An Ambitious Crew Is Starting To Restore The Only Sea Hornet On The Planet

An Ambitious Crew Is Starting To Restore The Only Sea Hornet On The Planet | World War Wings Videos

Richard de Boer / Facebook

You’ve Gotta Appreciate People Like This.

As time passes by, the world has less and less World War II warbirds around. We lose some in crashes every year and others are just rotting away due to lack of funds for restorations. It’s sad really, but lucky for us, and the world for that matter, there are people out there who take it upon themselves to add more of these historic aircraft to our midst.

On September 18th, 2017, Pioneer Aero, an aircraft restoration company in Auckland, New Zealand announced they acquired some big pieces of a De Havilland Sea Hornet and they’re going to start planning out its restoration. Its official designation is DH 103. Now, there were only 383 Hornets ever built, even a much smaller number of them being converted to Sea Hornets. There were no known survivors of these aircraft until Pioneer Aero found one in Alberta, Canada.

Public Domain

Browsing the web, we found a Facebook page called Calgary Mosquito Aircraft Preservation Society and the administrator, Richard De Boer, posted some pictures of the pieces of the Sea Hornet he saw in the 90s. Those are the ones that will be used for the restoration.

Richard de Boer / Facebook
Richard de Boer / Facebook
Richard de Boer / Facebook

Below, you can watch a quick video of the DeHavilland Hornet in action. The Sea Hornet was the version adapted fro the navy of course, but at least it’ll give you an idea of what they were like.

Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for the Latest Updates