Hawker Fury

The Hawker Fury was a British biplane fighter used by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s, a fast and agile aircraft and the first RAF interceptor faster than 200 mph in level flight. It was the fighter counterpart to the Hawker Hart. It grew from the F.20/27 prototype by replacing that aircraft's radial engine with the new Rolls-Royce F.XI V12, later the Kestrel; the prototype, named the Hornet, first flew at Brooklands in March 1929 and the Air Ministry bought it in 1930. An order for 21 aircraft, to be named Fury, followed, and the Fury I made its maiden flight on 25 March 1931 with George Bulman, entering service with 43 Squadron. Cuts during the Depression kept orders small. Furies left RAF squadrons by 1939, but Yugoslav Furies fought the German invasion in 1941.