Hawker Fury (oz16726)

About this Plan

Hawker Fury. Radio control scale model biplane fighter. Wingspan 36 in, for electric power with brushless Mega 16/15/4 400 motor.

Quote: "Full-size plan feature. Another electric-powered scale delight. Hawker Fury, by Chris Golds.

The Hawker Aircraft Company was doing very well with its production of the Hart two-seat bomber which began in 1928 and included the Hart Fighter or 'Demon' (see my plan in Flying Scale Models April 2003) most of which were powered by the Rolls Royce Kestrel in-line engine.

The Company responded to the RAF requirement number F20/27 (fighter requirement number 20 issued in 1927) with a neat, single-seat, single-bay biplane powered by a Jupiter radial engine. This was followed by the Hoopoo naval fighter using virtually the same airframe, again with a radial engine, but somewhat encumbered by the necessary naval equipment. Then came the Hornet that employed the RR FXI S in-line engine which provided such a sparkling performance that the Royal Air Force placed a production order with Hawkers in 1930 and chose the name 'Fury' for possibly the most beautiful biplane ever built.

Whilst I had built an ic-powered and heavy Hawker Demon many years ago, I had never built a Fury as the seeming necessity to hang a great lump of exhaust out to one side of the streamlined nose really offended my aeronautical senses. So when my electric-powered Demon proved to be such a nice flying scale model, I was tempted to design a Fury to use the same power-train of a Mega 16/15/6 brushless motor running from nine 1850 NiMH cells. The Demon was, if anything, slightly overpowered so I projected the Fury to be a little larger and to keep the same wing loading of just over 15 ounces per square foot.

The plans were started on 18 February 2003 and were completed the very next day. I had learned a great deal about small e-powered biplanes from my Curtiss P-6E and Hawker Demon and I was convinced that I knew where I wanted everything - and especially the critical coupling of the C of G and the placing of the main wheels ground-contact point.

The design was for a wing span of 36 inches and a length of 31-3/4 inches and I was very surprised to find that this gave a wing area of 2-3/4 square feet, very much more than the only slightly smaller Demon. The reason for this anomaly was that Fury wings do not have any wing root cut-outs as Hawkers had refined their wing planform from that of the Demon. I reckoned that I could build to a maximum of 34 ounces total and this would give the surprisingly low wing loading of about twelve and a half ounces per square foot.

In my drawings I paid great attention to the fuselage contours, especially at the nose where I refined the mounting of the motor and the conical spinner. I also proposed to use streamline aluminium tube for the interplane struts to improve the appearance of the model and to get closer to scale.

Building began on 22nd February 2003 (ended on 21st March '03) and was quite straightforward as most of the construction had been sorted out on the Demon. The magazine plan will have full building instructions printed with it, so here detailed 'tab A into slot B' instructions are not needed. Careful selection of materials helped to keep the weight growth under control and the final figure was just below the proposed limit of 34 ounces. The final wing-loading was only a little over 12 ounces per square foot, so a good flying performance was expected..."

Hawker Fury from Flying Scale Models August 2003.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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