Battle of Britain Hurricane pilot Flying Officer William Lidstone “Willie” McKnight is a legend in England yet scarcely known in Canada, even in his home town of Calgary. McKnight was a fighter pilot in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain with 242 (Canadian) Squadron of the RAF.

By the time of his disappearance in action in January of 1941, his score was 18 Luftwaffe fighters and bombers and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. By building this aircraft in his name, we bring his story to life for generations to come.

In 2007, Mike Potter purchased a restored Canadian Car and Foundry-built Hawker Hurricane Mk XII from Assiniboia, Saskatchewan farmer, pilot and AME Harry Whereatt. Whereatt was a legend in the early years of historic aircraft recovery and restoration in Canada, having purchased relic fuselages, wings and engines for, among other types, Canadian-built Lysanders and Hurricanes and stored them on his South Saskatchewan farm. The Hurricane XII (RCAF Serial Number 5447 C/N 46002) was a project that Harry had been working on for decades and had been flown by him on one occasion, so was sold as an aircraft on flying condition.

After its arrival at the Vintage Wings facility in Gatineau, Québec, the Hurricane was stripped of it skin for inspection and its wings were sent to a Southern Ontario shop for some work on fuel tanks. In order to ensure a solid paperwork trail, It was decided to take the aircraft down and start over, including an all-new wing centre section which required the building of a massive jig to guarantee alignment. Early work on the project included some supervised time put in by volunteers, keeping the project moving along slowly.

Unlike the all-metal Spitfire, the Hurricane’s structure includes some wood components in the fuselage, requiring not only skills in metal-working but also cabinet making. A considerable portion of that was the excellent work of Harry Whereatt.

Early on, it was decided to paint the restored Hurricane in the unique and very distinctive markings of a Hurricane I (Serial No. P2961) flown by Willie McKnight a Canadian pilot in the RAF. The squadron nose art included a cheeky depiction of Hitler being booted in the ass by a black flying boot with 242 written on it. But more strikingly, the side of the fuselage carried a large representation of a skeletal grim reaper with a sickle in hand pointing forward to the enemy he is about to claim. It is widely held that McKnight, a former pre-med student at the University of Alberta, was the artist who did the design.

Work on the restoration took many years as the Vintech team focused on other projects such as the Roseland Spitfire. After the completion of the Spit, Vintech returned to the Hurricane project with gusto, and the aircraft was ready for the paint booth. Considerable research and effort was expended getting the aircraft’s paint colours and markings right. In doing so we were able to show that all previous guesses by modellers and artists as to the size of the roundel and fin flashes were likely incorrect.

Once painted engine tests and high-speed taxi tests proceeded in the summer of 2021 with first flights possible in late fall.

From a pile of corroded steel piping and aluminum skins in a South African junkyard, it’s a long road to the beautiful Roseland Spitfire, the only Spitfire ever constructed from scratch in Canada — winner of Reserve Grand Champion, a Phoenix Award and a Golden Wrench award at Oshkosh 2018. The Phoenix award is given to recognize the highest achievement in craftsmanship and dedication in the preservation of aviation history accomplished in restoration, while the Golden Wrench Award is like a Michelin Star for aircraft engineers.

Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, RAF serial number TE294 – Twenty years ago, nothing more than a pile of rotting metal and loose components, TE294 had almost been subsumed by the earth from which she came—her aluminum and steel structure corroding and breaking down in a scrapyard in South Africa, her wings long gone, component parts stolen or vandalized.

Only to someone who could recognize her broken, twisted and rusted bones was she still a Spitfire. In the 1990s, TE294 was rescued, the decline to dust arrested, and the long, long journey to living warbird commenced.

From South Africa, her boxed bones travelled to British Columbia, Canada, where a group of passionate volunteers at the Comox Air Force Museum took on her daunting rebuild as a millennium project and as an homage to the wartime pilots of 442 Squadron, a Search and Rescue squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force still residing on the flight line at 19 Wing, Comox.

In 2000, the Comox Air Force Museum, with a grant from the Y2K Millennium Fund, purchased TE 294 and embarked on the Y2K Spitfire Project. The project was funded entirely by donations and grants from the general public and the restoration proceeded slowly. For a number of years, the Comox team made steady progress, but continued funding of the extremely expensive enterprise became problematic.

In order to keep the Spitfire in Canada and continue the restoration here, Mike Potter and Vintage Wings of Canada took over the project and invested several million dollars to bring the project to completion. The fuselage would continue being built in Comox, but by skilled engineers who worked for Vintage Wings. The wings, which had previously been sent to a builder in Great Britain were in deplorable shape and had to be brought back to Gatineau where they were essentially started over.

In 2014, the Vintech team in Comox shipped the fuselage project to Gatineau where Vintech Gatineau engineers would complete the work and marry it to the wings. The wings project was carried out by aircraft structures expert Ken Wood. By 2017, the project was finished and The Roseland Spitfire completed her test regime.

When the volunteers at the Comox Air Force Museum began work on TE294, they went forward under the hopeful banner “She will fly again.” Vintech Aero and Vintage Wings of Canada have always respected this vision of the project’s founders and we are proud to have helped fulfill that promise they made.

In 2018, the Roseland Spitfire completed a 5,000 mile return trip to Comox where she was flown for the volunteers to see and hear. On her way out, she stopped at Oshkosh for a few flying demonstrations and won several awards in the warbird category including Reserve Grand Champion, a Phoenix Award and a Golden Wrench award at Oshkosh 2018. The Phoenix award is given to recognize the highest achievement in craftsmanship and dedication in the preservation of aviation history accomplished in restoration, while the Golden Wrench Award is like a Michelin Star for aircraft engineers.

Vintech Aero took a Canadian-built Lysander project started by Saskatchewan warbird legend Harry Whereatt down to the bones and rebuilt it as a tribute to Canada’s nascent aerospace industry.

The Andy Carswell Lysander is owned and operated by Lysander Funds and is based most of the year in Edenvale, Ontario. It was originally assembled from major components of a number of salvaged Canadian-built RCAF Lysanders by the legendary Harry Whereatt in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.

When the Lysander arrived by truck in 2008, it was painted in the striking “Oxydol” paint scheme used by target tugs at bombing and gunnery schools of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada during the Second World War. In order to inspect the structure and restore the aircraft all fuselage, empennage and wing skins were stripped away. The engine was sent to Great Britain for overhaul while a group of both novice and technically experienced volunteers under the supervision of Vintech professionals began taking the airframe apart and learning new skills such as aircraft fabric rib-stitching and wood working.

The volunteer labour experiment worked very well and progress was rapid. Within two years, the Lysander was ready for her new paint scheme — this one chosen to represent the very first Canadian-built example to come off the National Steel Car assembly line at the beginning of the Second World War.

Following its test flights, the Lysander was dedicated in 2010 to a Prince Edward Islander by the name of Cliff Stewart, who as an army intelligence operative (spy) with British security Coordination and who was dropped off behind enemy lines several times by a Lysander landing in an unprepared field in the dark.

In 2015, the Lysander was sponsored by an investment group known as Lysander Funds and began touring airshows and fly-in events throughout Southern Ontario. The founder fo Lysander Funds, John Carswell, a strong champion of veterans issues and wellbeing, supported the program to honour his father Andy, a former Lancaster and Canso pilot and PoW.

On 2019, Lysander funs purchased the Lysander which will continue to support Vintage wings of Canada events during the flying season. The Lysander now has a second honouree — Squadron Leader Andy Carswell, AFC, CD.