Hawker Sea Fury Belly Landing

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 08/01/2014 at 08:53 • Filed to: planelopnik

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The only airworthy Sea Fury in the UK experienced a landing gear failure during a demonstration flight at Culdrose Air Day. The pilot was unhurt, but the same can't be said for the historic warbird, though the damage looks repairable. The landing sequence starts at about 0:40.

The Sea Fury was the last propeller driven aircraft to serve in the Royal Navy, and was also one of the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built. It was powered by a Bristol Centaurus 18 18-cylinder twin-row radial engine which produced 2,480 hp.

Fed(oo=[][]=oo)uken > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:00

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That hurt to watch. I wonder if the pilot had warning, I would think it would have been better to land on the grass. Hope the bird makes it back in the air soon.

ttyymmnn > Fed(oo=[][]=oo)uken 08/01/2014 at 09:04

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I'm pretty sure the smoke you see on landing isn't the demonstration smoke. He must have had some sort of failure, perhaps in hydraulics. In that case, I imagine he would have had some indication on the dashboard.

kanadanmajava1 > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:08

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It would seem that the plane had also some other problem besides the landing gear. I'm quite sure that you should extend the landing gear a bit earlier than 7 seconds before landing. That smoke was probably somehow related. That situation could have ended worse too.

I'm not sure about British planes but some other had emergency option of hand cranking the gears down if hydraulic system had failed. But its not a fast method.

ttyymmnn > kanadanmajava1 08/01/2014 at 09:11

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I was wondering about cranking the gear manually as well, but this plane came out just after the war, and by that time, hand-cranked landing gear may have been a thing of the past.

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:13

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Beautifully done. It's amazing to me that these guys are so professional that they can set a broken plane down like it's any other landing. If I were in the plane, you'd see my piss leaking out all the way to the fireball at the end of the runway.

ttyymmnn > Rock Bottom 08/01/2014 at 09:15

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Rule No. 1: Fly The Plane. I suppose if you're busy flying the plane you're too busy to be scared.

kanadanmajava1 > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:26

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Really to find any verification about this. But the pilot clearly didn't have time start cranking manually even if he would have had that option.

The plane's canopy looks pretty weird. The visibility from the rear must be quite bad.

Jayhawk Jake > Fed(oo=[][]=oo)uken 08/01/2014 at 09:31

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There are indication lights for the gear in the cockpit, he would have seen that they didn't come down. I'm sure the air boss would have let him know as well

Jayhawk Jake > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:32

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Hand cranked gear is still a thing on light airplanes. It's possible it was omitted from fighters to save time/money/weight

Jayhawk Jake > Rock Bottom 08/01/2014 at 09:36

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If you had that reaction you wouldn't be flying in the first place because you would never have been trained properly

ttyymmnn > kanadanmajava1 08/01/2014 at 09:39

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That's the two-seat trainer variant, the T20. The original single-seat Sea Fury had a standard bubble canopy.

kanadanmajava1 > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 09:48

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The single seater seems have quite big empty space behind the pilot. I wonder what's the purpose of that space. A mounting place for a big combat camera?

ttyymmnn > kanadanmajava1 08/01/2014 at 09:55

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Hard to say. That isn't the original canopy, as far as I can tell. Judging by this cutaway, there's really not much back there.

ttyymmnn > kanadanmajava1 08/01/2014 at 10:01

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It's the FB Mk. 11 variant. I can't find any information on why the cockpit was enlarged.

kanadanmajava1 > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 10:03

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The original model doesn't have any extra space. Maybe the long one was for some special purpose.

kanadanmajava1 > ttyymmnn 08/01/2014 at 10:19

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Nice looking plane still. The fuselage has some resemblance to Fw 190 D with the long nose.

I hope they have plenty of spares for the repairs.

Rock Bottom > Jayhawk Jake 08/01/2014 at 10:22

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... which is why I stay on the ground. That, and the terrifying commercial aircraft construction and maintenance methods. And the horrifying state of the FAA. God their "engineers" and DERs terrify me.

Flying is scary.

Jayhawk Jake > Rock Bottom 08/01/2014 at 11:42

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Terrifying state of construction methods? Airplanes are safer than they've ever been

Rock Bottom > Jayhawk Jake 08/01/2014 at 12:14

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... which makes it even scarier. I assume you're near Wichita? Engineer, by chance? Regardless, walk the line at Cessna or Bombardier or Spirit (if that's still a thing), then (next chance you get) tour the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA. Or the Newport News shipyards in Virginia. Maybe check out the VW plant in Chattanooga. Study the work flow, the attitudes of the employees, the tools being used (and if those tools are even being used correctly). You'll be amazed. I know I was/am. I've been to all of the above in the last decade and am terrified at the skill set (or lack thereof) possessed by the average aviation line worker. That, coupled with sketchy maintenance (often outside the US, but sometimes here too) and just plain terrible oversight by the FAA (mostly of the design and construction, but also of the maintenance) makes me thank my lucky stars every time I get off an airplane in one piece.

Don't get me wrong, this is the experience-based opinion of just one man and I am by no means aligned with the majority. Please do not take any of this as factual. I do ask that you (and everyone else) look around. Sometimes safety-records have little to do with anything more than pure chance.