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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0617.PDF
FLIGHT, 9 May 1958 633 .6. "Flight" photograph ;,>J-•-::ll-;::y" HUNTER F.6 First Full Description of an Outstanding Fighter and Ground-Attack Aircraft IN terms of financial investment and return the Hawker Hunteris probably the most valuable aircraft to come from theBritish aircraft industry since World War 2—and the only one to reach the coveted "billion-dollar" class. Its progress also makes one of our most heartening success stories during that time. Despite the fact that the huge flood of single-seat Hunters for the R.A.F. has now dwindled to a trickle, the Hawker factories at Kingston-on-Thames and Dunsfold are still working at full pres- sure to meet export orders which will keep them busy for at least two years. Moreover, the Hunter has won these export orders in the face of fierce competition, and it will go down in aircraft history as one of the classic fighters. Its severest test to date, and one from which it emerged with flying colours, was the comprehensive evaluation carried out by the Swiss Air Force during the summer of last year. French, Canadian, American and even the indigenous Swiss design speci- ally prepared for Alpine conditions were bettered by the remark- able all-round qualities of the Hunter F.6, both as a fighter and as a ground-attack machine; and although it still ranks as a day fighter in many air forces, it has also undoubtedly proved itself to be the finest ground-attack aircraft at present available anywhere in the world. As a gun-platform, as a carrier of stores and as a pilot's aircraft it outperformed and outgunned any other type the Swiss were considering at the time. Its cost is also remarkably low—thanks to the fact that it is right down at the bottom of its "learning curve." Hunters are now in service with the British, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Belgian, Peruvian, Indian and Iraqi air forces; and they are on order for the Swiss. Dutch and Belgian machines have been made under licence by Fokker, Aviolanda, SABCA and Avions Fairey. An undisclosed, but substantial, number of Hunters was ordered "off the drawing board" for Fighter Command in 1951. This was supported early in 1954 by an American offshore order for a large number of Hunters, many of which were to be issued to the R.A.F. -A further 112 offshore Hunters were built under licence by the Dutch/Belgian consortium mentioned above. On their own account the Dutch Government then ordered 156 Hunters direct from Fokker and the Belgian Government ordered 192 from their companies. Hawkers supplied 30 to Denmark; and Sweden bought 120. In 1954 a further offshore order worth £367 million was placed in England by USAFE for both Hunters and Javelins, the exact number of Hunters involved not being stated. The Indian and Swiss orders each include over 100 machines; and Hawker Aircraft are confident that negotiations now in progress will result in several more new orders. Altogether, well over 1,000 Hunters have been built, excluding trainers. Hunters were produced in Britain by Hawker's factory at Squires Gate, near Blackpool, as well as at Kingston; and Arm- strong Whitworth also built all the Hunter F.2s, F.5s and some F.6s at Baginton. Now only the Kingston factory remains in Hunter production, with final assembly, flight testing and con- version of some foreign pilots being handled at Dunsfold. Here a remarkable team of pilots is at work, headed by A. W. ("Bill") Bedford, testing new Hunters and training overseas personnel. Since Neville Duke, then chief test pilot, made the first flight of the prototype P.1067 on July 20, 1951, there have been no fewer than 127 variations on the basic theme; some of them were minor, others were purely for research; but most aimed at increasing the operational capabilities of the squadron aircraft. The principal variants are listed in the table on page 640. It has been shown that the Hunter can carry guided air-to-air weapons, a very heavy external load of fuel for ferrying flights, a wide variety of air-to- ground rockets, bombs of various sizes and honeycomb launchers for unguided air-to-air rockets—all in addition to the hard-hitting 4 X 30 mm Aden gun pack. In addition, cameras can be installed in a special nose section for fighter/reconnaissance work, and a two-seat (side-by-side) cockpit has been successfully developed for either training or special tactical roles. A trainer version based on the lower-powered F.4 has been ordered for the R.A.F. (Mk 7) and Fleet Air Arm (Mk 8) as well as the Danish air force (Mk 53). The more powerful trainer based on the Mk 6, ordered by India as the Mk 66, was flown last year by C. M. Lambert of Flight's staff (issue of May 17, 1957). He remarked that the Hunter would climb in under 7 min from rest to over 47,000ft and that the throttle could be slammed open and shut at stalling speed at these heights without causing flame-out or surging. Manceuvrability at transonic speeds, with the follow- up tailplane, was precise and effective; and a speed of over 600 kt was reached in level flight at a height of about 100ft. Touch-down speed was about 110 kt. The Swiss trials amply demonstrated the ability of the Hunter to operate from small airfields tucked away high up in narrow valleys, and to deliver 30 mm shells, rockets and bombs accurately against mountain targets. The standard rocket armament consists of the British Mk 12 rail carrying 3in rocket-motors fitted with either 60 lb or 25 lb heads of various kinds, although the Hunter has also been fitted with Oerh'kon, Hispano and Bofors rails and rockets. The American 5 in HVAR has been carried, as have various bombs of different weights and nationalities. For R.A.F. training purposes the Saro carrier for two 25 lb practice bombs is also used. (A stores- diagram appears on page 638.) External tankage includes jettisonable tanks of either 100 or 230 Imp gal capacity, carried in any symmetrical combination. The large tanks have been tested, but are not at the moment standard equipment for the R.A.F. Up to four 100-gal napalm tanks can be carried; and these have been demonstrated in Switzerland and Iraq. [Continued overleaf
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