Timing nightmare

[Charlie Farley]

Keith,

Interesting info.
Hope i'm not causing too much thread drift here, but i wonder how the hell
Castro's lot managed to get hold of Seafury's ?
That must have caused some friction between interested parties in the US & UK,
however circuitous the route to an End User certificate.

 

[Chris Huck]

My father recounts a story of when he was a youngster he accompanied my grandfather to Aston Down and South Cerney (local airfields) many a time for a look around all the planes that were there awaiting to be cut up for scrap. On the one day he said he saw 6 Sea Furies land, these had been ferried straight from the factory and were due to be cut up for scrap, £2000 each they were asking for them, a lot of money in those days!!

 

[Keith]

Castro's revolution was in 1959 a mere 2 years before the BOP adventure. I assume therefore, that he inherited the Sea Fury's from Batista.

On the other hand, spares may have been a problem!

Chris. Wow, £20K? A small price to pay for the world's fastest ever piston engined fighter, but the British MOD have and never have had any emotion when it comes to disposal. Mind you, I don't think there was this current level of interest either! Can you say steam locomotives?

The daft buggers are building new ones!

Did I mention the Sea Fury was powered by a Bristol Centaurus - an uprated version of the Hercules as per the thread starter?

Back now

Edit. Bit of irony Andrew. The infamous Korean dogfight was a battle in fact between the best British piston engine, and the best British Jet Engine! The MIG 15 was powered by an absolute copy of the Rolls Royce. Russia bought "1" and the silly sods sold it to them!

 

[Chris Huck]

Keith, they were £2K each, all the same an awful lot of money in those days. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!!

 

[Al Jones]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't the Seafury the only piston engined fighter to be credited with Mig 15 kills in the Korean War ? And to boot, as was admitted to after the end of the Cold War, those Migs were flowen by WW2 era Russian Aces.



QUOTE]

The Sea Fury wasn't the only piston engined fighter to be credited with a MIG 15 kill as the F4U Corsair also accomplished this feat. Interestingly, they were both 'Navy' planes. although frequently ground-based.
A.J.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Al,

I stand corrected... slapped my wrist for good measure.

Thanks.

 

[Keith]

Keith, they were £2K each, all the same an awful lot of money in those days. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!!

£2K! That's even worse. Yes at least a year maybe 2 years salary, but still......

Are you sitting on your porch?