This replica (identified as BAPC 177) was donated to Brooklands Museum by the RAF Museum in 1987 and was fully restored by volunteers who fitted an original Clerget engine loaned by the RAF Museum. Built around 1975 as a non-flyable taxiable replica for the film ‘Aces High’, it is now painted as G-AACA which was operated by the Brooklands School of Flying from 1928-1933.

Brooklands Museum Collection

Conceived and designed as the Hawker P.1182 at Kingston-on-Thames in the late 1960s/early 1970s, although this was the eighth Hawk built, it was the fifth aircraft in the flight test programme and also the first Hawk Mk 50. Registered with the CAA as G-HAWK but also allocated the military serial number ZA101, it was first flown by chief test pilot Duncan Simpson from Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, on 17th May 1976 and soon put to use as Hawker Siddeley's privately funded Hawk demonstration and development aircraft.

G-HAWK was later used for development of the design up to the Mk 60 and finally Hawk 100 specifications by testing a variety of design changes and many different payload configurations. Besides appearing regularly at Farnborough and other air shows, this unique aeroplane made extensive overseas sales tours including two in the USA (leading to the US Navy's major order for the T.45 Goshawk) and three in the Middle East.

Brooklands Museum Collection

This aircraft was the first two-seater trainer and was retained as a demonstration aircraft by Hawker to tour the world, showcasing the Harrier to foreign air forces. It was also involved in development work including testing the ‘ski jump’ used on aircraft carriers, and the Skyhook Project, which trialled flying Harriers from container ships and recovering them with a crane as they hovered in mid-air

Brooklands Museum Collection

This example was built in 1940 by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. at Kingston-on-Thames, then assembled and test flown at either Brooklands or Langley, it came from the 5th production batch of 1,000 RAF Hurricanes delivered from August 1940 to July 1941.

Z2389 served with five different RAF Squadrons in 1941, including the American volunteer 71 ‘Eagle’ Squadron at Martlesham Heath. As part of emergency war supplies for Russia, Z2389 was crated up and loaded onto the merchant ship SS ‘S85’ which joined Convoy PQ16. The convoy left for Murmansk on 21st May 1942. With 35 vessels, this was the largest Russian convoy so far – losing seven cargo ships en-route.

This aircraft then joined 767 Regiment of the Red Air Force on the Kola Peninsula. On the 20th June 1942, it engaged two Messerschmitt Bf109Fs and five Bf110s over a remote part of Murmansk but was shot down along with two other Hurricanes. Z2389’s pilot F/Lt Ivan Kalashnikov survived the forced landing.

Fifty years later, Z2389 was found by Russian historians and its remains were taken to St Petersburg in 1996, in 1997, the part-restored aircraft was first seen by WW2 recovery specialist, Jim Pearce, then inspected by Brooklands Museum. Z2389 arrived at Brooklands on the 14th October 1997 and was the first historic aircraft to be purchased with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

Brooklands Museum Collection

The Camel was developed from the Sopwith Baby floatplane. It had a fixed undercarriage and was a very manoeuvrable, high performance and heavily-armed fighter, well able to take on the best of the German Air Force

This replica was made by Viv Bellamy at Westward Airways in 1977, and is painted to represent B7270 of 209 Squadron, RAF, flown by Captain Roy Brown, when he downed the ‘Red Baron’, German ‘ace’, Baron Manfred von Richthofen. Built to airworthy standards with an original 1917 Clerget rotary engine it flew for several years before being purchased by Brooklands Museum with help from the Science Museum.

Brooklands Museum Collection

Britain's most successful post-war fighter design, the Hawker Hunter was the standard RAF fighter of the 1950s. Total production (all versions) from 1951-1966 was 1,972 including 445 licence-built in Belgium and Holland. 429 Hunters were exported and over 700 others were refurbished or re-manufactured for at least 17 air forces overseas.

One of 30 aircraft exported to the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF), this Hunter was built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd at Kingston-upon-Thames and assembled at Dunsfold for first flight by David Lockspeiser on 4/5/56. Delivered to 724 Squadron at RDAF Aalborg in Denmark on 22/6/56 with serial number '47-421', later 'E-421', its full Danish history is obscure but it finally retired after 2,620 flying hours in July 1973.

Brooklands Museum Collection