The Hawker Hunter was a UK jet fighter aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s. The Hunter served for many years with the Royal Air Force and was widely exported, serving with 19 air forces. A total of 1,972 Hunters were produced by Hawker Siddeley and under licence.

The origins of the Hunter trace back to the Hawker Sea Hawk straight-wing carrier-based fighter. Seeking better performance and fulfillment of the Air Ministry Specification E.38/46, Hawker Aircraft's chief designer Sydney Camm created the Hawker P.1052, which was essentially a Sea Hawk with a 35-degree swept wing. First flying in 1948, the P.1052 demonstrated good performance but did not warrant further development into a production aircraft. As a private venture, Hawker converted the second P.1052 prototype into the Hawker P.1081 with swept tailplanes and revised fuselage, with a single jet exhaust at the rear. First flying on 19 June 1950, the P.1081 was promising enough to draw interest from the Royal Australian Air Force but development went no further and the sole prototype was lost in a crash in 1951.

Meanwhile, in 1946, the Air Ministry issued Specification F.43/46 for a daytime jet-powered interceptor. Camm took the basic P.1052 design and adapted it for the upcoming Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet. The Avon's major advantage over the Rolls-Royce Nene, used in the Sea Hawk, was the axial compressor, which resulted in a much smaller engine diameter and better thrust. In March 1948, the Air Ministry issued Specification F.3/48, to cover development of the project. Initially fitted with a single air intake in the nose and a T-tail, the project rapidly evolved to the more familiar shape. The intakes were moved to the wing roots, to make room for weapons and radar in the nose. A more conventional tail arrangement was devised, as a result of stability concerns.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a RAF Hawker Hunter T7 jet fighter that was attached to 234 Squadron, then deployed to RAF Chivenor, England, during the early 1960s. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5-3/4-inches
Length: 7-3/4-inches

Release Date: December 2009

Historical Account: "First Flight" - The P.1067 first flew from MoD Boscombe Down on July 20th, 1951, powered by a 6,500 lbf (28.91 kN) Avon 103 engine from an English Electric Canberra bomber. The second prototype was fitted with production avionics, armament and a 7,550 lbf (33.58 kN) Avon 107 turbojet. It first flew on May 5th, 1952. As a back-up, Hawker was asked to adapt the new fighter to another British axial turbojet. The third prototype with an 8,000 lbf (35.59 kN) Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 101 flew on November 30th, 1952. The two Avon-engined aircraft were duck-egg green in color, while the Sapphire prototype was silver.

The Ministry of Supply ordered the Hunter into production in March 1950, a year before the first flight. The first production Hunter F.1 with a 7,600 lbf (33.80 kN) Avon 113 turbojet flew on March 16th, 1953. The first 20 aircraft were, in effect, a pre-production series and featured a number of "one-off" modifications such as blown flaps and area ruled fuselage. On September 7th, 1953, a Hunter F.3 flown by Neville Duke broke the world air speed record, achieving 727.63 mph ( km/h) over Littlehampton. However, the record stood for less than three weeks before being broken by an RAF Supermarine Swift on September 25th, 1953.