Had World War II included the invasion of
the Japanese Home Islands, it is likely the Hawker Sea Fury would be recognized
as one of the great warplanes ever designed and built. As it was, the airplane
represents the first instance of the British aviation industry "getting it
right" as regards the special needs of a carrier-based fighter, while still
providing world-class performance. The Sea Fury provided sterling service in
Korea, and has thrilled audiences at the Reno Air Races and other racing events
for more than thirty years.
Unfortunately, this
volume from Warbird Tech follows the example of most of the other books in the
series, in that it doesn't really provide information that isn't available
elsewhere in greater detail. What it does accomplish is to provide enough
information on the subject in one place at one time that if you don't have the
other references and don't plan to buy them you will have "enough
information." The book does provide more information about the two-seat Sea
Fury trainer than I had found elsewhere, which was of value to me in finishing
off the scratch-built conversion of a Hobbycraft Sea Fury to this configuration
that I had been pursuing the past several months.
Where the book shines
is in its color photography of the racing Sea Furies. I had not seen all this
information together before; back in the days before the Reno Air Races became a
boring contest for rich old white guys who could buy what they needed to live
out their teenage fantasies, I used to really enjoy going up there every year,
and loved watching guys like the late Ormond Haydon-Baillie or Lloyd Hamilton
belt their Sea Furies around the pylons from the best house in the venue: Pylon
One. Those essentially-stock airplanes looked good as they went by 100 feet
overhead sounding like big sewing machines. I have mixed feelings about carving
up rare warbirds for something as irrelevant as an air race, and fortunately the
Sea Fury was designed right enough at the outset that there is really little
reason for this nowadays, other than to fit Pratt & Whitney "corncobs" in place
of the now-rare Bristol Centaurus, which has made the airplane a serious
competitor of the P-51s. Those modelers who want to do the High Planes racers
now have some good reference photos for the finishes here.
Overall, the book is
well-written with no glaring inaccuracies, which nowadays seems to be an
out-of-the-ordinary "plus" when it comes to popularizing technical information
about airplanes. If you don't have any of the other major Sea Fury references,
this will give you what you need to make a good model.
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