MEDWAY AIRCRAFT PRESERVATION SOCIETY Ltd
We restore and preserve historic aircraft and artefacts for public display.
Patron: Her Majesty The Queen
Hawker Hurricane IIb BH238
Unfortunately we do not have an engine or the entire airframe.
and what we have received is in a very poor condition.
The restoration to museum standard is expected to take many years.
Hawker Hurricane IIb BH238 was originally manufactured by Gloster Aircraft Company at Brockworth in Gloucestershire in early 1942, as part of a batch numbered BH215 to BH264. First delivered to No. 52 Maintenance Unit (MU) at Pangham Moors, Cardiff, it was dismantled ready for packing before transportation to Russia. Leaving the UK on 26 January 1942, it may have travelled to Russia via Arctic convoy PQ9 or PQ11 arriving at Murmansk in February 1942. It is one of 1,884 Hurricane Mk.IIb's that were sent or handed over to Russia but, before that, the Hawker Hurricane was the mainstay aircraft in the Battle of Britain, there being more squadrons of this type than the Spitfire. Its construction of metal, wood and canvas allowed it to take more punishment than the Spitfire and, although it was slower in speed, many pilots preferred to fly this type in combat. After the Battle of Britain, a change of policy at the Air Ministry dictated that the Spitfire was to be the main attacking aircraft for the Luftwaffe escort Messerschmitt 109's whilst the Hurricane was to attack the enemy bomber formations.
No information is available relating to its Russian service but the skeletal remains of the aircraft arrived back in the UK and were taken to Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight around 2000. It went on display at the Frontline Aviation Museum (now closed) on the island before being stored in non-ideal conditions. It arrived in the MAPSL workshop during 2023 for assessment and it was gifted to MAPSL during the spring of the following year. It will now undergo extensive restoration before going on display.
Air Defence in Russia
Mk II Hurricanes played an important air defence role in 1941 when the Soviet Union was under threat from the German Army approaching on a broad front stretching from the cities of Leningrad and Moscow in the north to the strategic oil fields in the south. Britain's decision to aid the Soviets was to deliver war supplies including a number of Hurricane Mk IIb's, flying with Nos. 81 and 134 Squadrons. Everything had to be sent by sea to the far northern ports and the convoys had to sail within range of enemy air attacks from the Luftwaffe based in occupied Finland. Twenty-four crated aeroplanes were transported on the carrier HMS Argus, arriving just off Murmansk 28 August 1941, and another 15 were sent on board merchant vessels. In addition to their convoy protection duties, these aircraft acted as escorts to Russian bombers. Enemy attention to the area declined in October 1941, at which point the RAF pilots trained their Soviet counterparts to operate the Hurricanes themselves and, by the end of the year, the RAF's role had ended, but the aircraft remained behind and were just the first of thousands of Allied aircraft that would be accepted by the Soviet Union.
Restoration
The first tasks were to remove most of the subassemblies, mainly consisting of remnants of the control system from the airframe to clean, protect and restore them. The engine bearers have also been removed from the airframe, cleaned, treated and restored but await repairs and replacement items. At the current time, they are partially assembled to ensure that all parts are retained.
The majority of the fuselage longerons and cross tubes have been replaced, working from the front with the fuselage remaining attached to the centre section (wing box) to ensure squareness and correct alignment. Many of the existing tubes wee badly corroded and many were also bent and badly broken. Round steel tubing is used and is formed to a square section at the joints. The original stainless-steel gusset plates and brackets are being reused wherever possible; many are as good as new.
Frames for a replacement fin and rudder have been completed and fitted onto the rear fuselage and work is now in progress to reconstruct the tailplanes and elevators.
Limited work has started on the centre section but work on the very damaged starboard wing yet to begin.
