Hawker Tempest flies
 

Hawker Tempest MW763 has made its first post-restoration flight today, from Sywell Airfield in the hands of Pete Kynsey. According to a post on UKAR it is now safely hangared at Duxford. There is a photo here:

Brilliant news! :ok: Made my day!

Had a Dinky Toy metal model of one in about 1954!

Video here:

Bloody marvellous! :)

Hear Hear

Did it land back at Sywell before flying over to Duxford? If not they must have been very confident to make the first flight a cross-country. Well done all round.

From what I've seen, it flew Sywell to Duxford on its first flight. They did use 'Contrary Mary' as a chase plane throughout the entire flight, with an Air Leasing engineer in the backseat, and the Tempest did appear to stay near or overhead Sywell for the first part of the flight (at an appropriate altitude). I just checked, it's a straight line distance of less then 40NM, about 20 minutes or less at a conservative cruising speed I guess.

Thanks J. Must have been one of the longest ever restorations but well done to Air Leasing for getting it done.