Tandem Hurricanes

[Graham Boak]

41 OTU was initially formed at Old Sarum, training pilots for Army Cooperation flying with Lysanders and Tomahawks. Mustangs replaced the Lysanders, and it initially received Hurricanes as replacements for now-rare Tomahawks at Oatlands Hill. It then moved to Hawarden with satellites at Poulton, Andover and Middle Wallop.

I was not aware of any prewar deliveries to Iran. Looking at the previous service record of P3720 it clearly was not delivered to Iran until well after 1940, this must be a misprint. The Air Britain publication states that it was delivered to Iran as 252.

I see no reason to invent a conversion facility at Teheran. The Russians converted many fighters to two seaters and were indeed one of the few air forces to lead the way in this manner. If done under UK auspices there would have been factory records of the mods. The Spitfire 2-seaters were clearly different from the UK-converted aircraft, so why should the Hurricanes have been a special case? Structurally, its a doddle.

In view of the high quality photos of the rear canopy on the postwar delivery, it is a very safe bet that this was done at Hawkers - presumably the copyright on the photos will confirm this.