Wartime aircraft engine brought to life for first time at museum since 1945

Harry Booth
Tue 15 October 2024

The Hercules engine in action (Image: Kieran Wilkinson)

A wartime aircraft engine has been brought to life at RAF Elvington for the first time since 1945.

A Hercules engine, used in Halifax bombers in the Second World War, was started at the Yorkshire Air Museum on October 12 - the first time the airfield has seen it roar since the war.

Part of the museum's 'Thunder Day' celebrations, the engine was fired up for the public at the site formerly known as RAF Elvington.

Halifax bombers flew from Elvington from 1943 to 1945 and while the museum has a reconstructed Halifax in its collection, its engines do not run.

Museum spokesman, Jerry Ibbotson, said: "For Thunder Day this Autumn we wanted to do something special, so we spoke to Patric Smart from Thirsk who has a rebuilt Hercules engine in a rig that he demonstrates at events and displays.

"This was the type that carried Halifaxes into action night after night from bases such as Elvington.

"It makes an incredible sound and one that has not been heard here at Elvington since the last Halifax left at the end of the war. To hear it booming around the site gave us goosebumps."

Patric Smart’s father flew the famous Halifax – "Friday the 13th" – which completed 128 missions in the war.