#11
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Yair , Nice and clean work well done!
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#12
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Hunter early development stages
The Hunter was developed by Hawker company and his slim and nice silhouette can be attributed to Sydney Cam who was also the designer of the elegant Comet.
The Hunter first flight was in 1951 and the design was based on the earlier Sea Hawk but with longer body and 45 degrees swept wings and tail surfaces. Along with the Hunter Supermarine developed the Swift. Both were very promising at the beginning in 1952. As we can see the british aerospace industry was lagging behind the Americans. At the time that the hunter went into service in 1955 they already had the F-100 and F-102 both supersonic in level flight. The Hunter F-1 and 4 suffered from short range and engine cut offs when firing with the 4 x 30 mm guns located in the gun pack under the nose. The solution came in the F-6 model that had the Avon 207 with some 10000 lb thrust along some aerodynamic aids like the saw tooth wing and another two pylons in the wings for carrying weapons or fuel tanks. Meanwhile the Swift proved to be a total failure due to its bad flight characteristics at high altitude and was not put into service with the RAF. Only two squadrons of reconnaissance Swift FR-5 served in West Germany for a couple of years as low level reconnaissance planes. As the production rate of the Hunter increased there was a need for a trainer version. Two options was considered - one with a tandem arrangement and side by side which won despite lower top speed caused by the widened cross section nose. Because of flutter and vibrations the canopy design changed from the original two bubbles into a big flat one and the trainer was designated as T7 two sitter version. The engine of the T-7 was the lower thrust Avon series with 7400lb thrust which was started by a cartridge with the typical black smoke during engine start. Later some export models as T-66 were equipped with the stronger Avon of 10000 lb. Yair |
#13
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Abir - thanks for your reply !
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#14
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Hunter vs S'aar - Yom Kippur war 1973
A story which is not well known is that half a year prior to 1973 Yom Kippur war Iraq gave to Egypt a squadron of Hunters. The main role was of ground attack and the Hunter was better than the mig- 17 and SU- 7 as he had better range and could carry
more weapon load than both. Also the Hunter was very good at low level in terms of handling and speed. The IAF operted one squadron of S'aar planes which were upgraded from the French Super mystere by replacement of the Atar 101G to a non afterburning J52 of the Skyhawk. However the change required adding of alongated part to the rear of the S'aar jet nozzle and from certain angles the Hunter and S'aar looked very simillar. In order to distinguish between the two the S'aar wings were painted with big yellow and black triangles. I attached images that show the simillarity between them. As both served in the ground attack role no dogfights took place between the Hunter and S'aar. The Mirage IIIc was the main IAF interceptor by then. |
#15
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First Israeli Air Force Hunter kill 1966
The Hunter was the main jet fighter of the Jordanian air force. The Jordanian pilots were trained in GB and were the best Arabian pilots.
In 1966 Israeli ground troops were having a ground battle in Samo'a near Hebron. The Jordanian called thier airforce for support and 8 hunters came to support. Israeli ground controllers scrambled 4 mirages to intercept. the hunters. The Israeli pilots started to fight with the hunters and a surprise came. The Israeli pilots found the hunter a very tough opponent at low level dogfght. 5 min of dogfight passed without results. Then the Israelian formation leader Ran Peker decided to choose one of the hunters so he dive on him and the hunter was going down and eastren into a canyon flying very low. Ran was chasing him in a very low flight but because of the low flight couldn't put the pipper on the hunter. The canyon walls were passing at more than 500 knots to both pilots and all of a sudden the hunter had a small hump in front so he lift a bit- that is what Ran was waiting for, a small burst hit the hunter in the aft section and the Jordanian pilot ejected. Unfortunately for the Jordanian pilot at the ejection moment the hunter rolled and the pilot was crashed into the canyon wall and died. Later it was known that the Jordanian pilot name was Salti and he was the hunter squadron commander. The battle took 8 full minutes and when Ran returned to base he did the traditional victory pass. over the Israli air base before landing. This was the longest dogfight so far in the IAF. Will continue. Yair |
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#16
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Hunter F-6 vs Mirage IIIC - images
The Hunter and the Mirage side by side
in 1:48 scale with markings of Jordanian and Israelien Air Forces. Yair |
#17
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Hunter T7 two seater more images
Looking back at models presented here not long ago and only part of the story was told
I add some new images of the type and more stories to become later. Yair |
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