Hawker Hunter

The Hawker Hunter is a British Fighter plan capable of supersonic flight in light piqué. It made its first flight in 1951 and was built on the whole with nearly 2000 specimens, used by a score of country until the end of the years 1990. Extremely appreciated pilots, Hunter posted good performances for at the same time fast time while being, very manoeuvrable, and robust.

History

In January 1946, the emitted English government an invitation to tender for a new interceptor of day with reaction. The Hawker firm answered in January 1948 with the P.1067 project, based on the result of preceding work on evolutions of the Sea Hawk (in particular the use of sweptback wings to 35°). The project undergoes several modifications during its development, in particular concerning the air intake envisaged in the nose and finally moved with the root of the wings to leave the place necessary to the 4 guns of 30mm and their ammunition. The first prototype made its inaugural flight on July 20th, 1951, whereas the series production had been launched in parallel.

Brought into service in 1954, the first versions of Hunter (F.1 with an engine Avon and F.2 with a Sapphire engine) had several defects: very limited autonomy, problems of engine due to the drawing of the air intake, guns causing of light-backs in the engine during the shootings and ejection of the casings damaging the plane. These problems started to be solved starting from the F.4 version, brought into service as from 1955 with an Avon engine improved and 2 bulbs of recovery of the casings under the cockpit. Many specimens of the F.6 final version were then converted into FGA.9, version specialized in the attacks on the ground which can carry 3400 kg of armament under the wings. The two-seater versions of drive had 2 places side by side.

Not far from 2000 specimens of Hunter were built for a score of country users, including 500 planes licensed product by the Netherlands and the Belgium. The the United Kingdom and the Netherlands preserved their apparatuses in first line until the end of the Sixties, the India until the end of the Seventies, the Suisse and Singapore until the middle of the Nineties. Many Hunter in-flight status to the beginning of the year 2000, mainly of F.58 were still repurchased in Switzerland by private operators.

Records

September 7th, 1953, the prototype Hunter F.3 especially modified (engine with Post-combustion, pointed nose, 2 air-brakes on the side of the fuselage, modified canopy) obtained world records speed while flying to 1163,2 km/h on a circuit of 3 km.

Engagements

Hunter was used with the combat by:

the the United Kingdom at the time of the Crisis of Suez Canal in 1956, and at the time conflict of independence having led to creation of the Yemen of the south, in the middle of the years 1960
the India at the time of the Second indo-Pakistani War (1965, 11 Hunter were cut down, 5 destroyed on the ground and 3 victims) and of the Third indo-Pakistani War (1971, 17 Hunter were cut down)
the Jordan and the Iraq during the Guerre the Six day old (1967) and the Guerre of Kippour (1973)
the Chile at the time of the military coup d'etat of 1973

Alternatives

Note: the special versions built in very few specimens are not listed

Hunter F.1 - initial version with engine Avon 113 (139 specimens)
Hunter F.2 - version intiale with engine Sapphire 101 (45 specimens)
Hunter F.3 - prototype
Hunter F.4 - new engine Avon 115, more fuel, bulbs under the cockpit (559 specimens)
Hunter F.5 - equivalent of F.4 with an engine Sapphire 101 (105 specimens)
Hunter F.6 - new engine Avon 203, new wing (621 specimens)
Hunter T.7 - version two-seater of drive of F.4 for the Royal Air Force (65 specimens plus 11 modified planes)
Hunter T.8 - two-seater version of drive of F.4 for the Royal Navy (10 specimens plus 34 modified planes)
Hunter FGA.9 - version intended for attacks on the ground (128 F.6 modified)
Hunter FR.10 - version capable of reconnaissance missions (33 F.6 modified)

Hunter F.5x - versions of export of F.4 and F.6 (example: F.52 for the Peru)
Hunter FGA.5x and FGA.7x - versions of export of the FGA.9 (example: FGA.71 for the Chile)
Hunter FR.5x and FR.7x - versions of export of the FR.10 (example: FR.74B for Singapore)
Hunter T.66 - two-seater version of drive with engine Avon 203 and 2 guns for the India
Hunter T.66x, T.6x and T.7x - versions of export of T.66 (example: T.68 for the Swiss )

The total production is of 1830 single-seaters and 102 two-seaters, is 1930 specimens.

Country users

the United Kingdom, Abou Dabi, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Peru, Oman, Qatar, Sweden, Swiss, Singapore, Somalia, Zimbabwe

See too

Internal bonds

List of the military aircrafts

External bonds

Hawker Hunter on Air Vectors

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