Hawker Sea Fury

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Hawker Model: T.20 Nickname: Sea Fury
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Single Engine Land
> Engine Description: single (radial) piston

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 6/25/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 3
> Number of Times Flown: 2
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: Several variants of the Sea Fury

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 47 (error, see below, error not corrected)
> Date First Flown: 9/26/1988 (note: when putting together this website, I realized–too late–that I’d made an error; my first flight in the Sea Fury was actually 9/26/1986, making this actually my 26th airplane flown; discovering the error too late, I did not correct the website).
> Location First Flown:
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With:

Recollections: I flew this amazing machine during my year as a student at USNTPS.  I flew it first for “Qual Eval 3” and a few weeks later as a “special project” that my best friend and TPS Classmate JB Hollyer had devised and gotten approved by the staff, to allow us to compare and contrast these two WWII fighters.  The P-51’s first flight was October of 1940, contrasted with the Sea Fury’s first flight which occurred in September 1944.  Although the P-51 clearly went through continued development during those war years, the complaints I had about the P-51’s control forces and roll rate (refer to my P-51 recollections) were virtually gone in the Sea Fury, showing just how quickly technology had advanced during the war.  The Sea Fury was a pleasure to fly, light-ish on the controls, with rates that more resembled the post war airplane that followed.

In case you’re wondering why I don’t have pictures of myself in front of many of the airplanes I report on, there’s two reasons: (1) I haven’t gone thru all my old photos just yet and (2) I’ve always been reticent to take a bunch of pics, for fear of appearing as a poser.  I also have a strict rule (that many who have flown my O-1E will tell you): “No hero pics BEFORE the flight, only AFTER!”.    All of that said, I now wish I’d taken more photos.