72138 HAWKER FURY MK.I/MK.II FIGHTER-BIPLANE

The Hawker Fury was a British fighter aircraft from the interwar period. The plane was built in a biplane layout, had a mixed structure and a fixed landing gear in the classic layout. The machine was first flew in 1931. In the same year, mass production started, which led to the creation of about 275 examples of this aircraft. Drive - Mk. II - was provided by the engine Rolls-Royce Kestrel IV with 640 HP . The on-board armament of the aircraft consisted of two 7.7 mm Vickers machine guns. The Fury model was developed by Hawker Aircraft in response to the British Aviation Ministry's specification for a new fighter from the late 1920s. In order to reduce costs and shorten the research and development time, the manufacturer decided to use the prototype F.20 / 27 aircraft and adapt it to the new in-line engine Rolls-Royce Kestrel. The machine created in this way won the competition for a government order with the machine from Fairey's company and entered production. In 1935 a modernized version (Fury Mk. II) appeared, which had: a new variant of the Kestrel engine, an improved cooling system, a new chassis structure and larger fuel tanks. Plane Hawker Fury, for the early 1930s, turned out to be a great machine with high maximum speed and considerable maneuverability. However, it was expensive to produce, and for this reason the RAF preferred the much cheaper, though inferior, Bristol Bulldog. Machines of this type were also used in the aviation of, among others, Iran, Yugoslavia and Portugal. Hawker Fury took part in combat operations during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and during the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.