Hurricane damage

[auster]

I am clearing out years of accumulated ‘things’. Today I came across this letter, which was sent by Rollasons Aircraft Services Ltd. at the time that they were repairing Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain. They were based at Croydon as well as London Air Park, Feltham. I rescued it whilst at Hawkers when it was going to be thrown away in the 1950’s..

The letter is in poor condition and will not scan satisfactorily and so I have had to type it out as accurately as I have been able. Obviously the letterhead is missing but I have stuck to the layout, punctuation and spacing. The font is nearly right but after all it was a 1940’s typeclatterer. Hope it’s of interest.

_________________________________________________________________

SAT/DEJ/415 11th June 1940.

Hawker Aircraft Ltd.,
Canbury Park Road,
KINGSTON on THAMES.

Attention on Mr. Barrett.

Dear Sir,

Re: HURRICANE Aircraft N 2472.

Further to our conversation with Mr. Rochefort today,
we detail in this letter the damage that was found on the
above aircraft upon inspection.

We would mention that this machine was flown in to
Croydon, and we understand that the pilot was wounded in the
left leg.

AIRSCREW.

One blade apparently hit by cannon shell on rear face
face approximately 12” from tip, causing tip to bend back
from 10 to 15 degrees.

PORT OUTER PLANE.

It would appear that a cannon shell had entered the
top skin through the trailing portion immediately after
the rear spar, and burst inside the wing. The front
intermediate and rear intermediate spars were damaged
and there was extensive damage to the lower skin.
In addition, the trailing edge root end was badly
damaged, the flap main shaft being shot through. It
is understood that the machine flew back with the flaps
down.

FUSELAGE.

The following members were badly fractured by
bullets:-
Strut E-H Port Cross Strut J-J
‘’ L-O ‘’ Strut N-O Port
‘’ N-Q ‘’ ‘’ N-Q Starboard
Over/



(2)

In addition, Strut P-Q, the tube support top
to cradle and Cross Strut G-G were badly dented and
bowed. One cross bracing was shot through.

Centre Section.

Outer three ribs on port side generally damaged,
and stiffener fractured.

FIN.

Front and rear post, boom and web badly damaged.

RUDDER.

Bottom fairing hole and subsidiary tube shot
through.

ELEVATOR, (STARBOARD).

Spar shot through.

GENERAL.

Apart from the above structure damage there was a considerable amount of minor bullet damage to fuselage
formers, fabric surfaces etc, etc.

We would say that this is the most extensively damaged
HURRICANE aircraft with which we have had to deal so far,
and it certainly speaks well for Hawkers’ construction that
the machine should still be able to be flown in the condition
as received.

Yours faithfully,

p.p.ROLLASON AIRCRAFT SERVICES LTD.



p.p.W.E.Packman,
Director and General Manager.

________________________________________________________________

AAAAGGGGHHHHH. I've lost the font and the layout. Sorry. At least the text is still there.

Ralph

[Jon.M]

Thanks for posting this Ralph, it makes interesting reading.

It seems that it's not for nothing that the Hurricane was described as a collection of non essential parts for it's ability to absorb damage.

Jon

[Filonian]

Interesting reading indeed.

Many thanks for posting Ralph.

Graham

[Paul K]

Interesting indeed! Cheers Ralph.

[Nigel H-J]

My God, was that pilot lucky to be flying a Hurricane, had it been a Spitfire and sustaining that amount of damage then he may well have been forced to bail out, that is if the wound to his leg did not prevent him from making an escape.

Just goes to show how much of a sturdy workhorse the Hurrican was.

Many thanks for posting that Ralph.

Nigel.