Loppu kiireet alkavat, Final push begins
Kesä häämöttää ja Tikkakoskella tapahtuu, muuttolinnut ovat palanneet jälleen tutuille paikoilleen museon pihalle (Dk:t ja Migit). Muuttolintujen vastaanottamana kurvaan jälleen museon pihalle ja pääsen katsastamaan mitä Hurricanelle on tehty. Pojat löytyivät pajan puolelta takomassa Hurricanen laskutelineen kappeletta, josta piti saada jokin letkunliitin irti. Osa jota pojat yrittävät irroittaa oli ollut samoilla kierteillä 57 vuotta, joten irroittaminen ei ollut helppoa. Osaa väännettiin irti kahden miehen voimin, mutta osa pirulainen ei vaan antanut periksi. Lopulta ratkaisu löytyi museon pakastimesta, minne osa työnnettiin hetkeksi hautumaan. Kylmänkylvyn jälkeen irroitettavaan liittimeen annettiin toholla lämpöä ja kohti uutta yritystä. Voila! Liitin irtosi kuin itsestään kierteiltään :) Tällaisia hetkiä on hyvä olla todistamassa, koska kukaan ulkopuolisista ei tiedä tiedä kuinka paljon aikaa tällaiset ”pienet” jutut vievät ja kuinka paljon näitä ”pieniä” juttuja on ollut tämän projektin aikana. Edelleen on vaikea käsittää millainen määrä töitä tämän koneen eteen on tehty ja kuinka paljon sitä on vielä jäljellä ja kaikki se työ on täysin käsitöitä koneen karttalaukkuja myöden.
Summer is here and this means that the MiG’s and Drakens have returned from their winter shelters
to the museum’s yard. It’s time to check what has happened to the Hurricane. I found the boys at
the repair shop. They were hammering a piece of the Hurricane’s landing gear. They were trying
to remove a hose which was connected to the piece with a joint. It wasn’t easy to disconnect a hose
which had remained in place for 57 years. The boys were trying to twist it away with a two man
crew but still it wasn’t enough. Finally the answer was found from the museum’s freezer were the
piece was placed for a few moments. After this cold treatment heat was introduced to the piece and
the joint finally came off by itself. It’s always great to witness moments like this. I think it’s correct
to say that usually nobody outside the museum crew knows how much time and effort is put on
these “small things”. Still it’s hard to comprehend how much work has been done on this particular
aircraft and how much work there still is to be done.
Harri irroittamassa liitintä. Harri tries to disconnect the joint |
The boys had also worked with the Merlin engine and received some spare parts from another
Merlin engine which lies in the museum storage. Some preliminary work has been done already in
order to lift the engine to it’s proper place in the aircraft. On the floor right next to the engine there
were all these spares the boys had removed from that another engine. They were to be used during
the upcoming lifting operation. I’m pretty sure that next time I visit the museum the engine can be
found on the nose of the aircraft. Also all the swastika insignias had been repainted and the plate
just beneath the engine had been installed in place.
Antti ja Harri Merlinin kimpussa. Antti and Harri together with the engine |
Lähes kaikkeen löytyy piirustukset. Detailed blueprints are available on almost everything |
Alapelti paikoillaan. A plate has been installed beneath the engine |
Hawker Hurricane Mk. I HC-452 logged only a total of 208 hours and 15 minutes of flight time in the service of the Finnish Air Force. The final flight of this warbird took place in July 1943. According to archive data the aircraft was first transferred from Flying Squadron 26 to Parola airfield between July 24-26 1943. At the time a thorough handover document was written which listed missing parts and pieces from the plane. The aircraft was finally written off from Air Force inventory in August 1944. During the final phases of the war all valuable equipment was stripped away from the Hurricane for later use. During late Summer 1944 a board of experts checked the HC-452 and decided that it was in too bad condition and thus no more repairs were to be done. That very same board also recommended that the aircraft was to be scrapped in the immediate future.
After the war the Hurricane was stored away at Vesivehmaa airfield. It was placed in an old aircraft hangar. The Hurricane remained there until the late 1970’s. During that time people were able to snatch away parts from the Hurricane as “souvenirs”. There are some wild stories connected to the Hurricane. According to one the original Merlin engine was still connected to the aircraft during the 1950’s but ultimately the engine was lost because someone borrowed it to an agricultural exhibition which organizers never returned it back ! The story of the HC-452 continued in the late 70’s when the Aviation Museum of Central Finland was created at Jyväskylä Tikkakoski area to preserve and collect the history and traditions of the Finnish Air Force. The HC-452 was placed in the permanent exhibition at the Luonetjärvi airfield’s old number one hangar where the museum was first located.
It remained part of the exhibition until 1989 when the museum relocated to it’s present facility. The Hurricane was stored away in the Spring of 1989 when the museum received a restored Fokker D.XXI fighter to the exhibition.
HC-452 Vesivehmaan hallissa sodan jälkeen. |
Despite of being stored away for so long time the HC-452 has travelled around Finland in several different occasions. In early 2004 the aircraft was loaned to the Finnish Aviation Museum at Vantaa in a special exhibition which concentrated on the activities of Finland’s air defence forces during the hard defensive battles of 1944. From Vantaa the voyage of the Hurricane continued to Lappeenranta and to the Karelian Aviation Museum where it spend the Summer of 2005. In the Fall of 2005 the HC-452 was seen at a defence and security fair held at Tampere. A couple of years later when the team at Aviation Museum of Central Finland had completed restorations of a Brewster 239 and a Breguet 14 A2 they started to think about starting work with the HC-452
KYLLÄ! Käsityönä! YES ! Handicraft all the way |
The aircraft has come a long way before it ended up at the museum’s repair shop. The HC-452 has
seen some good days and some bad days. But now the old warbird has arrived to it’s proper place.