CAE purchased the wreckage of Hurricane R30040 that crashed during the night of 22nd November 1942 whilst the pilot was performing aerobatics, at night! The pilot Flt/Sgt A.R.Taylor of 127 Squadron was based at Gander, Newfoundland. He baled out at 2000ft and CAE have a copy of the crash enquiry report and documents relating to the writing off of the aircraft.

Hurricane History
Developed by Hawker Aircraft in response to the Air Ministry’s specification, the Hurricane was designed by aeronautical engineer Sydney Camm. Camm began designing the Hawker Hurricane in 1934 as the first fighter monoplane with enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage, with a speed in excess of 300mph. The first prototype K5083 was flown from Brooklands in November 1935, with the initial production Hurricane I’s entering RAF service in December 1937, powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin engine and a two bladed Watts propeller.

By the time war was declared in September 1939 there were some 500 Hurricanes in RAF service all armed with 8 Browning .303 machine guns and powered by either Rolls Royce Merlin II engines driving a Watts fixed propelleror Merlin III engines with a de Havilland or Rotol threebladed propeller. The Hurricane’s top speed was 325mphwith a service ceiling of 36,000ft and a range of approx350/400 miles.Hawker Hurricanes shot down 80% of German aircraftduring the battle of Britain (July to October 1940), althoughunder-powered the Hurricane was developed further with theMk IIb, Mk IId tank buster, Mk IV and the Canadian Mk XII,in all some 14,000 Hurricanes were built by the end of 1944.

There are only 7
airworthy Hurricanes
flying today!