WOW372 Hawker Hurricane Willie McKnight

Description

The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s/40s that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the RAF. It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire’s role during Battle of Britain in 1940, however the Hurricane inflicted 60 percent of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in this engagement, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

In June 1936, the Hurricane went into production for the Air Ministry; it entered squadron service on 25 December 1937. Its manufacture and maintenance was eased by using conventional construction methods so that squadrons could perform many major repairs without external support. The Hurricane was rapidly procured prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, when the RAF had 18 Hurricane equipped squadrons in service.

The Hurricane was developed through several versions, into bomber-interceptors, fighter-bombers, and ground support aircraft as well as fighters. Versions designed for the Royal Navy known as the Sea Hurricane had modifications enabling operation from ships. Some were converted as catapult-launched convoy escorts. By the end of production in July 1944, 14,487 Hurricanes had been completed in Britain, Canada, Belgium and Yugoslavia.

Our Hurricane is one flown by Willie McKnight,  DFC & Bar. He was Canada’s fifth-highest scoring ace of the war. McKnight joined the RAF in early 1939 and served with 242 Sqn during the final phase of the Battle for France, covering the Allied retreat to Dunkirk and later the Battle of Britain.

His Hurricane carried a human skeleton image which held a sickle in its hand under the cockpit. McKnight scored 17 victories, as well as two shared and three unconfirmed kills. McKnight was shot down and killed on 12 January 1941 during a fighter sweep over Calais.

We have a limited edition of five hand carved Mahogany aircraft available. The price is $650 per model plus postage. Postage is approximately $100 to the USA, but would be around $150 to Australia or New Zealand. For those of you here in Europe the postage is lower, we do what we can when we can in these difficult times.
All the K&C figures and the TG/JJD accessories are shown for scale comparison purposes only and are not included.