Originally posted by wingman
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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.
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.
In regards to help Lloyd got from the Sanders with Furias, yes there was communication and A LOT of it. Eric spoke with Lloyd extensively about Furias and his other Sea Fury exploits for research he was doing.
Lloyd had most of the details of Dreadnought as its build progressed in the early 1980s. He and Frank had had discussions about the Super Corsair and the Cleveland era 4360 Corsair racers wherein Frank ultimately remarked, "what if you put that engine on a clean airframe?"
Obviously, he meant a Sea Fury. The development of Dread was fueled by the growth in popularity and sales (government in particular) of Sanders' well-known smokewinders (which connected to the F-16 via General Dynamics and their chief test pilot, Neil Anderson).
As Neal said, Lloyd didn't have that advantage. He did tell Eric that he was "a great copycat" which was his way of being self-effacing about the work he had put into Furias. Again, that work was based on his understanding of Dreadnought and his relationship with the Sanders.
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