A Sea Fury thread

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S

Sisu

Airman 1st Class
234
577
Mar 11, 2021
Many years ago I picked up an airplane magazine and saw a little notice of a Warbird Air Show to happen that summer in Fresno, California. I was a year out of my military service, settled into a real job and apartment, and intently learning to take pictures. I went off to the show and was totally blown away. I had been interested in fighter planes and air combat as a kid but University, women, alcohol, women, life and death, and women got in the way for years and I had no idea in the early 1970s that flying Mustangs and Corsairs even still existed. I had never heard a Merlin at takeoff power!

So I got to the show and there were Mustangs, a Corsair, a Hellcat, a couple B-25s, a Feisler Storch, and all kinds of stuff. I at least knew what most of these critters were, but there was one plane that I had never even heard of, and it was beautiful. And sounded lovely, to boot.

So began a fifty year love affair with the Hawker Sea Fury.




 
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It was beautiful. This one first flew about 1970 -- a composite of a couple of wrecked and damaged machines built up by one of those aviation genius renaissance man types. Frank Sanders was a top level drag racer, owner of a very successful business building custom headers and exhaust systems for all sorts of racing, a master metal worker and fabricator etc etc etc. A very cool guy and an iconic airplane of the time I think there were just two Sea Furies flying in North America at the time and 232 was the only one to fly constantly.

Ten years and several Sea Furies later Frank would conceive of, design and build the massive 4360 powered Dreadnought. But that was far in the future that summer of 1974...










 
Back in the 70's-80's these Sea Fury's were still flying with the original Bristol Centaurus engines which made a sweet sound of their own. Today most if not all Sea Fury's have been re-engined with R-2800, R-3350 or R-4360 engines. The easiest way to tell is by the prop, 5 blade is still Centaurus, 4 blade is American radial.

Sanders and the Argonaut

This is the story of the Sea Fury Argonaut, an aircraft that almost never came to be, which played a vital role in engine conversions and continues to perform yeoman duties in the continuing refinement of smoke systems.
vintageaviationnews.com
 
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Got a few photos of Sea Fury's back in the 80's. The attached one was on the gate of RNAY Fleetlands. Sorry, just attached a Firefly, will try again
Alan.
 

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  • Seafury RNAY Fleetlands.jpg
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I started doing the Reno Air Races in 1976, and very quickly Sea Furies began to emerge from the shadows. However, they still all had too many skinny little prop blades that turned the wrong way. Lloyd Hamilton's well known Australian #16 came back from rehab (Loyd had been racing it and the Centaurus has a habit of stopping suddenly if over revved much at all -- in this case leading to an off-airport landing and extended rehab). "Wasa Hooker" was a T.20 touring version, which soon after Reno 1978 was rolled up in a takeoff accident in Chicago. The consensus at the time was that she was another victim of backward turning prop and overconfident Mustang driver...








 
One thing about Sea Furies is that they are BIG. With a human-scale airplane like a Mustang or P-40 you just walk up on the wing and step right into the driver's seat. With a Sea Fury (or Corsair, Thunderbolt, Hellcat or Wildcat etc etc) it's like climbing a jungle gym to get in --steps, handholds and don't look down.



 
Lloyd would go anywhere to race. Here's #16 at Miami in the winter of 1979. The light was different back there. In the background is Bob Hoover's contingent. Next to #16 is a new Sea Fury. Lloyd got hold of a 2 seater (ex target tug I think), did some work on it, and brought it to Frank Sanders in Chino for Frank's F-102 brake conversion. The original British brakes were a fading horror and the Sanders conversion transformed the airplane. One thing led to another and Frank sold 232 and bought the trainer. As 924, this T.20 has been in the Sanders family ever since. Grant Newman photographed it at the last Reno.

Notice the wingtip missiles on 924. It did not come to the Miami races to race...



 
Those things are actually self contained smoke generators. Most air show smoke systems involve injecting oil into the exhast and are very very messy. Frank Sanders spent a couple of years inventing and developing these unique wingtip (or pylon) mounted devices. They first got widespread attention when General Dynamics bought a pair and hung them on an early F-16 for a Neil Anderson demo at the Paris Air Show.a long time ago. The wingtip location really showed off the wingtip vortices of that big Sea Fury wing and heavy airplane. In quiet air the airplane would even leave a line of swirling smoke rings.

Frank developed a spectacular air show routine in 924 with the smoke generators. His show was big, and fast and aggressive. It was different from Hoover or Bob Love or Lefty Gardner, and was always a huge crowd pleaser. His sons still do it today, in Argonaut.












 
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