The Meryl Hansed Memorial Hall houses two aircraft, our Lightning F53 and a beautifully restored Hawker Hunter Mk 5, WP190. This Hunter served in No 1 squadron and participated in the Suez campaign in August 1956 – 50 years ago. It is displayed in the yellow and black stripes used at the time and carries the name of one of its pilots Harry Irving under the cockpit. It was therefore a great pleasure for us to receive a visit from Harry during November and our pictures show him back in the cockpit 50 years on and flying the Hunter programme on our Flight Simulator. Harry told us it was difficult for him to believe that 50 years previously he was flying that very same aircraft at 700 mph over hostile territory!
For more details of WP190 see the ‘Aircraft‘ section.