Sea Fury FB 11
The Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 — Britain's last and fastest piston-engine fighter, the airframe that took on MiG-15 jets in Korean skies — captured as an RC scale warbird.
About
The Hawker Sea Fury was the last and fastest of Britain's piston-engine fighters. Designed by Sydney Camm — the same engineer responsible for the Hawker Hurricane — the Sea Fury was developed during the closing years of the Second World War as a lighter, more agile derivative of the wartime Hawker Tempest. The prototype made its first flight on September 1, 1944, but the war ended before the type could enter combat, and the Sea Fury entered Royal Navy service only in 1947.
The FB.11 ("Fighter-Bomber Mark 11") variant that this model represents was the definitive production version, powered by a Bristol Centaurus 18-cylinder sleeve-valve radial engine producing 2,480 hp — the most powerful piston engine ever fitted to a British production fighter. With a top speed approaching 460 mph, the Sea Fury was faster than any contemporary piston fighter and competitive with early jets. Royal Navy Sea Furies fought through the Korean War from carriers off the Korean coast, and on August 9, 1952, Lieutenant Peter Carmichael of 802 Naval Air Squadron achieved one of the most surprising kills in naval aviation history — shooting down a North Korean MiG-15 jet from his Sea Fury, demonstrating that a well-flown piston fighter could still hold its own against early jet opposition.
The Sea Fury also became one of the most successful unlimited-class Reno air racers of the late twentieth century. The unmistakable Sea Fury silhouette — bubble canopy, distinctive bullet-shaped propeller spinner, and the wide chin radiator of the Centaurus — is one of the most-modeled British warbird subjects in modern RC scale flying.
In the simulator
A demanding warbird scale subject. The Sea Fury has the substantial-but-rewarding handling of the most powerful piston fighter of its era — heavy nose, big radial torque on the prop wash, and the kind of responsive handling that justifies the Sea Fury's reputation as one of the great fighters of the late piston era. Use it for warbird-style scale flying with serious presence.
