Post by Dave Homewood on May 5, 2023 15:03:06 GMT 12
This was published in The Press on the 23rd of January 1988.
Hawker Fury soon for N.Z. skies
PA Auckland
An aero engineer, Mr Warren Denholm, says a Hawker Baghdad Fury warplane he has been restoring is nearly ready to fly again after years of lying under sand in a Middle East desert.
The plane belongs to five members of the Warbirds’ Society, a group which buys old aircraft and restores them. The Aucklanders bought the Hawker Fury from American collectors for $70,000 in 1985. It was flown to Auckland inside a Hercules in mid-1986. The aircraft was one of about 24 sold by Iraq in the early 1970s.
The planes were built by Hawker Aircraft, England, for the Iraqi Air Force and served until 1967. They were stored outside for many years. The Fury is now only a month or six weeks from beginning ground checks in preparation for test flights by an Australian pilot. Experience with these planes is rare but the pilot has restored three of them in Australia. Two of the principal owners trained in a two-seater version of the plane in America.
When this one is complete it will be based at Ardmore, with its first public display at the Dairy Flat airshow in March. The Fury is painted in Royal Navy colours. It is propeller-powered, but very fast.
‘‘Not many aeroplanes keep up with this one,” Mr Denholm said. The Bristol Centaurus engine provides 2550 horse power and the plane has a top speed of 727 km/h (450 mph) at 20,000 ft.
A spokesman for the owners, Auckland businessman Steve Taylor, would not say how much money had been spent restoring the plane but Mr Denholm described it as "heaps".
Hawker Fury soon for N.Z. skies
PA Auckland
An aero engineer, Mr Warren Denholm, says a Hawker Baghdad Fury warplane he has been restoring is nearly ready to fly again after years of lying under sand in a Middle East desert.
The plane belongs to five members of the Warbirds’ Society, a group which buys old aircraft and restores them. The Aucklanders bought the Hawker Fury from American collectors for $70,000 in 1985. It was flown to Auckland inside a Hercules in mid-1986. The aircraft was one of about 24 sold by Iraq in the early 1970s.
The planes were built by Hawker Aircraft, England, for the Iraqi Air Force and served until 1967. They were stored outside for many years. The Fury is now only a month or six weeks from beginning ground checks in preparation for test flights by an Australian pilot. Experience with these planes is rare but the pilot has restored three of them in Australia. Two of the principal owners trained in a two-seater version of the plane in America.
When this one is complete it will be based at Ardmore, with its first public display at the Dairy Flat airshow in March. The Fury is painted in Royal Navy colours. It is propeller-powered, but very fast.
‘‘Not many aeroplanes keep up with this one,” Mr Denholm said. The Bristol Centaurus engine provides 2550 horse power and the plane has a top speed of 727 km/h (450 mph) at 20,000 ft.
A spokesman for the owners, Auckland businessman Steve Taylor, would not say how much money had been spent restoring the plane but Mr Denholm described it as "heaps".
