Tag Archives: hurricane

Hurricane Hunters Back In Town

I was heading back from south of Seattle when I was surprised to find out that the NOAA WP-3D Orion, Kermit, was at Boeing Field.  It had come in the day before but I hadn’t heard about it.  I was planning to stop for lunch so why not go to BFI?  Just after I got there, I saw a prop start turning on the number one engine.  However, after running it up, they shut down again.  I was dreading that they were going to go tech and the plane wouldn’t move.

Fortunately, whatever they were concerned about wasn’t too much of an issue.  A little while later, while I was still eating my lunch, I looked up to see two engines running.  This looked more promising.  Sure enough they taxied shortly afterwards.  The nice news was that they crossed the runway to taxiway bravo so we got a good look at them.  A while later it was their turn for departure and they came my way.  The nice thing about a four engined prop is that they didn’t climb too rapidly so a good angle on them.  It was pretty overcast so not ideal light but the dark colors show up better without too contrasty light.

Canadian Battle of Britain Hornet

AU0E3110.jpg1940 was a tumultuous year in the UK. While the war had started in 1939, 1940 was the year in which it came home to the British. The German air campaign was supposed to be softening up the defenses ahead of an invasion. Things turned out differently as a consequence of some valiant defense, some great pilots and aircraft and some strategic blunders by the Germans. As a result, Operation Sealion was cancelled and the UK remained out of German control although still subject to constant bombardment.

C59F1716.jpgSeventy five years later, there are many celebrations planned to commemorate the Battle of Britain. Many air forces participated as part of the Royal Air Force with squadrons being operated by crews from individual countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Canada. Canada is marking the anniversary in many ways but one is decorating a CF-188 Hornet in a special scheme.

C59F1730.jpgThe paint finish is replicating a Hawker Hurricane from 1940. The colors are reproduced and there are even red marking on the wing leading edge to represent the locations of the gun ports on the Hurricane. It also carried commemorative markings to recognize those that took part in the battle. I was lucky to see the jet at Chino. It flew after sunset on the Friday and then as part of the main display on the Saturday. The sunset show concluded with it dragging the hook along the runway in a shower of sparks!

AU0E3097.jpgThis jet will appear at a number of venues throughout the year. If you can see it, do try and make the effort. The RAF has a Typhoon marked up similarly and I am sad that I won’t see that. This is a great alternative for me.

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