Buchon G-AWHK
Year built
1959
Aircraft
HA-1112-M1L
Base
Duxford Airfield
This particular aircraft was given the construction number 223 when built by Hispano Aviacion in Seville in 1959. Its service history has yet to come to light but unit code 7-54 stamped into a panel on the wing indicates that the Buchon served with Ala 7 at Tablada and El Corpero, although it remains uncertain whether the aircraft saw combat in the Spanish Sahara.
This aircraft was one of 27 purchased at auction from the Spanish Air Force by Spitfire Productions for use in the making of the 1968 film “Battle of Britain”. Wing-tips were squared off, tail struts added and dummy machine guns fitted to the wings to more visually represent the Messerschmitt BF109E of the Battle of Britain period. Filming started in Spain, but later the 17 airworthy aircraft were flown via France to Duxford, UK. Throughout the summer of 1968, the 17 Buchons, 2 Heinkel Bombers and 9 Spitfires engaged in mock dogfights above East Anglia and The Wash. Upon completion of filming, the aircraft were returned to their owners or in the case of the Buchons put up for disposal.
By now registered as G-AWHK, this particular Buchon was one of eleven taken by Texan pilot and aircraft collector Wilson C “Connie” Edwards as payment for flying services during the filming. It was shipped to his ranch in Texas where it flew briefly as N9938 before being placed on static display in 1971 with the Confederate Air Force in Detroit. Acquired by the Old Flying Machine Company, it arrived at Duxford In May 1996, re-registered as G-BWUE and sold on to The Real Aircraft Company at Breighton in Yorkshire, who initiated a full rebuild to airworthy condition. The aircraft was marked up as Hauptmann Werner Schroer’s Bf 109G-2/trop ‘Red 1’, which he flew whilst serving on the Greek island of Rhodes in early 1943.
Purchased by Spitfire Ltd. in November 2006, G-BWUE moved back to Duxford to be maintained by the Aircraft Restoration Company. The aircraft appeared regularly at airshows in the UK and was also used during the filming of ‘Valkyrie’ starring Tom Cruise. Now owned by Historic Flying Ltd, G-BWUE has been assembled and painted as Messerschmitt ‘Yellow 10’ as seen in the Battle of Britain film.
During the summer of 2016, staying true to her movie star roots, the Buchon spent extensive time filming for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk movie. The Aircraft was flown by John Romain whilst filming and playing the part of a Messerschmitt 109E.
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Hispano HA-1112-M1L Buchon
In 1942, the Spanish government arranged a manufacturing licence with Messerschmitt AG to build the Bf 109G-2, although the DB 605A engines, propellers, instruments and weapons were to be supplied from Germany. This proved impossible as Germany was incapable of meeting its own needs, let alone Spain's, and only 25 airframes (without their tails) and less than half the necessary drawings were actually delivered. Consequently, Hispano Aviación replaced the DB 605A engine with the 1,600 hp HS 89-12Z and the project was renamed Bf 109J by Messerschmitt. The HS 89-12Z engine performed a successful flight in a Bf 109E used as a flying testbed in Barcelona in 1944, and the first HA-1109-J1L made its maiden flight on 2 March 1945 in Seville, using a VDM propeller and lash-up engine mounting. The remaining 24 airframes were flown during 1947–9 with Escher-Wyss props but never became operational.
In May 1951, a developed version, the HA-1112-K1L, improved the Hispano-Suiza, HS 17-12Z engine installation, and carried either one or two 12.7mm Breda machine guns and Pilatus eight-packs of 80mm rockets. Its three-bladed de Havilland Hydromatic propeller earned it the nickname Tripala ("three blades").
It first flew in 1951, and although 200 were planned only 65 were built. The Hispano engine was an upright V12 instead of the inverted V12 Daimler-Benz DB 601 & 605 engines used in the Bf 109 but, being of compact design, it fitted the airframe of the Bf 109 well and was able to credibly represent the Bf 109 in the German 1957 film Der Stern von Afrika (The Star of Africa) about Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille. The original design, starting with the Bf 109F, had an asymmetrical tail-fin aerofoil with a left deflection to counteract the torque from the Daimler-Benz's clockwise rotation. Because this was left unchanged in the Buchón despite the Hispano V12 having a counter-clockwise rotation, the tail and the engine together induced a right swing on takeoff that was hard to counteract.
A second version, the HA-1110-K1L, was a two-place tandem trainer model.
The final variant was the HA-1112-M1L Buchón (Pouter), which is a male dove in Spanish. It first flew on 29 March 1954 with a 1,600 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-45 engine and Rotol propeller, both purchased as surplus from the UK. This engine had a chin intake that altered the lines of the Bf 109's airframe. It was an improvised assembly of outdated components but this was appropriate for the intended purpose of controlling Spanish colonial territories in Africa, where more sophisticated technology was both unnecessary and unavailable in isolated Spain at the time. It carried two 20 mm Hispano-Suiza 404/408 cannons and two Oerlikon or Pilatus eight-packs of 80 mm rockets and remained in service until 27 December 1965.
Due to their longevity, Buchóns have appeared in several war films masquerading as Bf 109Es and Gs. in movies such as Battle of Britain (alongside CASA 2.111 bombers, a Spanish-built version of the Heinkel He 111), Der Stern von Afrika, Memphis Belle, Dunkirk, and The Tuskegee Airmen. Buchons also played the Bf 109's opposition, the Hawker Hurricane, in one scene in the Battle of Britain.
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