Hurricane R4118: The Great Battle of Britain Survivor

One of Peter Vacher's great passions in life is restoring Rolls-Royce motor cars. In March 1982 he was travelling in India on research when quite by chance in the grounds of a northern university he stumbled on the rusting remnants of an aircraft. It was a British plane, but unrecognizable. Peter was intrigued.

Initially thinking it was a Spitfire, he managed to get the serial number from which he obtained confirmation that it was in fact a Mark I Hurricane, R4118, which had flown in the Battle of Britain! For years he did nothing but the fantastic idea of bringing it back to England and seeing it fly again stayed at the back of his mind.

In 1996 he decided to act and made an offer to buy the remains. In 1997 the offer was accepted. There then followed six years of wrangling, committees, red tape, Indian Air Force involvement, and much patient lobbying before in 2002 Peter was given 24 hours to remove the plane. Then the truly difficult process began of restoration - a worldwide search for parts, careful reconstruction, flight testing, and finally, finally airborne again.
This is truly an amazing story, a dream come true, documented in words and pictures as it happened.

Peter Vacher is the noted author of Hurricane R4118. He was born in London during the Blitz and was educated at Marlborough College.