Thunder & Lightnings

Hawker Hunter - Survivor XL565 (composite with WT745)

T.7 XL565 - David & Amanda Dacre, Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, Leicestershire

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Hunter T.7 XL565 at Bruntingthorpe, 9th January 2022; Jake Wallace

Hunter T.7 XL565, has a rather mixed personality in that it contains sections from WT745 and XL591.

While it arrived at Kemble in cosmetically poor condition it was considered a possibility for restoration to airworthiness. However, in 2002 it was sold by Aeromech to Geoffrey Pool, moving from Kemble to Bruntingthorpe.

Geoffrey acquired an engine and began the long process of restoring her to taxiable condition in one of two other volunteers, which finally lead to her running once more in 2010. Repainted in 2008/2009, she was a regular performer at the open days, with her cartridge start system always producing crowd-pleasing smokey starts! She suffered a nose gear leg collapse in 2018 but was soon back in action with a new gear leg.

In 2020, Bruntingthorpe was leased to Cox Automotive who wanted all aircraft off-site sooner rather than later. This resulted in a lot of groundwork next to the QRA shed which allowed the smaller airframes to be moved off the airfield into a new compound. Sadly, that coincided with some technical issues for XL565 which mean that she needs some work to return to running condition. In late 2021, Geoffrey sold her to a couple of the volunteers who work on the Victor at Bruntingthorpe - David and Amanda Dacre - who hope to get XL565 making noise again in the near future.

Information on this page current as of 09/01/2022, last updated by Damien

Find other photos of XL565 on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net