100 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
put four small, cheap aircraft on patrol
for the same price as one large
sophisticated type, presenting a
powerful threat to an invader.
The first Hawk 200, ZG200 made its
maiden flight from Dunsfold on 19 May
1986 but crashed killing the pilot at
Dunsfold only six weeks later. The
second prototype ZH200 was already
on the stocks and its production was
expedited so it could fly on 24 April the
following year. Despite the Hawk 200’s
multi-role ability only Indonesia,
Malaysia and Oman purchased the
aircraft, buying a total of 62 aircraft.Building the Hawk
Final assembly and flight testing of the
Hawk took place at Dunsfold with parts
coming from Kingston and Brough.
Between late 1979 and early 1982, 39
Hawks were assembled at Bitteswell, the
last of these completing the RAF order.
Complete production of the Hawk was
passed to Brough after Kingston’s
closure in 1992 and these aircraft were
then roaded to Warton for assembly and
flight test. Between 2008 and 2010,
Hawks made their maiden flights out of
Brough to Warton. Several BAE
programmes were axed in the 2010
Strategic Defence Review so Hawkthe earlier models it has four times the
fatigue life.
In recent years the Hawk has received
large orders from the South African Air
Force, the RAAF, the Indian Air Force, the
RAF, the Omani and the Saudi Arabian Air
Force. Offsets and licence production are
still the name of the game and most of the
RAAF aircraft were assembled in Australia.
India only received 24 from the UKproduction was transferred to Warton,
with Brough reduced to technical
support.The current model –
the Hawk 120
The Hawk 120 has less than 10%
commonality with the previous marks. It
has a new wing, forward and centre
fuselage, fin and tailplane. In contrast to BAE’s Hawk 120
demonstrator ZJ951
which first flew in
August 2002. The
Hawk 120 had a
new wing, forward
and centre fuselage,
fin and tailplane.
(BAE Systems)A pair of RAAF Hawk127s; A27-13
and A27-31. (BAE Systems)