Malcolm V Lowe tells the story of the Hawker Sea Fury…a significant warplane for Britain’s Royal Navy from the later 1940s onwards
During the latter half of World War Two, the famous British aviation company Hawker Aircraft Ltd produced two significant single-seat combat aircraft for the RAF…the Typhoon and Tempest. Both these singleengined types served with distinction in combat, the Tempest being one of the fastest and most powerful Allied piston-powerplant warplanes in the closing months of the war. Tempests were eventually series produced in both inline engine (Napier Sabre) and radial (Bristol Centaurus) versions, the latter only serving as the Tempest Mk.II following World War Two.
Although unquestionably successful, both the Typhoon and Tempest were large combat aircraft, which prompted Hawker’s forward-looking designers to examine the possibility of a lighter alternative for possible future service requirements. The Air Ministry had also identified this need, possibly for RAF employment in the Pacific and Far East, and duly wrote Specification F.6/42. Eventually referred to during these early stages as the ‘Tempest Light Fighter’, the new Hawker project drew heavily on the Tempest’s overall l…
