Hawker Fury is a British interwar fighter. It was an all-metal single biplane with an open cockpit and fixed gear. Designed by the Hooker Aircraft Design Bureau under the direction of Sydney Camm . The first flight experienced "Fury" made March 25, 1931 . The aircraft was mass-produced from April 1931 by the factories of the Hauker and General Aircraft companies in England, and also under license in Yugoslavia by the Ikarus factories in Belgrade and Zmay in Zemun . The aircraft was in service in the UK - from May 1931, in Yugoslavia - from June 1932, in Iran - since 1933, and also in South Africa . The plane participated in the civil war in Spain , as well as in the Second World War .
| Fury | |
|---|---|
 prototype aircraft | |
| Type of | fighter |
| Developer | Hawker aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Hawker Aircraft ; General Aircraft Limited ; " Ikarus "; " Serpent " |
| Chief Designer | Sydney kamm |
| First flight | March 25, 1931 |
| Start of operation | May 1931 |
| End of operation | end of 1942 (Iran) |
| Status | decommissioned |
| Operators |  British Air Force  FACC Yugoslavia  South African Air Force |
| Years of production | from April 1931 |
| Units produced | ~ 300 |
In Yugoslavia
The prototype of the British Hawker Fury Mk.I was demonstrated in Belgrade in the second half of 1931. The following year, the command of the Yugoslav Air Force ordered three such aircraft, which were delivered in June 1932. These aircraft were from the first Hawker series to the British Royal Air Force.
The Yugoslav Air Force was satisfied with this aircraft, not least because of the availability of the Rolls-Royce compressor engine, so the commission that studied the aircraft proposed to adopt this type of aircraft. The Air Force planned to acquire 60 aircraft, 40 of which were to be produced in Yugoslavia under license. Since the Rolls-Royce engine was very expensive, there remained a problem in choosing the engine to be installed on the Yugoslav Fury.
In a competition announced in 1933 for the purchase of 20 and the production of another 50 licensed fighters, Polish PZL, English Fury, French Dewoitine D.500 , Dutch Foker XVII and Czechoslovak Avia B.534 were presented. After almost two years of selection, it was decided to buy 10 upgraded Hawker Fury Mk.II aircraft with a 745-liter Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI engine. with. (555 kW).
The license agreement for the production of aircraft in Yugoslavia provided that its start occurred 16 months after the acquisition of the license, which led to the technical obsolescence of the aircraft prior to its release.
Ten aircraft purchased in the UK were delivered between September 1936 and June 1937. The licensed production of these aircraft was organized at the Ikarus (24 units) and Zmak (16 units) factories. Due to the delay in supplying the British engines, the aviation units were only equipped with these aircraft in the spring of 1939, when the aircraft was definitely out of date. The JKRV in 1938 and spring 1939 received the first 12 Hawker Hurricane aircraft, and in August 1939 they received the first Messerschmitt Bf.109 , which could not even be compared to Hawker Fury. Because of this, it is believed that the purchase of Hawker Fury aircraft was a lost step in the rearmament of the Yugoslav Air Force and unjustifiably spent taxpayer funds.
Fury entered service with the 4th Aviation Regiment in Zagreb, and later at the newly formed 5th Aviation Regiment, stationed in Nis, where they also saw the start of the April war . Several copies were sent to the 3rd school.
As part of the South African Air Force
South African Air Force acquired 7 aircraft in 1937. With the outbreak of World War II, another 24 such vehicles were transferred from the RAF reserve.
Literature
- Kotlobovsky Alexander, Khavilo Eugene. Elegant “Fury” (Russian) // Aviation and Time: magazine. - 1999. - No. 5 (37) . - S. 41-45 .
- Kharuk A.I. Fighters of the Second World War. The most complete encyclopedia. - M .: Yauza, EKSMO, 2012 .-- 368 p. - 1,500 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-58917-3 .