Hawker Fury Mk. I


I recently completed model for a Group Build on the 'Aeroscale' web site on the theme of "Fixed Undercarriage Fighters of WW2" (http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/)

My contribution to the GB was an Airfix 1/48 scale Hawker Fury Mk. I.

From Wikipedia :

"The Fury was the RAF's first operational fighter aircraft to be able to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h) in level flight. It had highly sensitive controls which gave it superb aerobatic performance. It was designed partly for the fast interception of bombers and to that end it had a climb rate of almost 2,400 ft/min (730 m/min, powered by a 525 hp/391 kW Kestrel engine)." The Fury first entered RAF service in May, 1931.

As the clouds of WW2 were gathering, obsolete and near obsolete aircraft were sent to fledgling commonwealth airforces to give them a boost. A number of Fury's were sent to South Africa.

The subject of my Hawker Fury is of the 1 Squadron S.A.A.F. #205 as piloted by Patrick Rushmere stationed at Wajir airfield in Kenya, close to the border with Ethiopia.


On March 8, 1940 he and Robert Blake (flying Hawker Fury #203) shot down an Italian Caproni Ca.133 bomber.

Some photos taken during the building of the model...

Below is a photo of another one of my models - a Pyro 1/48 Hawker Fury I, and the Airfix kit. The silver Fury is a pre-war RAF aircraft

This photo is grouping of four biplane fighters of the 1930's. Clockwise from the Fury is a Russian Polikarpov I-152 (which served in WW2), a Bristol Bulldog (which was replaced by the Fury), and a Czech Avia B.534, which was introduced in 1936 and was still used by some eastern european air forces at the end of WW2 (this particular model depicts an Avia serving alongside German Luftwaffe aircraft during the Polish invasion of 1939) All of htese will likely be subjects of future blog entries.

Finally, a photo of a real Hawker Fury Mk. I.