The Hawker Hunter was the most
successful British fighter built after WW II. A
total of 1972 Hunters were build (445 build in
Belgium and The Netherlands) In some small air
forces the Hunter is still in service in the
1990's. The perfect fighter came from the need
of the RAF to replace the old Gloster Meteor
airframes by a type that had a more advanced
engine and could reach transonic speeds.
The first prototype (P.1067) flew
for the first time at July 20 1951, followed
after a month by the first Hunter F.Mk 1
pre-production aircraft. The first production
Hunter flew in May 1953 and the Hunter Mk 1 came
into service in July 1954.
The Hunters were powered by the
Rolls Royce Avon turbojet, but the Hunter F.Mk 2
used the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Mk 101
turbojet. Further developments led into the
identical Hunter F.Mk 4 and 5 witch had brackets
under the wings to carry more fuel and weaponry.
The Hunter F.Mk 4 was fitted with
the Avon Mk 115/121 engine and the Hunter F.Mk 5
with the Sapphire Mk 101.
The Hunter F.Mk 6 got the Avon Mk
200 series turbojet in the models Mk 203 up to
and with the Mk 207, more fuel capacity under
it's wings and the weaponry of the Hunter F.Mk
4. The Hunter F.Mk 6 was later changed/develop
into the Hunter FGA.Mk 9 ground attack fighter
with the saw tooth-front and the Avon Mk 207
engine.
Based on the FGA.Mk 9 there were
also tactical reconnaissance models in the shape
of the Hunter FR.Mk 10 and the PR.Mk 11 for the
RAF (FR.Mk 10) and the Royal Navy (PR.Mk 11)
A different new model was a
two-seater trainer with the seats beside each
other, mid 1955 the first prototype of this
variant flew as P.1101. The production-version
were called Hunter T.Mk 7 and 8 for both the RAF
(T.Mk 7) and the Royal Navy (T.Mk 8)
Export versions of the single and
double seater Hunters were numbered in Hunter Mk
50, 60, 70 and 80's.
