Hawker Hurricane PZ865
Encyclopedia
Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
PZ865 is a single-engined Second World War fighter operated by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is a Royal Air Force flight which provides an aerial display group comprising an Avro Lancaster, a Supermarine Spitfire and a Hawker Hurricane...
. It was the last of 14,533 Hurricanes produced and is now flown as an airborne memorial.
History
Named The Last of the Many serial numberUnited Kingdom military aircraft serials
In the United Kingdom to identify individual aircraft, all military aircraft are allocated and display a unique serial number. A unified serial number system, maintained by the Air Ministry , and its successor the Ministry of Defence , is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force , Fleet...
PZ865 first flew at Langley, Buckinghamshire on 22 July 1944 and was retained by Hawker Aircraft for trials work.
It moved in 1950 to the Hawker factory at Dunsfold Aerodrome
Dunsfold Aerodrome
Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh, was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors as a Class A Bomber Airfield for Army Co-operation Command...
where it was given the civil registration
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
G-AMAU on 1 May 1950. It was flown into second place at the 1950 King's Cup Air Race by Group Captain Peter Townsend. At this time it was painted in Hawker Aircraft's dark blue colour scheme with gold lettering and lining. The aircraft also appeared in the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain (film)
Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...
film in 1968.
In 1972 the aircraft was refurbished and presented by Hawkers to the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is a Royal Air Force flight which provides an aerial display group comprising an Avro Lancaster, a Supermarine Spitfire and a Hawker Hurricane...
then based at RAF Coltishall
RAF Coltishall
The former Royal Air Force Station Coltishall, more commonly known as RAF Coltishall , was a Royal Air Force station, a military airbase, North-North-East of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, from 1938 to 2006....
, reverting to its RAF serial as identity.
Currently painted as code JX-E to represent "Night Reaper" flown by 1 Squadron
No. 1 Squadron RAF
No. 1 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It operated the Harrier GR9 from RAF Cottesmore until 28 January 2011.The squadron motto is In omnibus princeps , appropriate for the RAF's oldest squadron and one that has been involved in almost every major British military operation since...
fighter ace Flt Lt Karel Kuttelwascher
Karel Kuttelwascher
Karel Miloslav Kuttelwascher, "Kut" was a Czech fighter pilot, a flying ace of the UK's Royal Air Force in World War II. He was the most successful RAF pilot of Czech nationality.-Pilot:...
DFC during night intruder operations from RAF Tangmere
RAF Tangmere
RAF Tangmere was a Royal Air Force station famous for its role in the Battle of Britain, located at Tangmere village about 3 miles east of Chichester in West Sussex, England. American RAF pilot Billy Fiske died at Tangmere and was the first American aviator to die during World War II...
.