Flaming beauty

Air Classics, Dec 2000 by O'Leary, Michael

In 1971, the event was repeated at San Diego's Brown Field (but now required a mandatory fuel stop to give the shorter range racers more of a chance). Even so, Cooper once again dominated at 330 mph. The 1971 racing season was very busy with an event at Cape May, New Jersey, followed by Reno, where Cooper finished third at 412.583 mph in a Gold race that saw the top four aircraft all finishing within four seconds of each other. The 1971 season closed out at Mojave with a new 1000 kilometer race (621 miles). Seventeen racers were entered and Cooper was once again favored to wing but the Centaurus engine failed. Cooper put the plane down in the desert which inflicted heavy damage.

Cooper was soon to die in the crash of a Pitts Special when a wing failed. The wreck was purchased by Frank Sanders then sold to James Mott who eventually rebuilt the plane back into flying condition as Super Chief Race 42. Fitted with a Centaurus from a Beverly, the airframe had been basically brought back to stock condition. The aircraft enjoyed an undistinguished and short career as a racer before being put up for sale.

Jim Michaels and Steve Bolander had both recently sold their Mustangs but were still keeping active flying Texans and other Warbirds. However, without their Mustangs they felt they were missing the excitement of piston-engine fighters. "We started looking around for something new," said Bolander. "After talking to Dennis Sanders, we found a Sea Fury that was being offered for sale. This was the aircraft owned by Jim Mott. Sea Furys sell for a lot less money than Mustangs and they also gave the most bang for the buck. Accordingly, we made a deal and purchased the plane. It was in flyable condition but we did not want to risk a flight so it was disassembled at Chino and trucked to the Sanders facility at lone, California, by Les Chapman.

"At lone, Dennis took the plane apart and did a lot of work on the airframe including reskinning parts of the fuselage, ailerons, gear doors, etc. We decided to go with a Wright R-3350 as powerplant and this wasn't anything against the Centaurus which is a fine engine. It is just that the Centaurus is getting very rare and hard to overhaul. Dennis installed the new engine and did all the fitting work required to get the original cowling around the Wright. The engine is an R-3350-26W from a Skyraider and it also mounts a Skyraider propeller. The British systems had been Americanized and the air brakes replaced with F- 102 units.

"The aircraft made its first flight in March 2000. Jim and I did a lot of thinking involving the paint scheme. At first we were going to go with a generic Royal Navy/RCN scheme but, given the plane's history, it soon became obvious that Miss Merced was the choice. We're glad we did it - the Sea Fury really attracts attention wherever it goes."

After Reno 2000, the two pilots are giving consideration to a few more speed modifications and they are listening to all the advice they can get from their rear seat mascot Tigger, who they describe as their "flight engineer!'