Hawker Sea Hawk

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Hawker Sea Hawk

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The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the company's first jet aircraft. After successful acceptance in the RN, the type proved to be a reliable and sturdy workhorse and went on to export success abroad.

In the final years of the Second World War, Hawker's design team explored jet engine technology, initially looking at "stretching" and modifying the existing Hawker Fury/Sea Fury planform fitting a mid-engine Rolls-Royce Nene jet engine and moving the cockpit to the extreme front of the fuselage, creating the P.1035. The aircraft's fuselage fuel tanks were fore and aft of the engine giving a stable centre of gravity in flight. Initially, the P.1040 was intended for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an interceptor, even though a top speed of only 600 mph was forecast. When in 1945 the RAF showed little interest in the project because it offered insufficient advance over jet fighters already in service such as the Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire, the P.1040 was offered to the Admiralty as a fleet support fighter, the P.1046.

The P.1040 prototype (VP401), now known as the Hawker N.7/46 after the naval specification flew on 2 September 1947, piloted by Bill Humble. Teething problems including airframe vibrations and tail buffeting led to a redesign of the rear jetpipe fairings and the addition of a bullet fairing on the tail. Other minor issues including high stick forces and windshield distortion were addressed while a long takeoff run was attributed to the low powered Nene 1 that had been not rated for its full power settings.

A fully navalised prototype, VP413 equipped with folding wings, catapult spools and full armament did not fly until 31 August 1948. On 1 August 1949, the Royal Navy entered VP401 in the National Air Races, winning the SBAC Challenge Cup Race, beating a Vampire 3 and DH 108. The prototype was later converted into the Hawker P.1072 with the addition of an auxiliary rocket engine, becoming the first British rocket-powered aircraft.

Over 100 of the aircraft, now named Sea Hawk, were subsequently ordered by the Royal Navy. The first production Sea Hawk F1 was WF143, which flew on 14 November 1951 with 39 ft (12 m) wingspan and a tailplane of increased area. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Sea_Hawk

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