Although not one of ours, late last year a new aeroplane appeared on the airliner ramp, a Hawker Hurricane replica. This normally lives atop a pole at the entrance to the public car park here at Duxford. Its owned by the IWM and the weather had taken its toll on the paintwork. Following our Military Vehicle Wing’s success repainting the A34 Comet tank that also sits by the car park entrance the IWM asked DAS if we could repaint their Hurricane. When the IWM craned the replica off the pole a large crack was found in the starboard wing.
However after towing the Hurricane to our apron and following a good wash we deployed the DAS secret weapon, Cedric! Cedric was a former Formula One mechanic with Jim Clark and the Lotus racing team so he knows a thing or two about repairing fibreglass and it was not long before the wing was looking good as new ready for painting. So it was into the Airspace hangar for the primer to be applied but not before the canopy was removed to the workshop for re-glazing. After a great start work ground to halt as obtaining the correct colours for the top coat was proving very difficult. Once that was sorted work cracked on and it is hoped by the time you read this the Hurricane will be back with the IWM resplendent in its new colours as an aeroplane flown by Douglas Bader during his time at Duxford. Here are a few photos of its time with DAS.
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