Hawker Hunter - Survivor XE665 (ex G-BWGM)
T.8C XE665 - Cotswold Airport, (on display) Kemble, Gloucestershire
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Hunter T.8C XE665 at Cotswold Airport, 30th May 2021; Jake Wallace
This is XE665, built as an F.4. XE665 served with 118 Squadron in RAF Germany, but after only a couple of years was converted to a T.8 and issued to the Royal Navy - re-entering service with 764 NAS.
Shortly after transfer to the HMS Heron (Yeovilton) station flight, she was repainted in blue and white Admiral's Barge colours. She went on to serve with 759 and 738 NAS at Brawdy, before returning to Yeovilton and the ADTU, and later FRADU. She also spent some time with 237 OCU at Honington but finished the last few years of her career back at FRADU in an overall EDSG colour scheme.
After retirement in 1995 XE665 was acquired by the Hunter Flying Club at Exeter who wanted to put her back into the Admiral's barge colours that she wore while operated by FONAC at RNAS Yeovilton, but never managed to get the sponsorship they needed to do so.
She then moved on to Delta Jets at Kemble where she was part of the spare Hunter line on the north side of the airfield.
With Delta's collapse, it eventually moved on to Midair Squadron who painted the aircraft in their corporate silver scheme and use her as a static exhibit. She was briefly displayed at the Goodwood Revival in 2014 but returned to Kemble, and after Midair's collapse she was put up for sale and was in storage.
Since Midair's collapse, XE665 has been seen on display for several years outside the AV8 café at Cotswold Airport. After a few years there, the aircraft was for moved to the sitting area where it was fenced off ready to be moved else where on the site.
With The Buccaneer Aviation Group's move to Kemble in mid 2020, it was agreed that TBAG would cosmetically look after XE665 along with Gnat XP502 and Canberra's XH134 and XH135.
With the airport opening back up to visitors on the 1st June 2021, TBAG charged the nose leg back to it's original height as XE665 was looking rather sad before. The airport decided that the Hunter should move back to its original display area next to the AV8 café so people can see it. This is where the Hunter can be seen today as the photo above shows.
Shortly after transfer to the HMS Heron (Yeovilton) station flight, she was repainted in blue and white Admiral's Barge colours. She went on to serve with 759 and 738 NAS at Brawdy, before returning to Yeovilton and the ADTU, and later FRADU. She also spent some time with 237 OCU at Honington but finished the last few years of her career back at FRADU in an overall EDSG colour scheme.
After retirement in 1995 XE665 was acquired by the Hunter Flying Club at Exeter who wanted to put her back into the Admiral's barge colours that she wore while operated by FONAC at RNAS Yeovilton, but never managed to get the sponsorship they needed to do so.
She then moved on to Delta Jets at Kemble where she was part of the spare Hunter line on the north side of the airfield.
With Delta's collapse, it eventually moved on to Midair Squadron who painted the aircraft in their corporate silver scheme and use her as a static exhibit. She was briefly displayed at the Goodwood Revival in 2014 but returned to Kemble, and after Midair's collapse she was put up for sale and was in storage.
Since Midair's collapse, XE665 has been seen on display for several years outside the AV8 café at Cotswold Airport. After a few years there, the aircraft was for moved to the sitting area where it was fenced off ready to be moved else where on the site.
With The Buccaneer Aviation Group's move to Kemble in mid 2020, it was agreed that TBAG would cosmetically look after XE665 along with Gnat XP502 and Canberra's XH134 and XH135.
With the airport opening back up to visitors on the 1st June 2021, TBAG charged the nose leg back to it's original height as XE665 was looking rather sad before. The airport decided that the Hunter should move back to its original display area next to the AV8 café so people can see it. This is where the Hunter can be seen today as the photo above shows.
Information on this page current as of 02/08/2021, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XE665 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net