Fly Past

20 FLYPAST April 2018

COLD WAR JETS HAWKER HUNTER

The Hunters would have launched

Hughes AGM-65B Maverick air-to-

ground missiles in a ‘hot’ war. Forty

of the jets were modified to carry the

missile; airframes with the lowest

flying hours were chosen.

Cockpits were fitted with an optical

sight and an additional control panel

installed in what was an already

cramped and cluttered area. Each

Maverick fired had to be individually

designated onto the target via the

seeker’s small camera. Once fired, the

missile was a ‘fire and forget’ type,

leaving the already overworked pilot

to continue flying the Hunter and

presumably trying to dodge enemy

fire.

As central Europe often experiences

poor weather and the AGM-

required good visibility and high

contrast targets, it is doubtful if these

weapons would have been ideal for

the job.

Back into the air

Just prior to Fliegerstaffel 15’s

disbandment, it was decided to

paint one of the Hunters in a

commemorative scheme. The unit’s

badge was a paper plane. With this

providing inspiration, one thing

led to another and an innovative

‘newsprint’ theme was adopted. The

airframe was adorned with the names

of pilots, ground crew, sponsors and

the support unit’s titles in ‘typeset’

lettering. The aircraft became known

as the ‘Papyrus Hunter’, or more

simply Papyrus.

Hunter F.58 J-4040, built in 1959,

received its new colours at Interlaken

airfield and made the short hop

over to St Stephan in November

1993, piloted by the commanding

officer, Ueli Leutert. The serial was

changed to ‘J-4015’ to incorporate the

squadron’s number.

The Swiss Hunter fleet was retired in

December 1994 and Papyrus was one

of the survivors, with a total of 2,

flying hours. The Air Force gifted it to

the newly formed Hunter Association

Obersimmental (HAO). Members

included many personnel from the

St Stephan area who had previously

worked on the type.

The original idea was to display

Papyrus on the airfield, but it soon

became clear that members wanted

to keep this special Hunter in the air.

Ueli was the driving force in keeping

the momentum going to get J-

back into the air.

By establishing contacts and support

from the mayors of local towns and

villages, there was a good foundation

upon which to build a solid local

understanding of the group’s aims.

Andreas Willener serviced

Hunters and Northrop F-5 Tigers

at Meiringen. He was also in charge

of the maintenance support unit

(Fliegerkompanie 18) at St Stephan,

and was thus ideally qualified to be

the Hunter’s technical guru.

Keeping the Hunter ‘alive’ is a

complex undertaking – everything

is carried out by a few dedicated

individuals. They regularly give

up their time and money to this

passion, spending hours checking

the hydraulics, electronics and

instruments before every flight. Each

engine test run costs money, all of

which has to be raised; and the Rolls-

Royce Avon 203 is a particularly

thirsty turbojet. Consideration also

has to be given to support services on

the airfield – gone are the fire crews,

fuel bowsers and arrester nets present

when the air force deployed.

Getting the Hunter ready to fly

again regularly involved a lot of work,

but by August 2000, after around

600 hours of maintenance work,

every system had

been checked out. The Swiss

civil aviation authority issued the

registration HB-RVS.

First flight in its new guise as

Victor-Sierra took place from St

Stephan on August 19, 2000.

Papyrus came to Britain in 2001

and was a guest of honour at the

50th Anniversary Hunter meet

at Kemble, Gloucestershire and

at the International Air Tattoo at

Cottesmore in Rutland. Papyrus was

down for a major rebuild after that;

flying again in 2004.

HAO intends to keep on flying this

eye-catching jet for the foreseeable

future. With some 900 members,

funds are healthy and stable and, by

limiting flying hours to just a few

each year, the aircraft is not going to

run out of airframe time in the near

future.

In 2016, Papyrus visited Mollis,

Switzerland and last year flew to the

next valley at Sion. Such appearances

in its ‘home’ nation help to subsidise

“Getting the Hunter ready to fl y again regularly involved a

lot of work, but by August 2000, after around 600 hours of

maintenance work, every system had been checked out”

Above right

‘J-4015’ is

maintained in fl ying

condition by the

Hunter Association

Obersimmental.

Right

Ueli fl ying ‘Papyrus’

low over the Swiss

countryside.