Hawker P.1081

The Hawker P.1081, nicknamed the Australian Fighter, was a British jet fighter prototype built in 1950 as Hawker's proposal to replace the Royal Australian Air Force Mustangs and Vampires. It was made by modifying the second Hawker P.1052 prototype, VX279, with a swept tail and a single exit for the jet pipe, so that an afterburner could later be fitted, while keeping the Rolls-Royce Nene engine for the time being. It first flew on 19 June 1950, and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation gave it the number CA-24. Australia chose the Gloster Meteor F.8 instead, so Hawker stopped work and handed the aircraft to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, where its high-Mach handling data helped the design of the Hawker Hunter. The only example was lost, with its pilot, on 3 April 1951.