Hawker Sea Fury (1944)

FAA 1944-54: circa 864 built

Not a navalized Tempest

The Hawker Sea Fury was a brillant machine, and a replacement, more than a development of the land-based Hawker Tempest. The Sea Fury really was the last piston-engine model to enter service with the RN, boasting even with the full additional ordinance, a top speed of 460 mph and 20,000 feet climbed in just under five minutes, while staying very agile.

It was almost overpowered with a 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) Bristol Centaurus engine coupled to a five-bladed propeller. If the Tempest was rugged, the Sea Fury was even sturdier, but also more compact and lighter. It was comparable in a sense to the Grumman Bearcat. From 1948, the Sea Fury entered service on nearly all light fleet carriers completed and those not yet leased or transferred, and saw plenty of action in Korea. A superb machine, production only stopped in 1955 and it served until 1968 in the Malay air Force among others.

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Development

In 1942, Sydney Camm began work on a replacement for the Hawker Typhoon. The idea was to achieve better performance by keeping the same engine but making the rest of the aircraft smaller and lighter. The drawings were presented in January 1943 to the Air Ministry who ordered six prototypes with three different engine options; Rolls-Royce Griffon, Napier Saber and Bristol Centaurus.

In April of the same year, Hawker received a specification from the Admiralty for a similar aircraft for the Royal Navy and development was then also focused on a naval variant. By April 1944, 200 Furys were under contract for the RAF and a further 200 Sea Furys for the RN (of which 100 were to be manufactured by subcontractor Boulton Paul).

On 1 September 1944, the first prototype flew with a Centaurus XII engine and four-bladed propeller, followed on 27 November by the second prototype with a Griffon engine and twin counter-rotating propellers. The sixth and final prototype flew on 25 July 1945 with a Saber VIII engine of over 3,000 horsepower and managed to reach 780 kph. The end of the Second World War meant that the air force canceled its aircraft and chose to invest entirely in jet-powered aircraft instead. In addition, deliveries of the RAF's last propeller-driven fighter, the Supermarine Spiteful, had already begun. The fleet chose the opposite path.

As the Fury exhibited better low-speed characteristics than the Supermarine Seafang, and thus was better suited to landing on aircraft carriers, it was decided to proceed with the SeaFury as a safer conventional alternative to the Sea Vampire. The Sea Fury was tested and qualified for sea service on HMS Victorious during 1946 and entered service in February 1947.

Design specifics

General conception

Engine

Armament

Specifications
Crew:	1 pilot
Lenght	34 ft 8 in (10.57 m)
Wingspan	38 ft 4.75 in (11.7031 m)
Height	15 ft 10.5 in (4.839 m)
Wing area:	280 sq ft (26 m2)
Empty weight	9,240 lb (4,191 kg)
Gross Weight	12,350 lb (5,602 kg)
Max TO Weight	14,650 lb (6,645 kg)
Propulsion:	1× Bristol Centaurus 18 18-cyl. air-cooled radial 2,480 hp (1,850 kW)
Propeller:	5-bladed constant-speed propeller
Performances:	460 mph (740 km/h, 400 kn) at 18,000 ft (5,500 m)
Service ceiling:	35,800 ft (10,900 m)
Rate of climb:	4,320 ft/min (21.9 m/s)
Range:	780 mi (1,260 km, 680 nmi)
Ferry range:	904 mi (1,455 km, 786 nmi) with two drop tanks
Gun Armament	4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano Mk V autocannon
Armament underwing	16 × 3 inch rockets, 2,000 lb (910 kg) bombs

Variants

F.10 – First production series made for the Royal Navy. 50 built.
FB.11 – Second production series of weapon beams for bombs or rockets. 615 built including 31 for Australia and 53 for Canada.
T.20 – Two-seater school version. 61 built.
F.50 – Export version equivalent to F.10 for the Netherlands. 10 built.
FB.51 – Export version equivalent to FB.11 for the Netherlands. 25 built.
FB.60 – Export version. 93 built for Pakistan and 12 for the Netherlands.
T.61 – Two-seater school version for Pakistan. 5 built.
Fury I – Land-based version without folding wings and landing gear. 55 built for Iraq.
Fury Trainer – Two-seater school version of the Fury I. 5 built.