page_title: Hawker Sea Fury
section_title: Cuba
hierarchical_section_title: Hawker Sea Fury / Operational history / Cuba
caption_attribution_description: A Cuban Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 fighter ("FAR 543") at the Playa Giron Museum at Matanzas, Cuba. It wears a colour scheme, not related to the original scheme used during the service years in 1958/59-1961.
context_page_description: The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single reciprocating engine aircraft ever built. Developed during the Second World War, the Sea Fury entered service two years after the war ended. It proved to be a popular aircraft with a number of overseas militaries, and was used during the Korean War in the early 1950s, as well as against the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.
  The Sea Fury's development was formally initiated in 1943 in response to a wartime requirement of the Royal Air Force, with the aircraft initially named Fury. As the Second World War drew to a close, the RAF cancelled their order for the aircraft; however, the Royal Navy saw the type as a suitable carrier aircraft to replace a range of increasingly obsolete or poorly-suited aircraft being operated by the Fleet Air Arm. Development of the Sea Fury proceeded, and the type began entering operational service in 1947.
context_section_description: In 1958 during the Cuban Revolution, the Fuerza Aérea del Ejercito de Cuba (FAEC) purchased a total of 17 refurbished (ex-Fleet Air Arm) Sea Furies from Hawker, comprising fifteen FB.11s and two T.20 trainers. The aircraft were briefly flown by FAEC prior to the ousting of President Fulgencio Batista and the assumption of power by Fidel Castro. Following the change in government, the Sea Furies were retained by the Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria ("Revolutionary Air Force"; FAR); these aircraft proved difficult to keep operational, partially because the new military lacked personnel experienced with the type.
  
  In April 1961, during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, air support for the Cuban exiles' Brigade 2506 was provided by ex-USAF, CIA-operated Douglas B-26B Invaders; United States President John F. Kennedy had decided against involving U.S. Navy aircraft. The only FAR fighter aircraft to see combat were three Sea Furies and five Lockheed T-33 armed jet trainers belonging to the Escuadrón Persecución y Combate ("Pursuit & Combat Squadron"), based at the San Antonio de los Baños and Antonio Maceo air bases. 
   In pre-emptive attacks on 15 April, two Sea Furies were destroyed on the ground, one at Ciudad Libertad and one in a hangar near Moa. During the ensuing aerial combat, a single airborne Sea Fury was lost during the Invasion.
  In the early hours of 17 April, Brigade 2506 began to land at Playa Girón. Around 06:30, a FAR formation composed of three Sea Furies, one B-26 and two T-33s started attacking the exiles' ships. At about 06:50, 8.0 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Playa Larga, the transport ship Houston was damaged by rockets and cannons from FAR aircraft, including Sea Furies piloted by Major Enrique Carreras Rojas and Captain Gustavo Bourzac; Houston caught fire and was abandoned.
  While attempting to land at an airbase, Carreras Rojas's Sea Fury was attacked and damaged by a CIA B-26; he was able to abort his approach and escape. Carreras Rojas later shot down another B-26. While attempting to shoot down a Curtiss C-46 transport aircraft, Nicaraguan-born pilot Carlos Ulloa crashed in the Bay of Pigs around 08:30, either due to an engine stall or being hit by anti-aircraft fire. Around 09:30, multiple FAR aircraft destroyed an ammunition ship, Rio Escondido. A Sea Fury piloted by Lieutenant Douglas Rudd also destroyed a B-26.
caption: Cuban Sea Fury FB.11 preserved at the Museo Giron, Cuba in 2006
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