Hawker Hunter

The Hawker Hunter was a transonic British jet fighter developed by Hawker for the Royal Air Force in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed around the Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet and a swept wing, drawing on the experience of the P.1052 research aircraft. The P.1067 prototype first flew on 20 July 1951 from Boscombe Down with Neville Duke, and the first production F.1 flew on 16 March 1953. Introduced in 1954 as a manoeuvrable day interceptor, it quickly succeeded first-generation jets such as the Meteor and Venom, and later variants went on to ground attack and reconnaissance when faster interceptors arrived. Two-seat T.7 and T.8 trainers served for years. Hunters saw combat in conflicts from the Suez Crisis to the Yom Kippur War, and 1,972 were built by Hawker, Hawker Siddeley and licensees.