The Sea Fury was a fighter aircraft developed for the British Fleet Air Arm by Hawker during World War II. The last propeller-driven fighter to serve the Royal Navy, it was also the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built.
The Hawker Fury was an evolutionary successor to the successful Hawker Typhoon and Tempest fighters and fighter-bombers of the Second World War. The Fury was designed in 1942 by Sidney Camm, the famous Hawker designer, to meet the RAF’s requirement for a lightweight Tempest II replacement. Developed as the “Tempest Light Fighter”, it used modified Tempest semi-elliptical outer wing panels, bolted and riveted together on the fuselage centerline. The fuselage itself was similar to the Tempest, but fully monocoque, and with a higher cockpit for better visibility.[1] The Air Ministry was sufficiently impressed by the design to write Specification F.2/43 around the concept.
In 1943 the design was modified to meet a Royal Navy request (N.7/43) for a carrier-based fighter. Boulton-Paul Aircraft were to make the conversion while Hawker continued work on the Air Force design. The first Sea Fury prototype flew on February 21, 1945, powered by a Bristol Centaurus XII engine. The first prototype had a ‘stinger’-type tailhook for arrested carrier landings, but lacked folding wings for storage.[2] The second prototype was powered by a Centaurus XV turning a new, five-bladed Rotol propeller, and was built with folding wings. Specification N.7/43 was modified to N.22/43, now representing an order for 200 aircraft. Of these, 100 were to be built at Boulton-Paul.
Both prototypes were undergoing carrier landing trials when the Japanese surrendered in 1945, ending development of the land-based Fury; work on the navalized Sea Fury continued. The original order to specification N.22/43 was reduced to 100 aircraft, and the Boulton-Paul agreement was cancelled. The first production model, the Sea Fury F.X (Fighter, Mark X), flew in September 1946. Problems arose with damaged tailhooks during carrier landings; after modifications, the aircraft were approved for carrier landings in the spring of 1947.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Sea_Fury
Hawker Sea Fury
Old Warden, Beds, UK4th June 2006
Hawker Sea Fury
Old Warden, Beds, UK4th June 2006