HAWKER HUNTER WV322 TO FLY AGAIN
Photo: North Weald Heritage Aviation via Facebook
North Weald Heritage Aviation announced that they aim to return to flight the Hawker Hunter T.8C 'WV322' (G-BZSE).
WV322 was initially built as a single-seat F.4 and first flew on 8th June 1955. It was delivered to the Royal Air Force (RAF) 20 days later where she was operated by 43 and 92 Squadrons and then in 1959 was returned to Hawkers for conversion to a T.8C. She was delivered to the Royal Navy and was operated by 764 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) and later 809 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) for Buccaneer pilot training.
With the Buccaneer's retirement from Fleet Air Arm (FAA) service, WV322 was transferred to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was flown by 237 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), again for Buccaneer pilot training. On retirement, she ended up as an instructional airframe at RAF Cranwell before being put up for disposal in early 2001. Christopher Perkins purchased her and after a week and half of the intensive work at Cranwell by engineers from Kemble-based Delta Jets, WV322 flew on a ferry permit on 14th February, landing at Kemble where she underwent work to return her to full permit to fly status. WV322's first post-restoration flight was on 13th March 2002.
Since then she's bounced around a bit between owners and has ended up at North Weald, not having flown for some time. She was given a full strip to bare metal and restoration into a wonderful "Admiral's Barge" style paint scheme in 2015. Sadly that was the year of the Shoreham Airshow crash, and due to the temporary grounding of the Hawker Hunters, their operation after a significant period of downtime has become much more difficult and expensive and WV322 has, unfortunately, remained on the ground to this day.
Statement from the NWHA;
“One of our ongoing projects at NWHA is Hawker Hunter T.8C 'WV322' (G-BZSE). The eventual aim is to see this beautiful aircraft returned to the sky for her owner in the not too far distant future. As part of this we today pulled '322 outside to perform a maintenance ground run to functionally test various systems across the airframe after recent work.
As ever she performed beautifully and this allows us to progress further along with other more critical tasks including commissioning her early Electronic Flight Instrument System and the eventual fitting of an airworthy engine, amongst others.
We can't wait to see one of Hawker’s finest designs take to the skies over North Weald once more, but for now it was great just to hear the beautiful sound of her Rolls Royce Avon engine echoing across the airfield!”
