Sea Fury Aerobatics Thrill The Crowd

Dennis Sanders flew the Hawker Sea Fury through a two-day aerobatic display at the 2016 Planes of Fame airshow in Chino, California, and the footage compiled from both Saturday and Sunday routines captures exactly why this aircraft and this pilot generated the reaction they did.

The Hawker Sea Fury, powered by a Bristol Centaurus sleeve-valve radial, produces one of the most distinctive sounds in aviation. The Centaurus at full power is not the sharp bark of a conventional piston engine but something deeper and more complex, a product of the sleeve-valve design that distinguished it from every other large radial of the era.

Viewers and spectators consistently describe it as among the finest engine sounds in existence, and the comments on this footage reflect that immediately.

Sanders himself was a respected presence in the warbird community who also raced at Reno with Dreadnought, the Pratt and Whitney R-4360 powered Sea Fury that represented a different engineering philosophy entirely. His touch at the controls during the Planes of Fame display is precise and unhurried, the mark of a pilot completely comfortable with a demanding aircraft.

The Sea Fury remains one of the last and finest piston-engine fighters ever built. In Sanders’ hands at Chino in 2016 it looked exactly like what it was!