Hurricane PZ865
Header image: Hurricane Mk IIC PZ865 in flight (photo: Mark Meades)
Forty-five years ago this month, on Wednesday 29th March 1972, Hawker Siddeley’s Chief Test Pilot, Duncan Simpson OBE, landed Hurricane PZ865 at RAF Coltishall behind a Lightning jet fighter of the Station’s Operational Conversion Unit. He taxied to the aircraft servicing pan, adjacent to the BBMF hangar, and shut down. He was not expected and nor was the fact that he was delivering this precious, company-owned artefact of the nation’s aviation heritage into the hands of the RAF’s Memorial Flight.