HAWKER HUNTER^47
T
he age into which the Hunter was
born was one in which test pilots
were well-known heroes, and British
aircraft were still seen to rule the aviation
world. With its record-breaking exploits,
stunning appearance and spectacular
aerobatic displays, the Hunter became an
icon of its era.
An official Air Ministry Specification, F3/48,
was issued in 1948 for a new fighter for the
RAF. The successful aircraft was to be a single-
seat day fighter able to intercept the latest
breed of fast, high-flying bombers before
they reached their intended targets, and the
performance parameters thus laid down went
way beyond the abilities of any existing RAF
type. Key was the need to reach 45,000ft in six
minutes from engine start, and a maximum
speed of 629mph at 45,000ft. The RAF was
excited by the prospects offered by swept-
wing designs and the new breed of axial-flow
turbojet engines. Coming out of SydneyHawker Hunter
Camm’s office in Kingston, Hawker offered its
new concept, the P1067, which was awarded
the contract and an order for three prototypes
was placed.
The trio of P1067 prototypes built in the
Hawker facility at Langley, Buckinghamshire,
reflected a split engine choice, with two having
Avon power and the third a Sapphire. The first,
serial WB188, was finished in a duck-egg blue
colour scheme and taken from Langley to the
Ministry of Supply test airfield at Boscombe
Down in Wiltshire ready to get air under its
wheels. Its powerplant was an Avon 103, as
used in the early English Electric Canberra
bombers, and no armament was fitted. Hawker
chief test pilot Neville Duke made the P1067’s
maiden flight on 20 July 1951, reporting no
major problems.
Britain became firm in the belief that Hawker
had produced a world-beating jet fighter.
Just a few weeks after WB188’s maiden flight,
it was put on show at the SBAC Display at
Farnborough, where, Flight rather prematurely
stated that ‘there is no reason to doubt that
Duke exceeded by a substantial margin the
official world record speed of 670.981mph now
standing to the credit of that excellent, though
none too heavily armed, American fighter the
North American F-86’.Left: Fresh from its record breaking exploits
Neville Duke’s scarlet Hunter F3 WB188 thrilled
the public at the 1953 Farnborough airshow with
some transonic flypasts.Below: Hunter prototypes under construction,
with the tail of WB188 in the foreground.