Hawker Tempest roll-out

This week saw the roll-out of Hawker Tempest II MW376 at the KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence in Kelowna (BC), Canada. The warbird is in the final stages of its restoration to airworthy condition at KF Aerospace.

Although the Tempest has come with an original Bristol Centaurus sleeve valve engine, KF has chosen to power MW376 with an R2800 radial. This R2800 originates from a Canadair CL-215 firebomber.

Replacing the Centaurus by the R2800, gives no external changes, as the Tempest in its original form had a four-bladed prop too. This in contrast to earlier re-engineing of Hawker (Sea) Furies that had five-bladed Centauruses.

MW376 served with the RAF, but was later transferred to Hawkers along with 113 other Tempests. These were refurbished and sold to the Royal Indian Air Force in 1948, where MW376 became HA564. It's thought to have served with No.4 Squadron.

The plane is one of seven ex-Indian Air Force Tempests recovered in 1979 by Doug Arnold and Warbirds of GB Ltd. It was transferred to Tangmere Flight, UK, in 1980, Chris Horslet in 1988 and a syndicate in Stamford in 1990.

Restoration work on this aircraft began in 1991 at Spanhoe, Lincolnshire, in the hands of Windmill Aviation, and the project was registered G-BSHW. Restoration work was halted in 1993, and the project was stored at Audley End.

In 1996 it was sold to Phillipe Dennis, in Romans, France. In 2000 it was acquired by Jim Perry and was stored in France. In March 2012 MW376 was sold by Airborne Attitude to Eric Hertz, New Zealand, and was going to be restored to flying condition by Pioneer Aero NZ. But in late March 2013 Eric Hertz was killed in an airplane crash and the project was then sold to KF Aerospace.

On the other side of the pond, Air Leasing at Sywell, UK, has been working on another Tempest, MW763, former Indian Air Force HA586. This Tempest is in the process of becoming airworthy for which it is registered as G-TEMT.

Photo still from KF Aerospace footage