Hawker Sea Hurricane Ib

The first Sea Hurricanes were used on Royal Navy Fighter Catapult Ships and Catapult Aircraft Merchant (CAM) Ships, an RAF Unit. These operations were, however, comparatively small in relation to the numbers that served in Fleet, Escort and Merchant Aircraft Carriers (MAC). Sea Hurricane IBs took part in what was probably the Fleet Air Arm’s greatest victory, the August 1942 Malta convoy ‘Operation Pedestal’, in which the fleet carriers Eagle, Indomitable and Victorious, with Furious to fly off Spitfires for Malta, carried 801, 813, 880, 800 & 885 Squadron Hurricanes as well as Fulmars and Martlets.

Sea Hurricanes, and some unconverted Hurricanes, were also used as combat trainers by the Naval Fighter School (759 and 761 Squadrons) at HMS Heron (Yeovilton).

About this aircraft

Z7015 was built by Canadian Car & Foundry and first flown on 18 January 1941. After being shipped to England and stored for a short while it was issued to General Aircraft for conversion to Sea Hurricane IB standard. Then, on 19 July, it was delivered to HMS Heron (RNAS Yeovilton) from where it was collected on 29th July 1941 by a member of 880 Squadron, based at St Merryn, and went with the Squadron to the Orkney Isles. On 7th October the Squadron left the Orkneys for Macrihanish to embark on HMS Indomitable. Somewhere during the transit flight Z7015 went unserviceable and was not embarked.

On 5 April 1942 the aircraft was delivered to David Rosenfield Ltd at Barton (Manchester) for repair. On 7 December of that year it was delivered to the Naval Fighter School (759) Squadron at HMS Heron and by autumn 1943 had moved to Loughborough College as an instructional airframe.

In 1961, Z7015, together with Spitfire AR501, was swapped for the prototype Jet Provost then owned by the Shuttleworth Collection. An attempt was made to make the Hurricane airworthy for the Battle of Britain film but the work involved was too great. In January 1986, after two more abortive attempts at restoration, the team that had restored Spitfire VC AR501 took on the task in a joint operation between the Shuttleworth Collection and the Imperial War Museum.

On 16 September 1995, Z7015 made a successful post restoration flight powered by what was, at the time, the World’s only operational Merlin III.

Specification