British short takeoff and landing (STOL) prototype biplane from 1943, known as the “Slip-Wing Hurricane”.
Intended to give the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane the ability to operate from shorter airfields by fitting an upper wing, which could be jettisoned to enter combat.
Hawker Hurricane IIa ‘P3351 / K’ (F-AZXR) by Alan Wilson
Via Flickr:
Built at Brooklands in 1940 as MkI ‘P3351’ this Hurricane went on to serve with 73sqn during the Battle of France.
Relegated to a training role, she suffered an accident in September 1941 and was rebuilt as a MkIIa. At this time she was reserialled as ‘DR393’.
She immediately went to Russia and saw Soviet service until shot down in the winter of 1943.
Recovered in 1991, she was restored by Hawker Restorations for Tim Wallis in New Zealand.
Although restored as a MkIIa, she has been painted to represent her original status as P3351 during the Battle of France.
She is now privately owned, appropriately based in France and is seen taking off to display at the 2019 Fête Aérienne Le Temps Des helices (Aerial Festival – The Time of the Propellers).
Aérodrome de Cerny-La-Ferté-Alais, Cerny, France
9th June 2019
