One less Hurricane remains, and the pilot was killed:
A question though. From the article
How is this done with only two planes?
I’m flattered by the shout-out. :o
This is a tragic loss; not only for the family of the pilot, but for a rare and beautiful aircraft.
How did they do a Missing Man formation with only two aircraft? In the U.S. the formation is flown in a ‘fingers four’ formation. That is, there are four aircraft flying in a formation that approximates the positions of the fingertips on one hand. The flight leader is in the lead and the second element is behind him to the right. At the appropriate point, the second element pulls up into a steep climb while the rest of the flight continues in formation. The second element represents the departed pilot leaving this mortal coil. I don’t know how it’s done in other countries, and I assumed it would be similar to the U.S. version.
One Missing Man tradition is that the Missing Man flies to the west, toward the setting sun. ‘Flying west’ is a euphamism for dying. I would assume that a two-plane formation would be flying north or south (I think north is preferred), and that one of the aircraft would pull up and fly west.
No much of an answer, I fear; but the best I could come up with.
FWIW I put “missing man formation” and “two airplanes” into the google box and found this:
I noticed that you post a lot of aviation stuff, is all. 
I’d imagine that there aren’t many Hurricanes left - less than the number of serviceable Spitfires probably.
This site says six. Five now. 
According to Wiki, there are approximately 44 Spits and ‘a few’ Seafires still flying.
As awesome as it is to see some of these planes still flying, I wonder when we ought to start asking museums to keep them grounded… only 5 Hurricanes left… I know there are only 2 flying Lancasters… if one of those crashes, will the last one still fly, or will it finally be put in a museum permanently before we lose it forever?
Of course, I have no idea how many non-flying planes might exist (I know the Hurricane at the Canadian Warplane Heritage museum is a fiberglass replica, after theirs was destroyed in a hangar fire) but I think it would be nice to have them around a while longer, for people to see and appreciate without risking destroying them.
I loved watching the CWHM’s Lancaster fly over my apartment most weekends back when I lived in Hamilton, but it was just as amazing, maybe even more so, to get to see it in person, peek my head inside and have a look around. I’d hate to see these planes disappear.
I wonder about that. On one hand, grounded aircraft are safer than flying ones (though several static displays have been destroyed by storms and collapsing hangars). On the other hand, it’s a little sad that people will not be able to experience seeing one in flight.
The Me-262 Project has built replica Me-262s. According to the site, they cost $2 million less engines and avionics. Last I heard, a Spitfire (with the engine and avionics) would go for about $2 million. I think that that price reflects their rarity. It seems to me that an entrepreneur who manufactured new copies of Spitfires and Hurricanes would be able to sell several to interested parties. These parties would probably not pony up two megabucks, but I’d bet that if the price were under a million they’d sell.
If someone manufactured new, original-spec copies of a Hurricane or Spitfire then people would probably fly those instead of the originals. If I were well-heeled enough to buy an original I’d probably still opt for a replica. I’d have the performance and ‘historicity’ of an original but in a new airframe and with lower insurance rates; plus I wouldn’t be putting an original at risk. Incidentally, I’ve heard there’s a guy in NZ who’s building an original-spec Mossie.
But until someone emulates The Me-262 Project, originals will still be flown and some, unfortunately, will crash.
True, but if they all crash then nobody will ever be able to see one again, in flight or otherwise. Not an immediate problem with Spitfires if there are still 44 left, but five Hurricanes and only two Lancasters? Too risky I say. Building replicas from the original plans may be the way to go.
To make an analogy from an earlier war - would we still have HMS Victory if it hadn’t been permanently dry-docked? If we’d attempted to keep it afloat it would have disappeared long ago.
I gathered that those are the flying examples. I believe there are several in museums, so people can still see them. But I’d sure like to see one in flight, in person.
It would be nice. Unfortunately it takes a lot of money and most of the people who have it don’t seem to want to spend it that way. Heck, I’d be happy if they ramped up production of everyday light aircraft to 1970s production levels.
There are a bunch of Spitfire replicas available, ranging from amost-ultralights (Spitfire, Loehle Spitfire, WW II Spitfire replica fighter by Loehle Aircraft, all wood ultralight, light sport aircraft or experimental aircraft kit.) to fullsize, Allison V12 powered twoseaters (http://www.spitfireaircraftco.com/home.html) That’s not counting several one-offs built by individuals.