Sanders Aeronautics restored Hawker Sea Fury T Mk.20 WG655 (N20MD), complete with state-of-the-art avionics and Centaurus Mk.18 power.

This particular Sea Fury had been operated as D-CACU in Germany where it was used as a dual-control trainer for pilots flying the Sea Furies operated by the Federal Republic as target tugs. In 1976, the aircraft was donated to the Royal Navy Historic Flight.

On 14 July 1990, the pilot of the Royal Navy Historic Flight's Hawker Sea Fury T. Mk.20 WG655 was having major problems with the aircraft's Bristol Centaurus radial engine. Operating from nearby RNAS Yeovilton, the pilot realized he was not going to make it back to base and elected for a forced landing in a farm field. Setting up a gear-up approach, a successful belly-landed was made, but the Hawker impacted what appeared to be the only tree in the field. Damage was extensive the aircraft was broken in two with lots of airframe destruction.

After the accident, the remains were inspected and deemed unrepairable then put up for disposal. The remains went initially to New Zealand where the wing folding mechanism wound up in Fury ZK-SFR. Chuck Greenhill, who houses his fine collection of aircraft at Kenosha, Wisconsin, has always had an interest in aircraft with Naval connections. He purchased the remains and had them shipped to Kenosha where Tim McCarter and his crew went to work. After thousands of man-hours, the project began to look like a Sea Fury, but with the other aircraft projects in the hangar it was decided to ship the plane to Sanders Aeronautics, the "Sea Fury Kings", for completion.

On May 24, 2005 Brian Sanders took N20MD up for a successful first post-restoration flight - the first time the aircraft had flown in 15 years.

Photo Gallery