Hawker Fury Mk.II, G-CBEL


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Hawker Fury Mk.II, G-CBEL

The Hawker Fury FB.11 is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built. Developed during the Second World War, the Fury entered service two years after the war ended. The Fury proved to be a popular aircraft with a number of overseas militaries, and was used during the Korean War in the early 1950s, as well as against the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.

This Fury, construction number was produced by Hawker’s as a Fury ISS – Iraqi Single Seat for the Iraqi Air Force, as part of contract number 53/1/012 for 60 aircraft, and was numbered 315 within this production batch. The aircraft was bought to Orlando, Florida, USA from Iraq in 1979 by Ed Jurist and David Tallichet. In 1989 the aircraft passed to Coleman Warbird Museum, Coleman, Texas where it was rebuilt to airworthy condition, before flying again in April 1991. She was imported back into the UK from Australia and she was re-registered as G-CBEL.
The aircraft has been refurbished and repainted by Air Leasing Ltd in the colours of one of Hawker’s Fury prototypes coded SR661, which was a modified Fury Mk.II with a tail hook fitted, but without the folding wings included on subsequent production aircraft.


Operator: Ultimate Warbird Flights
Manufacturing date: 1953
Serial number: 37539
Livery: Royal Navy prototype SR661