{"id":1607223,"date":"2026-10-07T13:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/?p=1607223"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:00:07","slug":"three-hurricanes-three-stories-40017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/en\/blog\/2026\/10\/07\/three-hurricanes-three-stories-40017\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Hurricanes, Three Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are aircraft that need an introduction, and there are aircraft we seem to have known all our lives.<\/p>\n

The Hurricane belongs firmly to the second group. For anyone brought up on the story of the Battle of Britain, its shape is almost part of the landscape: the thick wing, the deep radiator beneath the fuselage, the hump-backed, workmanlike stance. It is so familiar that it can easily become simply the Hurricane<\/em> \u2014 one of the hundreds in photographs, paintings and formation shots from the summer of 1940.<\/p>\n

But no pilot flew \u2018the Hurricane\u2019.<\/p>\n

He flew a particular aircraft, carrying particular squadron letters, from a particular airfield, on a particular day. Its paint was chipped in certain places, its engine had its own temperament, and its place in history was not yet history at all. It was simply the machine waiting outside when the telephone rang and the order came to scramble.<\/p>\n

That is where the Hurricane comes into focus again: at the scale at which history was actually lived, one aircraft and one pilot at a time.<\/p>\n

\"Arma<\/p>\n

Battle of Britain Hurricane Mk I flown by I. R. Gleed, artwork by Piotr Forkasiewicz.<\/em><\/p>\n

The three Hurricanes in this kit all come from the Battle of Britain, but each opens a rather different window onto those months. One was flown by an already successful and distinctive fighter pilot. Another belonged to a squadron in which a Fleet Air Arm pilot found himself fighting a very different kind of war from the one his uniform might suggest. The third is connected with one of the best-known individual actions of the entire battle \u2014 an action for which its pilot received the only Victoria Cross awarded to a pilot of Fighter Command during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

P2798 LK-A<\/strong>, P2884 LE-V<\/strong> and P3576 GN-A<\/strong> are therefore more than three choices of markings. Each is a starting point for a story.<\/p>\n

And that seems a good reason to build another Hurricane.<\/p>\n

\n

Hurricane Mk I P2798 \/ LK-A \u2014 No. 87 Squadron RAF, Exeter, August\u2013September 1940<\/h2>\n

\"Hurricane<\/p>\n

This Hurricane was flown by F\/Lt Ian R. \u2018Widge\u2019 Gleed, one of the best-known British fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain. By the summer of 1940 Gleed was already an experienced fighter pilot and a flight commander in No. 87 Squadron, operating from Exeter during the fighting over southern England.<\/p>\n

At this stage P2798 wore the standard Temperate Land Scheme of Dark Earth and Dark Green. It also carried Gleed\u2019s personal emblem, the black-and-white cat Figaro, below the cockpit.<\/p>\n

The aircraft remained closely associated with Gleed after the Battle of Britain. In the winter of 1940\u201341, when No. 87 Squadron was used in the night-fighter role, P2798 was repainted black while retaining its individual markings. By then Gleed had become Squadron Leader, and his rank pennant was carried on the fin and rudder. The aircraft was also fitted with unusual six-outlet exhaust stacks, visually similar to the type later familiar from Spitfire Mk IXs.<\/p>\n

P2798 therefore had a remarkably long and visually varied operational life. The version shown here represents the aircraft during the Battle of Britain, before its later transformation into an all-black night fighter.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian Richard Gleed and his \u201eFigaro\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n