P-63 Kingcobra wreck recovery

P-63 King Cobra Recovery

Following earlier recoveries made by Doug Champlin the Hunt brother's embarked on a high risk deal to recover 6 x P-63 King Cobra air frames from the remote Kuril Islands.

Having been treated as what was considered as "scrap" by the local Milita the aircraft suffered the normal surface damage or "bruising" that would be expected to be found on abandoned warbirds having spent nearly 70 years sitting on the tundra.

After much negotiation & democracy and working with reliable contacts, where many others had failed in the past, the P-63 air frames finally entered the UK around about 2001.

On 3rd June 2001 the brother's witnessed the UK's only flying P-63 King Cobra operated by the Fighter Collection and owned by Stephen Grey and flown by Guy Bancroft-Wilsoncrash at the Biggin Hill International Air Fair that same year. As this tragic fatal crash unfolded the rare 'C' models were already on their way to England, sadly becomming the UK's only examples of the type.

Unfortunately at the time of the recovery photography was not allowed, this photo was taken by the Helicopter crew.