Thunder & Lightnings

Hawker Hunter - Survivor XL578

T.7 XL578 - Privately owned, Kendal, Cumbria

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Hunter T.7 XL578 at Kirkstead, 10th June 2011; Damien Burke

Another one previously owned by Delta was XL578, which was used for spares, along with XL586. Once it had lost its usefulness as a 'Christmas tree', the previous idea of a cosmetic restoration went in the bin (plenty of other nicer airframes were available), and she was dumped on her belly in the fire dump/practice area of the airfield.

She had been rescued from there and was supposedly under restoration at Wickenby Aerodrome, but in August 2010 she was moved to a private owner at Kirkstead. He her back together and began a repaint but the aircraft was still missing substantial bits like the tailplane and radome. With little apparent progress made she has since moved twice - first to the former RAF Binbrook, then onwards to her current location in the Lake District where work on restoring her has begun again.

Information on this page current as of 19/01/2022, last updated by Damien

Find other photos of XL578 on the following sites:

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