Iraqi Fury(s)

Hey folks, back up a mo.

Wars – you see ‘enemy equipment’, you attack it (or run away…)

Nothing to do with IQ of any nation or military. I’d bet a quick survey of British (or Aussie – I’m an Aussie) military folks currently in N. Africa & the middle east would be hard pressed to name any ‘old’ aeroplane.

Friendly fire. Let’s leave that one alone here. Flame wars are over on the Modern Military forum.

Taking my Boutros Boutros role…

PS the forum in question (I recall) was the WWIX one. Worth a look…

Cheers

i seem to remember the ‘yanks’ being a bit ‘gun-ho’ with our tanks

anyway one for another forum i guess… 🙁

Why do we bother…

Originally posted by dhfan
I shall resist commenting on my views regarding the IQ of the average American.

I shall do the same regarding my views of your IQ dhfan.

Originally posted by dhfan
I shall resist commenting on my views regarding the IQ of the average American.

Ok, Now you’ve got me interested. I’m curious to hear your views on our average IQ. Do you mean average American civilian? Or are you talking about military folks?

I shall resist commenting on my views regarding the IQ of the average American.

Sad, very sad … 🙁

Keep them away from Old Warden…

Flood.

Shocking. I am lost for words.

Found this on another forum:

“I am (or was up until very recently) a USAF F-15E pilot. I was deployed during IRAQI FREEDOM earlier this year, and one of our types of missions was something called SCAR, or Strike Coordination and Reconnaissance. Without getting too detailed, it’s basically a poor man’s “Fast FAC” Forward Air Controller, where we go into a target area, find our own targets for our own ordnance, then find targets for other strikers in the area.

: One day after a mission I was sitting in the Intel shop filling out some paperwork and I heard some aircrew in the next room over reviewing their HUD film after their mission for the Intel debrief. They had apparently been flying SCAR near the Balad SE airfield just north of Baghdad and had run across a number of airplanes dispersed out into a field. They had destroyed 4 or 5 of them, but neither they nor the intelligence folks cound figure out what type of aircraft they were.

: So, the Intel officer knew that I was a bit of an old airplane freak, and poked his head around the corner, asking me to come look at the tape.

: As they played back the tape, the first thing I saw was a Hawker Hunter getting speared with a laser guided bomb. I told the Intel officer that’s what I thought it was, then filled him in that I was pretty sure the Hunter had been one of thge main Iraqi fighters before they got their fleet of MiGs. “Hey, you guys know that this isn’t a MiG, right? It’s British…” They just sort of looked at me blankly and said, “yeah, but it’s an Iraqi fighter, so we hit it.” The tape kept rolling…another Hunter bites the dust.

: The pilot who’d flown the mission piped up, “It’s this next one that’s really weird, though…it looks like a big prop plane of some sort.”

: So, the next thing that flashes up on the screen, sure enough, is a Sea Fury. The tape continues to roll as my eyes light up…”Hey, cool, that’s a Sea Fury!” It appears to be a 2-seater and is sitting there intact. For a moment I take mental note that it’s at the Balad SE airfield and wonder if, in a postwar Iraq, there would be any way of me getting up there to claim that thing! I start explaining to the pilots and intel guys what kind of airplane it is when I see on screen that another 500-pound laser guided bomb sails right into the Fury, destroying it in a large explosion.

: “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!?” I was stunned, seeing such a thing obliterated. My reaction was a little funny, especially considering on my own tape I had just watched my own bombs destroying a MiG-23 and a Su-17, and hadn’t thought twice about it. But this….a Sea Fury….that was sacrilegious!

: The pilot, obviously not grasping the value of a warbird in the same way that I was, just shrugged, and said, “hey, it was an airplane….it might be able to carry WMD, right?”

On reflection perhaps I was a little harsh in calling the Isaac’s Fury horrid.

I just have memories of my first ever airshow, at Hamilton, where there were a couple of Harvards, a Dominie and a few bits and bobs, which were great. And then these Furies flew in. I was excited to see them fly in (from Ardmore?) and then when they taxied in and I saw them up close I was disappointed to be told be Dad that they were not real, and were scaled down (I was a naive 15 or 16 year old then, and knew little about our warbirds scene). It was somehow a really big disappointment.

I guess they are a nifty little thing to fly, and Dad knew one of the pilots who said they were great, but I developed a strong disregard for replicas then which stayed with me for many years till I realised there are some nice ones about, like the Clive du Cros Spitfire and the Southern Cross, etc. and they serve a valuable purpose in filling gaps not filled by the real thing.

dhfan

Just done a quick search on G-INFO and the first (I think) Fury G-ASCM is still current.

OAW

Although I don’t know when it was built, I would suggest that the original Isaac’s Fury is probably a historic aircraft in it’s own right.
Is it still about?

Not evene worth mentioning on a Historic Aviation forum so I apologise profusely.

No need to apologize, because they are

– NOT ultralights in the legal sense;
– 7/10 scale so that it’s easier to find a matching engine (Conti O-290, I believe);
– very difficult to build;
– and in my opinion look gorgeous… 😀

Hmm, what the heck am I on? I totally misread your message, sorry Mark and everyone else.

I was talking about ultralight-class replicas of the Hawker Fury biplanes which are called Isaac Furies. The replica was designed by someone Issac I believe, and they’re about 7/10ths the real size – ie way too small as the pilot looks ridiculous in them. And up close they look like toys. Not evene worth mentioning on a Historic Aviation forum so I apologise profusely.

As far as the Iraq Furies goes, I am surprised any were left there in the first place as I thought they’d all been rescued ages back, and why on earth are people not doing anything about it. Perhaps we could swap them for some Isaacs Furies and the Yanks can use them for target practice.

What are you on Dave?

Thanks Moggy.

Here is a shot in recently from the US, one of several that are doing the rounds over there.

If items like this are being trashed it is a shame. 🙁

Just think but for a signature on a contract and a couple of years they could be Mk.22 Spitfires, then we would really be jumping up and down!

Mark

Photo credit and apologies to an unknown allied serviceman.

What’s the story with these? Can you fill us in please?

There used to be several of them round NZ, I remember seeing three or four at an airshow in Hamilton in about 1987ish. Horrid little things. Why the heck don’t people make replicas the right size!

One of our groupies has returned from a tour over there.

He saw a couple of the Furies.

These were being chopped up and stripped by the squaddies for souvenirs 🙁

Moggy