Between 1959 and 1960, WestGermany purchased ten Hawker Sea Fury T.20 aircraft for conversion target tugs. Operated by DLB (Deutscher Luftwaffen Beartungsdienst) they were converted to their new role in Germany and designated Sea Fury T.20S. An additional six were purchased in 1962 with a further one acquired from the Netherlands. They were retired in 1970.
The Vickers Type 253 was built to Air Ministry specification G.4/31 for a general purpose aircraft capable of carrying out level bombing, army co-operation, dive bombing, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and torpedo bombing. The design is often also known as the Vickers G.4/31.
Although a conventional biplane design, the internal fuselage construction, designed by Vickers’ Chief Structural Engineer Barnes Wallis was a pre-cursor to the geodesic structure used on the later Wellington bomber.
The Type 253 won the competition for G.4/31 and Vickers was awarded a contract for 150 aircraft. However, Vickers had undertaken a private venture monoplane derivative, the Type 287. The monoplane was significantly superior to the biplane, resulting in the contract being cancelled and moved to the Type 287 instead. The Type 287 became the prototype for the Vickers Wellesley.
In 1938 at a time when monoplane fighters were replacing biplanes, Canadian Car and Foundry employed Michael Gregor to design a biplane fighter/dive-bomber (hence the FDB name). It is often also called the Gregor FDB.
Initial claims were that it would reach 300mph with a 700 hp (520 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1535-72 engine. However when tested the sole prototype only reached 260mph, although this was without military equipment such as guns and armour. Although a 750hp (560 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1535-SB4-G was estimated to bring the speed up to 300mph this was not undertaken. Evaluation by the Royal Canadian Air Force determined that further refinements were unlikely to improve the aircraft’s performance and no further interest was shown in the design.
An attempt was made to secure overseas interest. Mexico was a potential customer but the Canadian Government refused an export licence. The prototype was destroyed in a hanger fire in 1945.
