Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc PZ865
The last Hurricane ever built, PZ865 rolled off the production line at Langley, Buckinghamshire, in the summer of 1944 with the inscription ‘The Last of the Many’ on her port and starboard sides. The aircraft was almost immediately purchased back from the Air Ministry by Hawkers and initially mothballed, before being employed as a company communications and test aircraft. During the 1960s, PZ865 was returned to its wartime camouflage scheme, appeared in ‘The Battle of Britain’ film and made numerous display appearances, often in the hands of the famous fighter pilot and test pilot Bill Bedford. After a complete overhaul, PZ865 was flown to Coltishall and donated to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight by Hawker Siddeley in March 1972.
Following many years appearing as ‘The Last of the Many’ PZ865 was painted to represent another famous Hurricane IIc, BE581 ‘Night Reaper’ flown by Czech fighter ace Flt Lt Karel Kuttelwascher DFC* on night intruder operations from Tangmere in 1942 with the RAF’s legendary No 1(F) Squadron. BE581 ‘JX-E’, wore the ‘Night Reaper’ motif on the starboard engine cowling and ‘Kut’ had swastika ‘kill’ symbols painted under the cockpit on the port side. When his three kills from the night of 5 May 1942 were added there were 11 swastika symbols displayed (‘Kut’ eventually achieved a total of 18 confirmed kills). The aircraft’s rudder and a panel on the port wing had to be replaced with black-painted items from a ‘Turbinlite’ Hurricane (BD770) due to ‘flak’ damage incurred by BE581 on that sortie. This is all faithfully replicated on PZ865 as a ‘snapshot in time’. ‘Kut’ survived the war but died in 1959 from a heart attack – he was only 42.