Hawker Hunter (Combat Machines №4).pdf

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HUNTER HISTORY
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PHOTO REFERENCE
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PROFILES
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CUTAWAY ART
HAWKER HUNTER
no.
04
PROFILE ARTWORK
Hunter prototype (P.1067) WB188, July 1951. Scheme is overall duck egg green.
Hunter F.1, WW636/Q, 54 Squadron RAF, Odiham, 1955. Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green over
High Speed Silver.
Hunter F.4, XE665/A, 118 Squadron RAF, Bruggen, West Germany, 1956. Dark Sea Grey and
Dark Green over High Speed Silver.
Hunter F.4 XF313/G, 71 Squadron RAF, Bruggen, West Germany, 1956. Dark Green, Dark Sea Grey
and High Speed Silver.
Hunter F.5, WP192/O, 34 Squadron RAF, Tangmere, 1956. Dark Green, Dark Sea Grey and
High Speed Silver.
(Andy Hay/www.flyingart.co.uk)
2
HAWKER
HUNTER
www.keypublishing.com
North Weald
was home
to these 111
Squadron
Hunter F.4s
at the time of
this photo, in
1956.
(Key)
Neville Duke
at the controls
of the Hunter
prototype
WB188, during
an early test
flight.
(Key)
FOREWORD
I
was delighted on being asked to
compile this history of the Hawker
Hunter for Key Publishing’s now
firmly established Combat Machines
series. It is timed to coincide with
the release of Airfix’s new-tool 1/48
Hunter kit, but it will also appeal to
the pure aviation enthusiast. Delight,
because the Hunter has long been
one of my favourites, but it is also
considered one of the most successful
and popular British fighters of all time.
If that is not enough, it was and still
is one of the world’s best-looking
military aeroplanes.
This work presents a general history
of the type and covers its design and
development, test flying, different
production versions and a review of an
extensive and successful service and
combat career, both with home and
overseas air arms (the latter providing
large-scale exports for British
industry). Further specialist sections
explore trials and research airframes,
and display teams, and there are
memories of a former pilot who flew
the aircraft with 20 Squadron RAF.
The Hunter was unable to go
supersonic in level flight, but in a dive
it could pass through the mythical
‘sound barrier’ with ease. It was a
manoeuvrable aeroplane, could
absorb rough handling and in general
was revered by the many pilots
who flew it. The type has been
well served by books and magazine
articles over the years, but these
pages include new information
and a large selection of previously
unpublished and rare photographs,
many of which are in colour and all
of great value to modellers. I hope
readers will like the result.
Tony Buttler AMRAeS
Author
Commercial Director:
Ann Saundry
Group CEO and Publisher:
Adrian Cox
Key Publishing Ltd:
PO Box 100, Stamford,
Lincolnshire, PE9 1XQ, United Kingdom.
Distributed by:
Seymour Distribution Ltd,
2 Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PP.
Tel: 020 7429 4000. Fax: 020 7429 4001.
Printed by:
Warners (Midland) plc, Bourne.
Printed in England
ISBN: 978-1-912205-752
Hunter
FGA.9s of 208
Squadron, from
Eastleigh, Kenya,
formate near
Mt Kilimanjaro.
The right-hand
aircraft, XE607,
crashed during
an open day at
Khormaksar,
Aden, on March
29, 1962. The
subsequent
report blamed a
runaway tailplane
trim fault for the
accident.
(Key)
A fine Air Ministry study of Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire-powered Hunter F.5 WP183,
built by Armstrong Whitworth and wearing 56 Squadron RAF markings.
(Crown Copyright)
Author:
Tony Buttler AMRAeS
Series Editor:
Chris Clifford
Acknowledgements:
The primary references
used for this work included Avia and Air files
in the National Archives at Kew, and flight test
reports and documents at the Brooklands
Museum. For serial data the author referred
mostly to Hawker Hunter 1951 to 2008 In
UK and Foreign Service by David J Griffin,
while unit information was accessed mainly
from Air-Britain’s The Squadrons of the Royal
Air Force & Commonwealth 1918 -1988,
by James Halley. Further information on the
Hunter’s design and development programme
can be found in the author’s own book The
Design and Development of the Hawker
Hunter (History Press 2014)
Colour artwork:
Andy Hay – Flying Art
Designer:
Tom Bagley
Group Designer:
Steve Donovan
Group Editor:
Stuart Qualtrough
Production Manager:
Janet Watkins
www.keypublishing.com
HAWKER
HUNTER
3
DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
COLD WAR NECESSITY
A beautiful
Ministry of
Supply study
of a highly
attractive
aircraft…the
first Hawker
Hunter
prototype,
WB188.
(Phil Butler)
D
evelopment of the Hawker
Hunter began in 1946,
when the Air Staff raised
a Specification and Operational
Requirement, F.43/46 and OR.228, for
a new day interceptor fighter designed
to destroy high-speed, high-flying
enemy bombers.
This new type would replace the
wartime Gloster Meteor, but such was
the speed of advance in aerodynamics,
technology and weaponry during the
late 1940s that by February 1948, the
Specification had to be updated and
was renumbered F.3/48.
In the meantime, Hawker Aircraft’s
designers at Kingston, under Sydney
Camm, had looked closely at what was
needed to make an ideal interceptor.
The team concentrated particularly in
achieving the smallest possible frontal
area with a single engine (some F.43/46
design proposals had two engines).
This effort culminated in a design
called the P.1067, and in fact, F.3/48
was essentially written around this
Hawker project. Issued in October
1948, it called for a maximum speed
of 547kts (630mph/1,014km/h) at
45,000ft (13,716m). The powerplant
was to be a single Rolls-Royce Avon or
Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet,
while armament was to comprise two
or four 30mm Aden cannon.
Refinement
In August 1948 the P.1067 design
had a tubular fuselage with a circular
nose intake and a T-tail, the latter
being considered the best from an
aerodynamic perspective. In January
1949 it was agreed that the first two
P.1067s should have an Avon engine
with a Sapphire going in the third.
Two months later, an ever-increasing
equipment load meant that a nose
air intake was no longer possible.
This serious hurdle was solved by
the introduction of a solid nose and
a bifurcated wing root intake, an
alteration cleared officially in January
1949. Apart from its T-tail, the P.1067
looked like a Hunter and as such, a
part-complete full-size mock-up of this
form was inspected officially in August.
Finally, in October 1949, the tailplane
was moved to the lower position on
the fin, thus completing the Hunter’s
www.keypublishing.com
The Hawker
P.1067 as it
appeared in
August 1948,
when still
sporting a nose
intake.
(Phil
Butler)
4
HAWKER
HUNTER
configuration as one of the most
graceful aeroplanes ever built.
In addition to its wind tunnel
research, Hawker had been
accumulating valuable flight test data.
The firm’s first jet fighter was the
straight wing and very successful naval
Sea Hawk, first flown as the P.1040 in
September 1947. Subsequently, two
modified Sea Hawk airframes, serials
VX272 and VX279, were completed
with swept wings as P.1052s, so the
manufacturer could garner first-hand
experience of swept flying surfaces.
VX272 first flew on November 19,
1948, but this pair retained the Sea
Hawk’s straight tailplane.
During May and June 1950, VX279
was rebuilt as the P.1081 with a new
swept tail and all-through jet pipe,
which gave a handsome layout of
similar configuration to the Hunter
but keeping the Sea Hawk’s more
rounded body. Hawker Chief Test
Pilot Sqn Ldr Trevor ‘Wimpy’ Wade
took VX279 on its maiden flight in
this new layout on June 19, 1950, and
the aircraft was painted in a pale duck
egg green scheme characteristic of
several Hawker prototypes of this
period. Hawker’s own P.1081 flight
trials ended in February 1951 and
the pilots reported how delighted
they were with the aircraft. At its full
fighter weight, VX279 had displayed
exceptional performance, virtually
viceless handling characteristics, good
manoeuvrability and a controllable
Mach number up to at least 0.94.
In fact, it was considered superior to
any other British aircraft then flying
but tragically, before official trials could
begin, Wade lost his life and VX279
was destroyed in a flying accident on
April 3, 1951. Wade and the P.1081
had, however, done much to confirm
that the final layout chosen for the
Hunter was good.
At this stage the P.1067 had no
name. A British national newspaper
contest had selected ‘Demon’, but
the American Navy’s new McDonnell
F3H interceptor, flown in August 1951,
had already taken this moniker and
so ‘Hunter’ was picked instead, and
announced officially to the public in
March 1952. In October 1950, well
before the first P.1067 had flown, a
production order for 200 airframes
was placed as part of an expansion
programme for the RAF…brought
about by the outbreak of war in Korea.
The first versions were to be the
F.1 powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon
RA.7 and the F.2 with an Armstrong
Siddeley Sapphire Sa.6.
Early flying
The two Avon-powered prototypes
carried the serials WB188 and
WB195, while the Sapphire-powered
machine was serialled WB202. Hunter
WB188, unarmed and again in duck-
egg green, began taxi trials at the
Aircraft and Armament Experimental
Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe
Down, on July 8, 1951. It made
How the
Hawker P.1067
looked in May
1949. A solid
nose and root
intakes were
introduced but
a T-tail was still
present. This
design was
part-built as a
full-size mock-
up. Its span was
33ft 6in (10.2m),
length 45ft 7in
(13.9m) and
wing area 348
sq ft (32.36m ).
(All Tony Buttler
unless stated)
Hunter WB188
without guns
fitted, before
the aircraft’s
maiden flight.
www.keypublishing.com
HAWKER
HUNTER
5

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