Aeroplane September 2017

September 2017 News

AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 9

NEARLY 14 years after it last

achieved glory as the most

radically modifi ed of all the

Hawker Sea Fury racers in the

National Championship Air

Races in Reno, Nevada, Sea

Fury T20 WE820/N85SF made

its fi rst post-restoration fl ight

at Auburn Municipal Airport,

northern California on 1 July

with Ken Dwelle at the

controls. The ex-Fleet Air Arm

machine has been rebuilt back

into its original military

two-seater confi guration, and

will now be painted in the

markings it wore while serving

with 738 Squadron at

Lossiemouth in the mid-1950s.

The fi ghter-trainer now

bears no trace of its recent

past, which began during

1984-85 when WE820 was

transformed into a single-seat

racer named Blind Man’s Bluff

for New Jersey resident Eric

Lorentzen. Modifi cations

included the installation of a

small, low-drag canopy over a

new cockpit located in the rear

fuselage, reduction of the

wingspan by 4ft to 34ft, the

fi tting of a squared-off

tailplane 14in taller than the

original, installation of a

3,250hp Wright R-3350 engine

turning a Douglas Skyraider

propeller, and the fi tting of

Douglas A-26 cowlings. The

engine was adapted to run on

methanol. After many travails

and blown powerplants, Blind

The fi ghter-trainer

now bears no trace of

its recent past, which

began during 1984-

when WE820 became

a single-seat racer

named Blind Man’s

Bluff with a low-drag

canopy, reduced wing

span and a squared-off

tailplane

VLADO LENOCH KILLED

IN P-51 ACCIDENT

Highly regarded Chicago-based

warbird pilot Vlado Lenoch and

passenger Bethany Root died when

P-51D Mustang N251PW Baby

Duck crashed on 16 July after

departing from Amelia Earhart

Airport in Atchison County, Kansas.

Lenoch, 64, began flying in 1970

when he was 17, and was noted for

his P-51 displays. 34-year-old Root

was the Amelia Earhart Airport

manager.^

GO-AHEAD FOR BIGGIN

MUSEUM

On 19 July the executive of

Bromley Council approved plans

for construction during the autumn

of the Biggin Hill Memorial

Museum on the site of the St

George’s RAF Chapel of

Remembrance. The museum was

awarded just under £2 million by

the Heritage Lottery Fund on 3

July, ensuring that the

£5.325-million project can

proceed.

NELSON EZELL HURT IN

FURY MISHAP

Hawker Fury ISS N254SF made an

emergency landing in a field on

approach to Stephens County

Airport, Breckenridge, Texas on 25

July following engine failure

during a test flight, seriously

injuring the pilot, well-known

aircraft restorer Nelson Ezell.

WELLINGTON

‘BACK HOME’

Vickers Wellington Ia N

was moved from its temporary

‘tent’ accommodation into the

recently refurbished

Wellington hangar at the

Brooklands Museum in Surrey

on 25 July. The hangar has now

been given a wartime

camouflage paint scheme,

based on a still from a

Movietone news clip dating

from 1946. It is due to open to

the public in mid-to-late

Oc tober.

NEWS IN BRIEF

BROOKLANDS MUSEUM

Man’s Bluff was fl own by Skip

Holm into second place in the

Unlimited Silver race at Reno

in 1987. Now named Critical

Mass and owned by combat

veteran Skyraider pilot Tom A.

Dwelle of Auburn, N85SF

achieved greater success in

September 1994, placing fi fth

in the Unlimited Gold race,

again with Holm at the helm.

Dwelle himself took the

second step on the podium

and work on the centre section

and outer wings was carried

out by Sea Fury specialists

Sanders Aeronautics at Ione,

California. WE820 was

completed by a team from

Nella Oil, the Dwelle family

business at Auburn.

The machine was originally

built as the fi rst of the third

production batch of seven Sea

Fury T20s, and delivered to

RNAS Anthorn near

Morecambe, Cumbria in

November 1950. It was

allotted to 738 Squadron at

Culdrose in March 1952, going

with the unit to Lossiemouth in

November 1953. Struck off

charge in December 1956,

WE820 was bought back by

Hawker in May 1958 and

converted to target-towing

confi guration before being

registered D-COTE and

becoming one of 17 examples

of the T20 to be operated by

Deutsche Luftfahrt-

Beratungsdienst (DLB),

providing target-towing

facilities for the German forces

based out of Lübeck and

Cologne-Bonn (Wahn). The

last of the bright red DLB Sea

Furies were retired in 1970.

After a period in open storage

at Wahn D-COTE was sold to

John Stokes, the founder of

the Central Texas Wing of the

Confederate Air Force, and

moved to his ranch at San

Marcos, Texas, during 1980.

Sea Fury fl ies again

after the Unlimited Gold race

at Reno in 2000, being beaten

into second place by Holm

fl ying P-51D Dago Red. The

last appearance at Reno for

N85SF was in 2003, when

Dwelle placed third at a speed

of 446.965mph, after which he

retired from air racing.

Rebuilding of the fuselage

back to stock confi guration

In gleaming natural metal, Sea Fury T20 WE820/

N85SF gets airborne at Auburn Municipal Airport on

1 July with Ken Dwelle at the helm. MARK LOPER

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