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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 0556.PDF
834-835 FUGHT International, 3 April 1976 Hawker-Hawk By Hugh Field: Number 286 of the series Photography by Tom Hamill MAWKER'S new Hawk reverses what has become a standard practice: the process whereby an operational combat aircraft becomes relegated to training. With each major jump forward in British fighter design has been heard the cry: "This is one aircraft we just never will be able to use as a trainer." But always the one-time pride of the first line ends up wearing training school colours. Perhaps this is no bad thing, for Hawkers have net designed a trainer since 1928. On the other hand, no-one can deny the wealth of experience that 18 years of two-seat Hunter production has conferred on the Kingston manufacturer. Hawk's pedigree includes experience from another quarter. With the passage of time it is easy to forget that Folland is now an element of Hawker Siddeley and the Hawk has drawn on the talents of many of the original Gnat design team. Trainer first The one thing which perhaps makes Hawk so different is the fact that it is a trainer designed from the outset with an eye on the world day-fighter/ground-attack market. We have so far seen only the earliest signs of the operational aircraft, with XX156, the camouflaged Hawk, carrying stores on all four wing hardpoints. Only when the private-venture G-HAWK joins the programme will the full capability of the aircraft begin to be explored. After that will come single-seat versions and extension of the Hawk into all the roles of the Hunter. For the present, however, I am concerned with the Hawk only in its RAF form—as an advanced trainer with an optional single centreline gun pod. It was in this form, and mounting a loaded gun, that the aircraft was recently made available to me, thanks to some diligent organisation by the Hawker Siddeley flight-test team at Dunsfold. As is generally known, six Hawks have taken part in development flying. Two of these flew little more than basic acceptance at Dunsfold before being delivered to the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment (A & A E E) at Boscombe Down. The other four Hawks have been allocated specific tasks within the 500hr pro gramme and have, almost incidentally, become associated with a particular pilot. Thus it came about that I found myself in the back seat behind Jim Hawkins, who was in the throes of an intensive gun-firing programme in the one "podded" Hawk, XX157. This has become "his" aircraft in much the same way that Andy Jones has become associated with the spinning Hawk, XX158. While top-quality handling must remain the pre-eminent requirement for a training aircraft, present-day air forces pay great attention to economy. A new trainer must be reasonably cheap to buy and almost more important, cheap to operate. In the first respect the Hawk could scarcely be better placed—the programme is on time and on budget. This unusual state of affairs results from a "no prototype" philosophy. The development aircraft were built on production jigs and changes have been kept to a rigid minimum in the knowledge that anything done to one aircraft would immediately have repercussions on the production line. Economy of operation can be designed into an aircraft and this has been a key parameter in Hawk thinking from the outset. The selection of the Adour, for instance, arose from a desire to use proven components where possible. The Hawk benefits from Jaguar in-service experi- •t H •mi f.:;W§ m WBKMM iiBjuil ;JbJh' %\ m ,'V'i, •" MiiMl mmm. Hi aXM •£Mm
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