iscover
This photo ably reflects the detailed work that had gone into building the Hurricane replica.
Hurricane
0 comment
Up on a hillside overlooking Perth lives a man who is building an aeroplane. Notjust anyold aeroplane. This aeroplane is a fighter. One of those flown by ‘The Few’. Arthur is building a . . .
It is 50 years now since those great aerial encounters over southern England and the Channel. Those desperate fights for supremacy which later became known as the ‘Battle of Britain’.
Much has been written about the men who took part in the battle: The pilots of the RAF and many allied nations who jointly faced their common enemy. Only a few of them survive today, worldwide. But what about the aircraft which flew in the battle? Aircraft which captured the imagination of every schoolboy the world over. Spitfires and Hurricanes. Spitfires, which decorated the late summer sky with their contrails and Hurricanes which bore the brunt of the fighting right from the beginning, both accompanied by the unforgettable sound which only their Rolls Royce Merlins could produce. Of those, even fewer remain. In Australia there are only two flyable Spitfires. Hurricanes there are none.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
Enter Arthur Winstanley, retired flight engineer from Kalamunda. Arthur joined the RAF in the closing stages of WW2, trained as an aeronautical engineer while with de Havillands and then joined British Airways as a flight engineer. He criss crossed the world with them in Comets and Connies. He was up there, at the sharp end of the contrails drawn across Australian skies by Concorde and after 28 years of spending one night in Bermuda and the next one in Bangkok he settled down to live quietly on a hillside overlooking Perth.
Did I say quietly? Fat chance! Arthur is as busy as a beaver. Arthur is not only an active member of the Sports Aircraft Association of Australia, but he is their technical director as well. But what he has really been working on these last 8 years, in his garage on a hillside overlooking Perth, is a Hawker Hurricane! No, not the one with a Rolls Royce Merlin up front and Brownings in the wing, but a 5/ath scale replica. All lovingly crafted out of Sitka spruce and mahogany/maple plywood. It will be covered with fabric and painted to looked like the real thing and it will be the only one of its type in Australia.
Any day now, the 150hp Lycoming will kick over and settle into a steady drone while Arthur checks for ‘Mag Drops’ in the tiny cockpit. The chocks will be waved away and the engine note will rise. The little wheels will trundle, then race and then skip across the grass of Serpentine airstrip. So, look out you yellow nosed Messerschmitts and fat-bellied Focke Wulfs. Arthur ‘Hurricane’ Winstanley is on his way
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Australian Aviation a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Australian Aviation as a preferred news source.
