AIRFIX 1:48 Scale....HAWKER SEA FURY FB.11

One of the most capable Piston engine fighter aircraft ever produced and the last to enter service with Britain's fleet air arm, the Hawker sea fury represented the pinnacle of Piston engine fighter design. Introduced after the end of the second world War, the sea fury would see combat against some of the early jet fighters during the Korean War, where it would perform extremely well. The development of the Hawker sea fury can be traced back to the inadvertent landing of a Fokker Wolf Few 190 at an RAF airfield in South Wales back in 1942. The opportunity to evaluate this latest Luftwaffe fighter resulted in requirements being issued for a new British design, which must have the performance to better the Fokker Wolf in every phase of flight and ensure the RAF could secure air superiority. The protracted development of the new fighter resulted in a number of specification alterations and the RAF eventually withdrawing their interest, leaving the new aircraft to be produced as a high performance naval fighter. The Hawker sea fury was an extremely potent aircraft and handling this powerful machine from the deck of a moving aircraft carrier must have required nerves of steel. The first deck landing trials commenced in the winter of 1946 and the Navy had their ultimate Piston engine fighter. Despite the advent of the jet engine, the sea fury would remain as the fleet air arms principle single seat fighter until 1953, when it would be replaced by the jet powered Hawker sea Hawk.