An Alternate Malta History - Hawker Sea Furiosities Grace, Honour & Destiny

[Brian da Basher]

When word leaked out that the Gloster Aero Co. had the lead in winning R.A.F. fighter specification F.7/30, the Hawker Co. was not about to be left out of the running. Hawker's lead designer, Sidney Camm, was up to his eyeballs working on the top-secret Hurricane, so it fell to his junior associate, Hidney Samm to rise to the challenge. Mr. Samm started with the venerable Hawker Fury biplane and set about improving it, first up-engining it with the new Rolls-Royce Vestial engine of 850 h.p. He then added an enclosed perspex bubble canopy, two more .303 guns in slim underwing pods and the sleekest spatted landing gear known to mankind at the time. Whilst the Gloster Gladiator was ordered into production, the R.A.F. was impressed enough by Mr. Samm's design, The Hawker Furious, to order it as a hedge against any failure of the Gladiator. The Royal Navy was also impressed and ordered limited numbers fitted to naval requirements under the name Sea Furious.


The island of Malta, as it was close to Italy was one of the Italian military's first targets. Initially Britain had thought that Malta was indefensible and bound to be conquered, so no resources were spent on defenses in spite of its strategic importance on the sea route from Europe to North Africa. Fortunately Mr. Churchill was not one to give up and ordered Malta to be reinforced by Sea Furious fighters delivered by the carrier H.M.S. Furious in one of his first acts as Prime Minister. The Hawker Sea Furiosities landed at Hal Far airfield in June, 1940. A common legend has it that the air defense consisted of just three such planes, nicknamed 'Grace', 'Honour' and 'Destiny', but at least six Sea Furiosities were deployed. Even though the Reggia Aeronautica pounded the small island relentlessly for months, they suffered heavy losses at the hands of the flight of Royal Navy fighters and it became clear that Malta could be defended. The Sea Furiosities were eventually replaced by Hawker Sea Hurricanes in March, 1941 but the dogged determination of 'Grace', 'Honour', and 'Destiny'in the face of overwhelming odds shall never be forgotten.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The basis for this project was the 1/72 Matchbox Hawker Fury and I apologize for having mangled such a wonderful kit. I've always been a fan of the Gloster Gladiator and wondered what may have happened if the Hawker firm had offered it some competition. The build was fairly straightforward. All I did was cut down the rear canopy from a P-51 to fit and attach new landing gear struts and a pair of Aeroclub spats. The rear spatted tailwheel was left-over from an He-70 and I found a tailhook and half a bomb for use as a life-raft fairing in my spares box. The model was brush-painted by hand with acrylics. I used Model Masters "Primer Gray" for the undersides and Model Masters "Gunship Gray" and Polly-Scale PC-10 for the upper camo pattern. The prop and landing gear were painted with craft paints. The decals came from my stash and the model was rigged with .008 steel wire, Gator Glue and a steady hand. The entire project took me a week to build. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did putting it together!

Brian da Basher

[Rafael]

Hey, Bri!!, That bubbletop is really the bee's knees.
Now I want one Fury, which I have always thought the sexier biplane ever.

Rafa

[dogsbody]

Your creations never cease to amaze me. Do you lay awake at night, thinking up these schemes?

[sotoolslinger]

 How do you  do that  so frakkin quick Whiff ninja

[puddingwrestler]

Ohhh! Nift-o-licious! It reminds me a lot of modern bi-plane racers, and those are, indeed, the most graceful spats known to man or beast.

[NARSES2]

I like that Brian - strangely I have some ideas for WIF Furies & Gladiators at the moment, following discussions with Rad

[ysi_maniac]

Absolutely graceful plane. I have always loved Hawker Fury and your creation is just RIGHT!

[lancer]

Dammed if I know how you do it Biran, but you've created aother little masterpiece, which BTW looks gorgeous, with a great little back story as well. Fine work my friend

[jcf]

Hi Brian,
Hawker's did have a naval fighter related to the Fury, the Nimrod. Contrary to what some internet sources claim it was not a 'navalised' Fury.

Also the Hawker entry for the F.7/30 fighter 'contest', was the Hawker P.V.3... a scaled up with Fury with scaled down Hart wings.


Jon

[Brian da Basher]

Thanks for the info, Jon! I'd often wondered if there were any advances attempted on the original Hawker Fury as it seemed to me the design shows a lot of promise for later variants. I know there was a later mark with spats that was featured in "Things to Come" but I had no idea they actually fielded an entry for F.7/30.

This was my entry in the Matchbox Group Build over on ARC, and no one over there has commented yet, so I'm pleased my fellow whiffers find it gratifying. Here's a box shot featuring the original Matchbox stand.

Brian da Basher

[deathjester]

FANTASTIC !! What a sexy little model

[Sisko]

Nice fury!!!!

They may be old and they may not have all the bells and whistles of the newer kits but Matchbox Kits can still build up into something nice!!