SEA FURY LEAVES FRANCE FOR CANADA
Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 TF987/WH589 with French civil registration F-AZXJ owned by Christophe Jacquard and based at Dijon-Darois Airport has been sold to a Canadian collector who at this time wishes to remain anonymous.
The Sea Fury which hasn’t performed at any airshows since 2018 has been offered for sale for almost three years by the specialist warbird broker Boschung Global Aviation.
This Exact Sea Fury left the production plant in 1949 as a Sea Fury FB.11 and was delivered to the Fleet Air Arm/Royal Navy with a serial number TF987 later that year.
It was retired from the Royal Navy in 1957 and went back to Hawker-Siddeley where it was de-navalized and converted to a two-seater T.20. In 1958 the de-navalized Sea Fury was delivered to the Al Quwwa al Jawwiya al Iraqiya (Iraqi Air Force) where it received a new serial number 316.
It was recovered from Iraq in 1979 by Ed Jurist and David C and transported to Orlando, Florida in the USA where it was stored.
In December 1981, the Sea Fury was sold to John D. Rodgers who restored it back to an airworthy condition as a Sea Fury FB.11 with a civil registration N56SF. It performed its first post-restoration flight in 1995 but sadly just six years later on the 9th of July 2001 the Sea Fury crashed on takeoff killing the pilot.
The Sea Fury was restored back to an airworthy condition in 2009 and exported to France on the 29th of July 2010 where it received a new Australian Navy colour scheme it has to this day and a new civil registration F-AZXJ.
