John Owens Isaacs was an aeronautical engineer with Supermarine Aviation. After obtaining his private pilot’s licence, he was contracted by the Hampshire Aero Club to build a Currie Wot biplane. The success of this project inspired Isaacs to design and build a 7/10th scale replica of that classic fighter biplane of the 1930s, the Hawker Fury. Taking the Currie Wot as an example, his Fury replica was all wood, with fabric covered wooden wings, and ailerons on the top wing only. He selected as the powerplant for the design a Czech-built four-cylinder inline engine, the Walter Micron III, producing 65hp. The aircraft’s first flight was made from Thruxton Airfield, Hampshire in 1963. Later, G-ASCM was modified to take a Lycoming O-290-D of 125 hp, which rather ruined the lines of the cowling, as the cylinder heads of this flat-four engine protruded on either side.
The Popular Flying Association (now the Light Aircraft Association) approved the Isaacs Fury as a homebuilt design, and sets of plans were sold in the USA, Australia and the UK. Currently, there are at least 15 examples of this pretty, little, (but fully aerobatic) aircraft on the British Civil Register. The aircraft you can see above is an Isaacs Fury II (PFA c/n 1588), and the builder, Michael Clark, solved the aesthetic problem associated with the flat-four engine by means of a highly-polished cowling, which blends the nose contours into the fuselage lines rather well. G-BEER is now owned by Roger Simon, and is wearing the famous black and white chequer-board markings of No. 43 Squadron, RAF. 43 Squadron (motto ‘Gloria finis’ – Glory Is The End) was the first unit to receive the Hawker Fury in 1931; ‘The Fighting Cocks’ were at Hawkinge, Kent at the time. Here you can see G-BEER parked at the Great Vintage Flying Weekend, Cotswold Airport, Kemble.
What of the first Isaacs Fury, G-ASCM (which belonged to the designer from 1962-1968) you say? Well, it is still on the British Register, after no less than 11 owners! The fortunate and current owner of this delightful replica, painted as Fury K2050, is Roger F. Redknap, of Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
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