HAWKER FURY

The 'Hawker Fury' was a British biplane fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s. It was originally named the 'Hornet' and was the counterpart to the Hawker Hart light bomber.

Contents

Design and development

Variants

Operators

Specifications (Hawker Fury Mk II)

References

Operational history

External links

Related content

Design and development

The Hawker Fury was a development of the earlier Hawker F.20/27 prototype fighter, replacing the F.20/27's radial engine with the new Rolls-Royce F.XI V-12 engine (later known as the Rolls-Royce Kestrel, which was also used by Hawker's new light bomber, the Hawker Hart. The new fighter prototype, known as the 'Hawker Hornet', first flew on March 1929 ^[1]. On the 6th April 1941 a squadron of Furies took off to defend their country against the invading German Messerschmitt Bf 109Es and Messerschmitt Bf 110s. In the resulting conflict 11 Furies were destroyed, almost the entire squadron, but of the attacking German aircraft 7 failed to return: 5 Bf-109s and 2 Bf-110s, though it is possible that some of them were non-combat losses. However, it is certain that at least one of them was lost to ramming by a Fury.
The other squadron of Yugoslav Furies active at the time of the invasion strafed enemy tanks and ground forces, some being lost to ground fire and one being destroyed in a dogfight with a Fiat CR.42. The rest of the Yugoslav Furies were destroyed when they became unservicable or at the time of Armistice on the 15th. . Ex-RAF Furies were also used by the South African Air Force against the Italian forces in East Africa in 1941 and despite their obsolescence destroyed 2 Caproni bombers as well as strafing many airfields, destroying grounded fighters and bombers. ^[2].
A total of 262 Furies were produced, of which 22 served in Persia, 3 in Portugal, at least 30 in South Africa, 3 in Spain, at least 30 in Yugoslavia and the remainder in the United Kingdom.

Variants

;Hawker Hornet
:Single-seat fighter prototype. Only one was built.
;Fury Mk I
:Single-seat fighter version. Powered by a 525-hp (391-kW) Rolls-Royce Kestrel IIs piston engine.
;Intermediate Fury
:Single-seat fighter prototype.
;High Speed Fury
:Single-seat prototype which was developed into the Fury Mk II.
;Fury Mk II
:Single-seat fighter version. Powered by a 640-hp (477-kW) Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI piston engine.

Operators

;Greece

★ Hellenic Air Force
;

★ Norwegian Air Force operated one aircraft only.
; Persia

★ Persian Air Force
;

★ Portugal Air Force
;South Africa

★ South African Air Force
;Spain

★ Spanish Air Force
;

★ Royal Air Force
;Yugoslavia

★ Yugoslav Royal Air Force

Specifications (Hawker Fury Mk II)

References

1. . The Hornet was a single engined biplane, with single bay wings, initially powered by a 420 hp Rolls-Royce F.XIC engine enclosed by a smooth, streamlined cowling, but was quickly re-engined with a 480 hp Kestrel IS . It was evaluated against the similarly powered Fairey Firefly II, being preferred because of its better handling and its all metal structure compared with the mainly wooden construction of the Firefly.
The Hornet was purchased by the Air Ministry at the start of 1930, and was subject to further evaluation, with a small initial order initial production order for 21 aircraft (to be designated 'Hawker Fury' - as the Air Ministry wanted fighter names that "reflected ferocity") placed during 1930. The 'Fury I' made its maiden flight on the March 25 1931
The Fury was the RAF's first operational fighter aircraft to be able to exceed 200 mph (320 km/h) in level flight. It had highly sensitive controls which gave it superb aerobatic performance. It was designed partly for the fast interception of bombers and to that end it had a climb rate of almost 2400 feet per minute (730 m/min).
An experimental prototype, the 'High Speed Fury', was built to test design features for Hawker's planned competitor for the F.7/30 fighter competition (the Hawker P.V.3) as well as for more general development. While the P.V.3 was unsuccessful owing to the use of the unreliable evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine, many of the improvements tested on the High Speed Fury were incorporated in an improved 'Fury II', with a more powerful Kestrel engine and a cleaned up airframe with reduced drag, this showing improved speed and rate of climb.

Operational history

The Fury I entered squadron service with the RAF in May 1931, re-equipping No. 43 Squadron. Owing to financial limitations owing to the Great Depression, only relatively small numbers of Fury Is were ordered, the type equipping only three squadrons, with the slower Bristol Bulldog equipping the bulk of the RAF's fighter squadrons. The Fury II entered service in 1936-1937. Furies remained in front line service with the RAF until 1939, replaced with, amongst other designs, Gloster Gladiators and Hawker Hurricanes, but continued to be used for training purposes .
The Fury was exported to several customers, being supplied with a variety of engines, including Kestrels, Hispano Suiza and Lorraine Petrel vee-type engines, Armstrong Siddeley Panther, Pratt & Whitney Hornet and Bristol Mercury radials.
Three Furies were ordered by Spain in 1935. These eventually took part in the Spanish Civil War, serving with both sides of the conflict. The Spanish variant had a cantilever undercarriage design and could achieve a top speed of 242 mph.
Although phased out from RAF squadrons, the Fury was still used by some foreign air forces in the early 1940s; Yugoslav Furies saw action against Axis forces in the German invasion of 1941 Håkans Aviation page - Yugoslavian Air Force use of the Hawker Fury during the Second World War
2. Håkans Aviation page - South African Air Force use of the Hawker Fury during the Second World War


★ The Encyclopedia of British Military Aircraft, Bowyer, Chaz, , , Bison Books Limited, , ISBN 0-86124-258-0

★ Combat Aircraft of World War Two, Elke C. Weale, John A. Weale and Richard F. Barker, , , Lionel Leventhal Limited, , ISBN 0-946495-43-2

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