The Hawker Fury was known as a British biplane and was the backbone of the RAF in the 1930s.
Hawker Fury was the product of Sydney Camm, chief designer of Hawker Aircraft in the late 1920s. 275 were built. Fury’s design was practically a stop-gap while waiting for the more advanced Hawker Hurricane. The British plane had a length of 8.15 meters, a wing span of 9.14 meters and a height of 3.1 meters. It had an empty weight of 1.24 tons, and a maximum takeoff weight of 1.64 tons.
Hawker Fury was powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrel IV liquid-cooled V12 engine, 640 hp. The Fury was the first RAF fighter capable of reaching speeds of over 300 km/h. The plane proved aggressive with excellent acrobatics. With the introduction of the Fury II, the performance of the system was further improved in terms of climbing and overall speed – which decreased the range due to increased fuel consumption of the new powerplant. Hawker Fury Mk II could reach a top speed of up to 359 km/h, a range of 430 km, and a service ceiling of 9,000m.
Born in the early days of the fighter era, the British fighter was equipped with only two 7.7mm Vickers Mk IV machine guns, with 600 rounds each.
Owing to the financial constraints of the 1930s, only six RAF squadrons were equipped with Furies until superseded by Gladiators and Hurricanes in 1938/39. Furies also saw service with the air forces of several other countries, however. Three machines delivered to Spain took part in the Spanish Civil War, a squadron of the Yugoslav Air Force took on the might of the invading Luftwaffe in April 1941 and, also in 1941, Furies were used by the South African Air Force against Italian forces in East Africa.
Yugoslav Furies saw action against Axis forces in the German invasion of 1941. On 6 April 1941, a squadron of Furies took off against the invading German Messerschmitt Bf 109Es and Messerschmitt Bf 110s. In the resulting air battle 10 Furies were destroyed, almost the entire squadron.
There is one surviving Fury that has been restored to flying condition. Hawker Fury Mk I, serial number K5674 , is owned by the Historical Aircraft Collection and based at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in the United Kingdom. It made its first post-restoration flight in July 2012.
