What was the deal with Furias's cutaway rudder? I have always felt it looked awkward, and since we never saw any other Sea Fury follow the template, I'd have to guess it didn't really lead to any gains.
Will
Will
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I think the rudder changes are the same as were done for Dreadnought when Frank designed the fin extension. LLoyd actually flew Dreadnoght as they were finalizing the fin cap in 1984 or so. I think Lloyd just wanted his fin cap to look different. It seems that the extra length of the Corncob was pretty destabilizing and the airplanes a real handful at over 430 mph or so. 232 did well with a stock tail at 450 mph though...
Last edited by wingman; 10-03-2024, 09:59 PM.Comment
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There was communication but not much if any help from Sanders. Furias was a mashup of parts from various airframes Lloyd accumulated. Haydon-Bailey's airplane, which had been crasned, provided parts and paperwork.Originally posted by CJAM427 View Post
Hawker Fury/Sea Fury Registry - A Warbirds Resource Group Site (warbirdregistry.org)
Lloyd never really had the money to do this properly. Among other issues he could apparently never afford a crucial engine internal mod (developed by the Sanders) and kept trying to make canned non-overhauled engines work. Dreadnought and the Super Corsair could and did (occasionally) run around 4000 hp. Furias could never approach that. Cool airplane, though.
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Furias was I think the coolest name. What year did he lose the cowling ?Comment
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Aha, that makes sense. I was reviewing its race records and I noticed how much engine trouble they had compared to the Sanders.Originally posted by wingman View Post
There was communication but not much if any help from Sanders. Furias was a mashup of parts from various airframes Lloyd accumulated. Haydon-Bailey's airplane, which had been crasned, provided parts and paperwork.
Hawker Fury/Sea Fury Registry - A Warbirds Resource Group Site (warbirdregistry.org)
Lloyd never really had the money to do this properly. Among other issues he could apparently never afford a crucial engine internal mod (developed by the Sanders) and kept trying to make canned non-overhauled engines work. Dreadnought and the Super Corsair could and did (occasionally) run around 4000 hp. Furias could never approach that. Cool airplane, though.
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What is/was the modification done to the 4360?
I didn't realize Furias was a composite airframe, but that makes sense. I really wish we could have seen what it could do after the most recent rebuild. There appeared to be so much right with the build. Didn't it qualify at 460+ with the gear hanging out? (I can't remember for sure) I hope someone buys it and rebuilds it. Heck, buy Furias, and Dusty's Sea Fury and do another composite, then sell off the pieces left over (or build another stocker.) Where's my winning lottery ticket?
WillComment
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It was not a real good composite either. I remember talking to Bill Rogers after he bought the airplane. He complained strenuously about the quality of some of the stuff he was having to redo. The final owners put a bunch more work into correcting issues, and complained about the same things. A guy I know (Bud Granley) did some ferry work with Furias when Rogers owned it and commented at the time that the airplane flew a little funny.
It says something about the genius of Frank Sanders that he built up the Dread Sled from not much more than Lloyd started with and put together a flawless program that still had to contend with cooling and handling issues. Even Dread blew up at least two motors chasing a bearing issue, The 4360 was never intended to go racing. Under very high power some main bearing deep inside would move in such a way that it destroyed the motor. This is why they missed Reno 84 and spent the Bakersfield Race changing their race motor. The Sanders group eventually figured out a way to lock the bearing in place and got a reliable high power engine, but this required that the engine be disassembled and overhauled. Lloyd could not do that...
Last edited by wingman; 10-04-2024, 06:06 PM.Comment
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Reno 1985
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Lefty Gardner and Bob Yancey . There was a lot of good racing at Reno 1985.
Last edited by wingman; 10-04-2024, 10:42 PM.Comment
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Happy to be corrected, I believe the increase of prop diameter and the prop disc being moved forward would be the cause of instability.Originally posted by wingman View Post
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It really was quite a bit longer.
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Good point, I went and looked, the original 5 blade was 12'9, the skyraider aeroproducts is 13'6. Probably 2' forward as well which is significant.Originally posted by wingman View Post
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1985 was a good year to just hang out out on the ramp waiting for all the pretty airplanes to arrange themselves...
My beloved Mustang looks kinda small in this company.
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1985 was also the year that Lefty was experimenting with a novel "taildragger" configuration for the P-38.
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