crossbreeding the other is that the entire center section was replaced during repairs following a landing accident not as unlikely as it might seem the hurricane repair organization would often recycle or amalgamate major parts from two or more damaged aircraft to create one serviceable hurricane it's unlikely that the truth will ever be revealed but with or without the Kingston center section proof does exist that Zed 701 5 was the 93rd Canadian hurricane completed by the Canadian Car & foundry production lines it made its maiden flight Fort William Airport on the 18th of January 1941 by a stroke of luck the original test flight documents were found in 1994 and sent to David Lee by David birch of the rolls-royce Heritage Trust they showed that zd7 i-15 first took to the air on five occasions on the 18th and 19th of January 1941 but these documents should emerge 53 years later is entirely due to an oil temperature problem that said 7 i-15 experienced and which was rectified during test flights this Huracan returned to Britain in 1941 and was allotted to Royal Air Force hen load on the 18th of March from where it went to another maintenance unit at Kimball it's brief Royal Air Force life ended on June the 27th when it went to General aircraft limited at hand worth for conversion to see Huracan 1b it was accepted by the Fleet Air Arm at yo volton on the 29th of July 1941 it went to the First Fleet Air Arm squadron that was equipped with significant 880 squadron to operate it with them I was due to go on to HMS indomitable when she was commissioned squadron records show that at about this time a flight under the squadron commander left on a commander FEC butch Judd embarked on the carrier HMS furious for the attack on Pat's arm at the rest of the squadron including zedd 701 five appears to have visited most of the aerodrome in Auckland Shetland under the charge of senior pilot F Tennant WH moose Martin after a flights returned 880 were based at Sombra and the record show that sub-lieutenant Hugh Popham floozy 701 five five times in this period on the 13th of October 1941 880 squadron were embarked on to the newly completed carrier indomitable zd7 i-15 left Sombra as can be seen in the squadron record book on the 7th of october but it's not amongst the sea hurricanes that arrived on the carrier this disappearance from records remains a mystery the next definite sighting was in April 1942 that David Rosen field limited a civilian repair organization at Barton Manchester where the aircraft appears to have undergone major repairs including work on the undercarriage from December 42 to mid 43 was on 759 squadron which is the Fighter advanced fighter school that Yelton and towards the end of 43 it went to the Opera College is an instructional airframe which is the other reason it survived on the 21st of February 1961 Loughborough College exchanged the C Huracan 1b and a Spitfire 5c for a jet Provost with the shuttleworth collection and zed 701 5 took its place here at al worden aerodrome amongst these historic aircraft the C Huracan now in the guise of a mark 1 Royal Air Force hurricane and together with the Spitfire took up position on static display outside old warden Norman Gardner project coordinator of the C hurricane restoration encountered it here in the early 1960s unbeknown to him then it was to be the start of a very long association the first time I ever saw what I thought was a hurricane mark 1 was when it stood alongside a Spitfire PR 11 adjacent to the gates which was the entrance to the old warden aerodrome of the shuttleworth collection and we were mesmerised cool look at this a hurricane a Spitfire well they do look operational don't they oh yeah a spitfire looks a bit better than there okay yeah shame there oh sorry the hurricane remained at old warden until 1967 when all Second World War aircraft that could be made serviceable well once again recalled for duties with the Royal Air Force at hen lo it was here that Norman and the C hurricane were to meet again because I used to help the Royal Air Force riggers and pitchers who were working on the Battle of Britain film with us to help run the engine then and blank off the radiator which actually we never succeeded in getting you there were they and incidentally I might say at this point what a good job because we didn't know at that time that the Huracan tail plane spar was corroded as it was so there's some weird and wonderful things happened the radiator failure prevented certain disaster at Zed 7 i-15 flown for the cameras in 1968 the tail spar would have disintegrated following the Battle of Britain film the C Huracan returned to old warden and remained there on static display until 1975 when its path and Normans were to cross again at the dirty airfield startin in Gloucestershire yeah the late 1970s when I worked for for my sins I was working for the daily flying unit as its service manager under the direction of Squadron Leader Neville Duke of Hawker hunter Fame in particular and I think it was largely due to air Commodore wheelers Association was Sir George Doughty the doubters were asked if they could possibly help in the restoration of the see her again air Commodore Allen wheeler shuttle with savvy agent rusty at the time had earlier engaged doubt is to refabricate a gladiator and had been impressed with the results unfortunately other there was no obstacles put in our way by the time we got to the tower plane of the sarakin at that time we found it totally corroded there was absolutely no hope after all sorts of inquiries throughout the UK and the world of replacing the tailplane spire and that particular project fell through and that was a great disappointment to me and the aeroplane was taken in dates back to old warden and there it remained until 1981 apart from the wings which were restored by British Airways at Heathrow in 1980 in readiness should a restoration of the airframe be successful the shutteth collection were looking for somebody else to take on and work on this see how in restoration they approached us and we say yes or it will we'll give it a go so the actor I came across here in pieces basically and in in 1982 I think it was the hurricane had arrived at the Imperial War Museum and when didn't do what is now hangar five and some volunteers quite clean Chappy's from das started working on the airframe that team never really worked so I'll never he got together to really achieve very much mainly because we didn't put him very much resource into it we hadn't got much to put into it really I suppose I deliberately said until we can get a proper team and a proper funding arrangements then it's never gonna happen a new agreement with shuttleworth was reached in 1986 and Norman Gardner was appointed as project coordinator I said - he gave it Lee who is deputy director here at Duxford what's happened to it this particular crew was responsible for this beautifully restored Spitfire mark 5c belonging to the shuttle with collection and had worked on several other restoration projects that included the shuttle with Anson and Spitfire PR 11 but they were reluctant to get involved in another shot with aircraft I suppose David Lee takes quite a lump of recognition for his efforts to get this before a crew working so that they eventually I hope will become known as the Sierra conclude [Applause] the crew first assembled in January 1986 in what for the next eight years would become known as the sea Huracan workshop Keith Taylor crew chief and Merlin engine specialist thought their involvement with the sea hurricane would only be brief who's gonna do the engine only for a start there's been offended we've got the wrong one yeah and we got this one in and somehow we ended up with all of the other than quite hell that happens to be honest but yeah well when we first saw it it wasn't a hurricane used just lots of tea chests and lots of spare bits Steve McManus deputy crew chief had tried to get his hands on the sea Huracan in the past the hurricane was sitting over a warden looking rather forlorn and we went over and asked whether we could do that and they said no that's already going down to stab it into a team down there so when we got involved with it it was like a giant Airfix kit without any instructions well initially of course the first thing one does and the crew didn't need any supervision on this was to do an infantry on what bits there were left because it wasn't by any means complete by this technique having travelled all over the country before restoration could start the previous attempts at rebuilding the center section and fuselage had to be dismantled for inspection the rear end of it where it had been sitting down in the grass was quite heavily corroded a lot of the steel tubes were quite heavily corroded and some effort had been made to let them go with certain repairs around them for instance they put clamped plates around some of the tubes to try and reinforce them but when we looked at and we thought well that's only building in trouble for the future so the best answer is to take it totally to pieces which is what we did and the lad started working on decoding all the tubes and some of them were so pitted so corroded fitted that if you'd have removed it you'd have gone right through the wall of the tube so it was decreed that we should replace them now you can't do this without reference to a licensed engineer and this was where mr. Norman Chapman was involved and retained by the Imperial War Museum as the licensed engineer on the project Norman had also acted as licensed engineer on the crews previous Spitfire project they knew that his contribution to the project was not just his CIA recognition he also brought with him years of first-hand knowledge of veteran aircraft stretching back to his first involvement with hurricanes in 1940 in all I'm virtually doing this to see that the ladies are putting the right bolts in the right hole and and I said what it's basically it's tied down to is certification of all the bits that go into the airplane when I took it over there's just no paperwork nothing so it we start from scratch we literally stripped it the extent that it's just a heap of tubes sitting around in here and inspected every tube cleaned it inside and out and then made the decision whether the tube was a gala or not yeah we didn't even know what the parts were in many cases we picked them up in fact we did have one party of people came in here some years ago and said we heard you've got a hurricane in here we said yeah you've just walked over it a Spitfire crew were now turning into the sea hurricane crew but how the vast difference is in construction of the two aircraft caused them any problems the Spitfires construction was I'm gonna get shot down I know but it was simpler for a modern trained engineer to work to put together it was a simpler method it was it was it was modern absolutely different from a Spitfire a Spitfire is all stress skin structure all metal structure this one is a generation before steel to forming the structural members of the airplane then would form us to give it shape stringers that you can then locate the fabric on and then a fabric covering there were one or two heads scratched about well surely they didn't do it like this okay thank you they got cheaply so I did having made a detailed inventory and assess the condition of the major components the crew then began reconstruction in 1987 the first major task was to replace the four corroded long eternal fuselage tubes that run from the cockpit to tail in line with the standard Hawker procedure the tube ins had to be squared this was the crews first major challenge the original tube squaring machine had only just recently been dismantled by authors at Kingston and we were stuck that was difficult it took us about six months to solve to get a machine up and running that would actually work and square the tubes the dimensions we wanted anyway two engineers who were doing part-time work on the airfield under contract came up with a wonderful idea which was as near the original as it possibly could be and we were able to square the tubes this gave a great impetus because of course this allowed us now to rebuild the whole of the fuselage during 1997 the undercarriage legs doghouse assembly and radiator were sent away for refurbishment as parts requiring specialist attention and the crew concentrated on the Hurricanes center section and fuselage replace refurbish everything you could on the fuselage primary structure the tubular structure which the lay man never sees because it's covered over we started to reassemble with new tubes as necessary first of all with the center section and then the fuselage structure around the pilots area and engine subframe a lot of work involved a great deal of work because the structure is wire braced it has Criss crosses where you true up the structure you have now built and that that's quite involved we gradually sort of built from the center section backwards until we arrived at the back in a problem the crew knew they would have to face eventually was the irreparable corrosion in the tail spot that had halted the first restoration attempt at stabbington in the late 1970s luckily there were other hurricanes in the same problem and Cranfield College done a mod where they'd replace the rolled steel spar with a circular spar and put plate webs on the side and really because we didn't tackle it immediately we left it sort of hanging up on the ceiling for a while by the time we got round to looking at it Cranfield already had a solution it's just a case of shipping it over there and getting it done during 1988 the primary structure was rebuilt complete with the center section containing the fuel tanks and the radiator rebuilt by Cambridge radiator the next major problem was wood work originally it was going to be really built for us by a firm called Maurice Bayliss but unfortunately we only got as far as the doghouse with them and because of time scales we had to bring the woodwork back here and do it ourselves with the assistance of the museum we were able to engage a skilled and licensed aircraft woodworker and he came and by Jove he he he made a big difference and we set up all the cheeks on big pieces of plywood to make all the various shapes and forms luckily the original was though virtually falling to pieces were good enough to be able to take patterns off and we just left them rather long if they were a bit broken at the ends and sorted it out when we fitted it to the aircraft many months were spent laying out the wood frames and offering them up to the fuselage until they fitted correctly and by the time the doghouse assembly returned in 1989 the sea Huracan was beginning to look like an aeroplane once again in 1990 Keith Taylor's major Challenge on this restoration started his task was to make the original Merlin 3 engine serviceable that's a piston and it's got better six inch stroke there's 12 of these in there knowing a v-formation two rows of six six there and six over this side these vowels as you can see there's four per cylinder there's two inlet valves which will exhaust spells they open they come out they turn to exhaust herbs this is the camshaft that works these valves through the medium of these fingers they ride on their camshaft proper which is driven by that wheel that's a obviously the heart of the engine all crank shafts are in all engines of course it comes up to the reduction year up to the front and this is a big wheel which is turned by a small wheel which reduces the speed of the propeller to about two and a half times but I think you know to a certain extent when you put it together you see what you've got so to speak and we know the engine is good everything is correct and in fact the chap that actually helped design it has been looked at it we had to call on the services of Alec Harvey Bailey who was mr. Merlin at rolls-royce during the war to come and give us his opinion on the condition of the engine he's you know certified it's his maths as good as new fortunately say we're happy to accept his his recommendations during the 18 months the engine refurbishment took to complete work continued on the rest of the airframe the electrical and hydraulic systems were now installed in the center section and work continued on the wooden frames by September 1991 the Merlin 3 was rebuilt and finished in its original rolls-royce paint scheme ready to be reunited with the C Huracan after years of work the wooden formers were now ready to be placed permanently on the fuselage first the wooden frames or formers are attached to the steel tubes that run from the center section to the tail and then the long thin longerons that support the fabric are joined onto the frames while the woodwork progressed the tail section was sent to Shuttleworth where chief engineer Chris Morris supervised the reef fabric of the control surfaces back at Duxford the team set about one of the more unusual aspects of this restoration the arrestor hook whilst in service sea hurricanes had a simple method of hook deployment release the hook and it dropped ready to catch the wires on the carrier deck it would be clipped back into place by riggers on the deck but for safety reasons said 701 5s hook had to be capable of being deployed and retrieved from the cockpit during a display flight several ideas were thought up and tried until they hit on the idea of a pneumatic valve operated by the pilot that pushed the hook out against a spring releasing the pressure brings it back into its retracted position during this period the team inspected the wings these had been refurbished by British Airways long before this restoration project started and following a detailed examination were found to be in need of cleaning and painting but otherwise fully serviceable it wasn't until early 1993 that Chris Morris and Andy president could come over from shuttleworth to start replacing the outer fabric this process known as bagging requires the Irish linen to be draped over the fuselage stretched over the formers and longer runs and then be stitched in place once the fabric is in place six coats of red doper applied each coat drying and shrinking the fabric to the wood to give a smooth taut aerodynamic finish to the fuselage the process is finished with a final coating of silver dope ready for spraying with the camouflage scheme the team had known all along that this project couldn't be finished in the workshop and as work progressed the sea hurricane got bigger and the workshop smaller before the wings could be fitted or the undercarriage extended said 701 5 would have to move into the restoration hangar on the 13th of March 1994 the sea Huracan left the workshop where it had arrived eight years before as a collection of corroding metal and unusable wood and took up a new position in duxford x' restoration hangar for the first time since restoration started Zed 701 5 was taken off its temporary legs and was able to stand on its refurbished undercarriage over the next few weeks a massive jobs were carried out on the airframe the legs were resealed and the wings that had been taken off so many years ago were replaced the painstaking job of reaming up for the wing route boats was to take until the end of June 1994 once on and secured the wings were painted the propeller was replaced and now for the first time the SI Huracan looked very close to flight on the 23rd of July in 1994 Duxford aerodrome echo to a sound not heard there in many years the teams work on the engine had paid off and on the second attempt the world's only working merlin 3 burst into life the work was not over yet though several more engine runs were needed and a growing list of minor jobs and adjustments were necessary before the sea hurricane would be ready for flight during the autumn of 1994 a party of very distinguished visitors came to Duxford in 1941 they'd also with 880 squadron of the Fleet Air Arm and as such they have a special reason to see the last remaining sea hurricane paddy Bradley Jack Gibson Smith and Hugh Popham all flew see hurricanes during World War two and Hugh even floozie 701 5 today the sea hurricane has been restored exactly as the aeroplanes they flew on the Malta bound convoy operation pedestal as a tribute to them and to the many men who lost their lives in that desperate struggle no I couldn't believe it seeing it again hunted actually flown this thing what strikes is most is the size of it it's not extraordinary have no recollection of it being anywhere near as big as this now and the problems of even getting into it but having changed just before going on the Hurricanes own battles I think we were absolutely thrilled to fly in a hurricane that was that's my memory strong undercarriage to see if I did not have and I think there was much more robust ready very much for us much stronger I think probably the most dramatic episode in her olala in each of our three lives was actually at the climax of pedestal operation pedestal was the last big column is sent in August 1942 to resupply Malta a tiny but vital Island had endured months of unrelated air attacks by Shore based on the fluffy unit Italy Sicily and Sardinia the convoy of 14 merchant ships included the tanker a higher carrying vital field supplies from Walters own Spitfire hurricane and swordfish squadrons the merchantman were protected by the battleships Rodney and Nelson aircraft carriers of victorious Eagle and indomitable carrying Paddy Hugh and Jack in 880 squadron at 20 hundred hours on the 11th of August indomitable sea Hurricanes were scrambled for the second time that day to intercept incoming hostile aircraft we were caught up in the in the sort of dusk attack on the fleet and we'd be not trying for an OP class and we'd been involved with some Jacob 88 that's right and I feel was very load to say the least of it and the fleet were firing at us anyway anyway every time we the last memory I have was this man saying I'm out of fuel and I can see the shadow of a carrier below me I'm going to make a pass at it and it was victorious who at that particular moment the steaming downwind for the captain being on the board tried to turn into is started to turn and win the result was that Hugh made the pass at the carrier and of course as it was turning hard to starboard he overshot the run flight deck and came in from being by the grace of God there were two Huracan sparked an arc daddy there were very effective landing gear actually landed in the middle immediately caught fire yeah and is alleged to have then gone up to the commander flying saluted smartly and said please sir I've just landed Patty and Jack found their ship despite the almost impossible conditions and Hugh remained stranded on Victorious for the remainder of the operation Jack and I managed to get back to and here we are the three old contempt even though the Navy lost the carrier Eagle and two cruisers and only five merchant ships out of 14 including the tanker made it through to Malta operation pedestal was deemed to be a success and kept the tiny island of Malta supplied so as to fight on against almost impossible odds during the winter of 1994-95 a new and unexpected problem emerged with the propeller one blade was found to be loose in its adapter for a while it looked as if this would mean a long delay but then a set of blades was located and acquired by the museum the original hub and new blades were refurbished and assembled by Michael Barnett of sky craft and eventually returned to duxford on the 24th of June to be refitted and tested in an engine run on that day on the 23rd of July shuttle with test pilot John Lewis arrived at Duxford for Zedd 701 5s first taxi test and for the first time in many years Zedd 701 5 was mobile under its own power all that remained now was for the CIA to inspect the sea Harrigan and if satisfied issue a permit to test before it could fly [Music] over the years Norman Chapman and the team had certified every part component and assembly of the restoration these all had to be checked and approved this meticulous attention to detail paid off on the 5th of September when the CIA's inspector spent a day with the team going over the C Huracan and its accompanying mountain of paperwork the 17th of September 1995 is almost exactly 54 years and eight months since said 701 five first flew in Canada almost 45 years after that the see Huracan team started work on this aeroplane and exactly nine years nine months and nine days later they would hope to see it fly [Music] [Music] [Music] mid morning Rolls Royce test pilot Andy Sefton arrived from al worden will do a ground run just to try out the handling of the engine provided everybody is happy including myself and our taxi out if I'm happy with the taxing then I'll get airborne which will be out in that direction I'll try and stand there before we hit the concrete but if it doesn't turn very well I don't want to go through that bad patch over there so I'll take it onto the tarmac and taxi on the tarmac Sefton has many hours on Spitfires but had never before flown a hurricane similar types are found are the Spitfire p-51 and the bear camp in terms of power and storms a powerful as the others but the exhibits the same handling characteristics the idea of a test program is to prove an airplane to make sure it's safe to operate on the first flight all you're trying to do is make sure the thing works basically [Music] [Music] don't take off your dispersant wind is normally finds attendee Roger you apply to is approved surface with northerly intent [Music] [Music] I do discretion more than weekend [Music] [Music] laughter fly it smile now not the in-flight grimace that are normally given that's good thank you but well done thank you good I need a cup of tea I've got over that now it's landed yes I'm very very happy it's nine years nine months nine days since we started the restoration should we do another one mr. Lee no to do another one the sea Huracan team's dedication to this project and their determination to see this one of the world's rarest aircraft fly again we'll bring pleasure to and admiration from the thousands of people who will see it fly long after Zed 701 5s restoration crew are gone [Music]

Channel: Spark

Views: 556,798

Keywords: sea hurricane, hawker aircraft, hawker hurricane, hawker hurricane variants (aircraft line), royal air force (armed force), shuttleworth collection, royal air force, battle of britain, flying display, aviation, restoration, fighter, hawker, warbird, hurricane, museum, old warden, world war two, fleet air arm, documentary history, history documentary, channel 4 documentary, bbc documentary, Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, plane, british, 2017 documentary

Id: zbSs7NZV56w

Length: 57min 49sec (3469 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 09 2019