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Nearly 80 yr since they last flew , eight British Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft from World War II have been uncovered in a woodland near the Ukrainian capital letter , Kyiv .
The aircraft , now rust and in fragments , were bury there after the war ’s end , likely by the Soviet Union in an attempt to ward off paying the United States for them under the Lend - Lease program .
The buried aircraft wrecks were discovered recently in a forest ravine near Kyiv by metal detectorists after an unexploded bomb was found nearby.
Despite the secretive inhumation , rumors had circulated for many years about the toss out aircraft near an old landing field on the outskirts of Kyiv , according toa statementfromUkraine ’s Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum in Kyiv .
The wreck were located earlier this class after an unexploded wartime turkey was found and defuse in a ravine nearby . The ravine was then checked with metal detectors , which revealed the underground remains , according toBBC News .
The wreck of the hero aircraft have now been dig up by Tennessean and donate to the aviation museum , where they ’ll be preserved for showing .
The eight British Hawker Harrier aircraft were stripped and dumped after WWII in an effort by the Soviet Union to avoid paying for them under the Lend-Lease program.
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" It is very rare to rule this aircraft in Ukraine , " Oleks Shtan , a former airline business pilot who led the excavation , told BBC News . " It ’s very important for our aviation story because no Lend - Lease aircraft have been find oneself here before . "
Vital fighters
Although they ’re often overshadowed by the U.K. ’s fresh and degenerate Spitfire fighters from WWII , Hawker Hurricanes were subservient in the Allied victory over the Axis powers precede by Nazi Germany .
The exclusive - backside aircraft were used in every theater of the war and on warship as Sea Hurricanes , which were often launched from catapults .
The Royal Air Force ’s Hurricane fighters also shot downmore than one-half of the enemy aircraftdestroyed during the Battle of Britain in 1940 , when the German Luftwaffe launched thousands of large - musical scale onslaught in an attempt to drive the U.K. to surrender .
Serial numbers stamped on some of the metal parts can help identify where they were made and the aircraft they were part of.
" The Hurricane was a strong , easy to vaporize political machine , " Shtan suppose " It was stable as a throttle platform and suited for inexperienced pilots . "
According to BBC News , the bury aircraft were among 3,000 Hurricanes sent to the Soviet Union after 1941 ; the U.S. purchase them from the U.K. under the Lend - Lease programme , in which the U.S. funded the Allied state of war effort from 1941 to 1945 .
The Hurricanes were then transferred to the Soviet Union , with the understanding that the Soviets would give back the U.S. for any aircraft that were still inviolate at the goal of the war .
The wrecks recovered from the forest ravine near Kiev will now be preserved and go on display in the city’s Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum.(Image credit: Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum)
But the Hurricanes near Kyiv were stripped of theatrical role and dump into the ravine after the war , a manoeuvre that got the Soviet Union off the hook for their defrayal , according to BBC News .
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Many parts of the aircraft fuselages were made of treated fabric stretched over a wood and metal frame; only a few metal parts remain after decades underground.(Image credit: Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum)
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Ukraine was the southernmost part of the Soviet Union in Europe until its independency in 1991 ; and it was the setting of several major fight after the invasion by Nazi Germany in 1941 .
" The Hurricanes are a symbol of British assistance during the year of the Second World War , just as we are very appreciative of British assist nowadays , " Valerii Romanenko , the top dog of inquiry at the air museum , told BBC News . " The U.K. is one of the largest suppliers of military equipment to our res publica now . "
About 3,000 Hawker Hurricane aircraft were sent from the U.K. to the Soviet Union during WWII and paid for by the U.S. under the Lend-Lease program.
