The Imperial War Museum (IWM) has revisited its now tried-and-tested formula of gathering various marks and variants of a particular type, first trialled in the winter of 2021-22 with a host of Supermarine Spitfires and Spitfire: Evolution of an Icon.
This time, the IWM’s attention turned to the Hawker Hurricane, with no fewer than six examples of the World War Two fighter gathered alongside a trio of its predecessors – a pair of Hawker Hinds and a Hawker Nimrod.
While the Hurricanes – described in this article – will be familiar to many a British airshow goer, it is one of these inter-war biplanes that will be of most interest to the aviation enthusiast. Hawker Hind I, G-CBLK/L7181, is making an incredibly rare public appearance as part of the exhibition. Built in 1937, the Hind was delivered to the RAF that year and assigned to 211 Squadron at RAF Grantham, Lincolnshire.
In spring 1938, the unit was posted to RAF Helwan, Egypt, with its aircraft being shipped to Aboukir on April 28, 1938. After a year of service, L7181 was sold to the Royal Afghanistan Air Force in April 1939, but little is known of its service in Afghanistan prior to its discovery at Kabul Airport in 1967.
It was one of four Hinds to be donated by the Afgh…
