March 29, 2024
News from Candada - Tempest II - HA564 is now the closest to being the first ever airworthy warbird to be restored of the type anywhere in the world.

KF Aerospace in Canada rolled out the fully restored Hawker Tempest II MW376 recently on 31st August 2022 . The aircraft was one of those imported from India in the late 70s by the late Doug Arnold and is currently under the ownership of Barry Lapointe of KF Aerospace. Previously the aircraft passed through at least nine different owners before its completion. It had served as HA564 in the IAF service.

I personally remember this aircraft as I saw an ad for its sale way back in 1990 or so. At that time it was on sale for a princely sum of 90,000 GBP. Roughly the equivalent of $240,000 in today’s money.

Christopher Landberg has a more detailed history of the Tempest II on his website.

The Tempest was delivered to the Indian Air Force in 1948, one of the post-47 acquisitions. It likely served till 1953 at which point it was probably struck off charge as the Tempest was getting difficult to maintain.

It was one of the eleven airframes sold in the great Indian Warbird Auction of the 70s when the late Doug Arnold acquired the derelict and imported them into the UK. Only six or seven were imported to UK..and the rest are presumed scrapped in India.

The KF Aero has a dedicated Facebook page for aircraft restoration at  https://www.facebook.com/KFhawker where there are tons of photographs of the aircraft under restoration.  MW376 is now equipped with a Pratt and Whitney 2600 radial engine instead of the original Rolls Royce Centaurus.

Read another release of the same at:

Canada: roll-out du Hawker Tempest Mk II MW376

Additional Reading:

https://www.key.aero/comment/997762#comment-997762

https://web.archive.org/web/20120319054809/http://www.airborneattitude.com/12177.html

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