11/30/2008. Remarks by Bill Ewing: "CF-SMI was built by Canadian Car & Foundry Ltd., of Fort William, Ontario. Its remains were found in 1964 on the farm of Jim Roy, located just west of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. The airframe was a basket case, and the wings had been dumped in a nearby creek. After one wing panel was raised from the creek, the creek froze over, necessitating a wait of four weeks until the ice melted in order to get at the other. The airframe was towed back to Carman and restoration work commenced. I was there to witness the event and took this photo.

The job of restoring the Hurricane by Robert Diemert took three years of spare time labour. When found, the airframe was fitted by a Packard Merlin 28, but due to the age and condition of the engine, it was replaced with a Packard Merlin 224 taken from an RCAF Lancaster Mk.X. Registered CF-SMI it was flown again in 1967. In 1967 it was airlifted by the USAF to the UK and it participated in the movie 'Battle of Britain'.

On July 10, 1968 it was registered to Samuelson Film Services Ltd, of Elstree, England as G-AWLW. On April 6, 1970 it was sold to Sir William Roberts for the Strathallan Collection at Auchterader, Scotland, being deregistered on April 30, as it was sold to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Hamilton, Ontario. Airlifted to Canada by the CAF it flew again as C-GCWH, coded P3069/YO-A, on June 4, 1984. It was lost in a hangar fire on February 15, 1993."