Maintaining a 40-year hobby
Annapolis Valley man built a Hawker Sea Fury
PARADISE, N.S. — It was 40 years in the making, but a young boy who loved airplanes has now built his very own.
“I had no dream of building an airplane,” says Robert Bishop, who at a young age began constructing planes with rubber band-powered balsa wood and tissue paper creations.
Airplanes have always been a part of Paradise, Annapolis County man's life. From those first model planes, Bishop moved on to gas-powered all-wood control line machines that operated using wires that were strung from his hands to the aircraft. After that, the models he played with kept getting larger until he reached his early teens and joined air cadets, where he earned his pilot’s license at age 18.
“That was the most amazing summer of my early life,” says Bishop. “I could now fly an aircraft!”
Bishop has been flying ever since as a private hobby pilot while enjoying a career in aeronautics within the advanced engineering department of Pratt and Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer.
DREAMING OF BIGGER PLANES
Bishop had no idea that a person was even allowed to build an aircraft until he joined the Montreal Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).
“That set me on the path to this point in time,” he says.
Bishop says his primary passion was Second World War fighter aircraft. That fascination prompted him to begin a letter-writing campaign to select foreign locations. On one hand, it was a success: he found Piston fighter aircraft in junkyards, technical schools, abandoned on military airfields and left behind in desert areas.
“Purchase prices were low, but my bubble burst,” says Bishop. “I could not afford fuel, oil and the big one — maintenance.”
Then, Bishop says, he honed in on the Hawker Sea Fury. After meeting an ex-canadian Navy pilot who had flown Sea Furies at Shearwater in the 1950s, he began to wonder if that might be the plane for him.
The Hawker Sea Fury was a British plane designed for use with the British Navy. The Canadian Navy had acquired a large number of the planes and operated them from Shearwater and the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, he says.
“Also, in my days of searching for old aircraft, I had a letter from an ex-sea Fury pilot who stated It was one of the finest aircraft he had ever flown and was better than a Spitfire.”
Bishop’s mind was made up. He was going to build a Hawker Sea Fury, two-thirds to scale.
LABOUR OF LOVE
Sourcing parts and materials from all over North America, Bishop started his multi-decade project. He worked on it everywhere from in his home basement and workshop to a garage in Quebec and a rented shop near the Toronto airport. He assembled the plane in hangars in both Hamilton, Ontario, and Waterville, with his final move to the hangar at the Stanley airport near Windsor, all following his various family moves.
“In short, the aircraft was built in Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia,” explains Bishop. “This is why it has taken me 40-plus years to get this far.”
Bishop has been a one-man show when it comes to building the aircraft. Since the project was an all-wood structure, he designed, cut, shaped, sanded and epoxy glued on his own. He did, however, cut metal parts to size and pass them on to others to complete the welding jobs.
"Where my knowledge fell short, I relied on several publications, including an old, one-inch- thick bulletin published by the US Departments of Navy, Air Force, and Commerce," he says.
To make the plane historically accurate, Bishop used books, magazines, sketches, small scale plans, detailed drawings and any other published material he could obtain.
The biggest challenge, he says, was that aircraft power comes from a 1940-1945 vintage sevencylinder radial engine. This made the parts and accessories extremely difficult to find.
Although the aircraft itself is fully constructed, Bishop says it has yet to be flown. Until the engine runs properly through all power settings and the final inspection is completed, the project remains a work in progress. Bish- op plans to have the engine running this summer.
During the building process, there were official inspections to make sure all aircraft procedures and techniques were followed and that the aircraft materials used were safe to fly. The next step is a required 25-hour, trouble-free flight time within 25 nautical miles of home base.
“The goal,” says Bishop, “is to have the final inspection completed and signed off, paperwork completed, aircraft registration marks and permit to fly in hand.”
Now that the construction is finished and the testing phase will begin this summer, Bishop can finally watch his dreams and hard work take flight.
DID YOU KNOW?
Robert Bishop’s Hawker Sea Fury aircraft is an all-wood structure, with a retractable main gear, Warner 165 horsepower sevencylinder radial engine and can carry 54 gallons fuel. It has 2,400 pounds of takeoff weight, but don’t hope for a ride — it has just one seat for the pilot.