Rare Hurricane Fighter Aircraft, one of just a few World War II examples left, could fetch £1.7 million ($2.7 million) at the Bonhams’ sale of Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia at Mercedes-Benz World Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, UK, on December 3rd, 2012. Designed and built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force, as its first monoplane fighter, gained glory in the Battle of Britain, where it shot down more enemy fighter-aircrafts than the famous Supermarine Spitfire.
More than 14,500 this heroic single-seat fighter aircrafts defended Britain throughout the war. About one fifth of that number were produced in Brooklands in Surrey, where the Bonhams sale will take place. Also, that’s the same place where first prototype was assembled and first flown from there in 1935. Only 12 examples of 14,500 Hawker Hurricanes survive in flying condition. A few non-airworthy examples exist in museums.
Tim Schofield, Director of the Bonhams UK Motor Car Department, said: “This Hurricane is one of only a handful of these iconic aircraft still flying today, and is presented for sale in highly original condition. We expect it will be a lot that will generate much interest among buyers at our December sale, and will complement the important motor cars we already have consigned for the sale.”
A Hurricane Mk XIIa 5711 (G-HURI) fighters that will be offered at auction dates from 1942, and one year later it joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, remaining in Canada for the duration of the war. It is thought to have been flown in the protection of convoys from German U-boats or it may have been used as a training aircraft. This example with the correct Merlin engine is fully restored in Battle of Britain colours, and equipped with 12 Browning .303 machine guns and its capable of a range of 900 miles along with a maximum speed of 322mph.
Historically, back in 1947, it was struck off-charge from RCAF, and was later restored to flight, making its first post-restoration flight back in 1989, before being acquired in 2002 by the Historic Aircraft Collection and housed in the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
