AEROPLANE meets PETER VACHER

摘要

Acombat veteran Hurricane I, especially a Battle of Britain combat veteran Hurricane I, is a rare, important and desirable thing. Their numbers have swelled in recent years as long-term rebuilds bear fruit, and as interest in the Hawker machine grows. But even with several such fighters now airborne again, there is a special place for R4118. Having notched up five kills during the summer of 1940 with No 605 Squadron, operating from Croydon on 49 combat sorties, no wonder it's the subject of such reverence. And then there's the rest of its story. Further combats over the North Sea with No 111 Squadron at Dyce in 1941, hard use - and several accidents - on operational training units, and shipment to India in 1943 made for a varied existence. It could very well have ended when the airframe was finally removed from its crate four years later and given to an Indian university for ground instructional use. Battered and unloved, it lapsed into dereliction, until an enthusiastic saviour came along.