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An original Hurricane offered in Bonhams sale at Brooklands estimated at £1.4m-1.7m © Richard Paver

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An original Hurricane is estimated at £1.4m-1.7m in the auction of collectors' motor cars and memorabilia, being held at the Surrey site where the aircraft were first assembled and flown in prototype in 1935, with more than 3000 - a fifth of the total - eventually built there.

It was the RAF's first monoplane fighter and Hurricanes shot down more enemy planes than the probably better-known Spitfire.

The one being sold, Hurricane Mk Xlla 5711 (G-HUR), was constructed after the Battle of Britain, in 1942, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force the following year, remaining in Canada for the rest of the war.

Although its service history is scanty, it is thought to have protected convoys on the east coast shoreline or been used as a training aircraft. It was bought by the Historic Aircraft Collection from a Canadian syndicate in 2002, has been housed at IWM Duxford, and is one of only a handful of these aircraft still flying.

The Hurricane now flies in the colours worn by a Hurricane IIB flown with 126 Squadron during the siege of Malta.