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Additional Information from Internet
Encyclopedia
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.
Following the
type's acceptance in the RN, the Sea Hawk proved to be a reliable and sturdy
workhorse. A considerable number were also produced for the export market, and
were operated from aircraft carriers in both Dutch and Indian service. The last
operational Sea Hawks, operated by the Indian Navy, were retired in 1983.
In the final years
of the Second World War, Hawker's design team had become increasingly
interested in developing a fighter aircraft that took advantage of the newly
developed jet propulsion technology. Prior to this, Hawker had been heavily
committed until late 1944 to the production and further development of its
existing piston-powered aircraft, such as the Hurricane, Tempest and Typhoon,
to meet the wartime demands for these aircraft. On 1 September 1944, the first
prototype of the company's latest fighter aircraft, the Hawker Fury/Sea Fury,
conducted its maiden flight; it was this aircraft that would serve as the
fundamental design basis for Hawker's first jet-powered aircraft.
Initially, the
design team studied the potential adaption of the existing aircraft, having
opted to use the Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered Fury prototype as the starting
point. First and foremost, the team started with the deletion of the piston
engine, with its replacement, a single Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine, being
fitted in a mid-fuselage position amidships, along with lateral air intakes and
a tailpipe which emerged beneath the tailplane. The prospective modifications
also included "stretching" the fuselage and moving the cockpit to the
extreme front of the fuselage in a re-contoured nose; this design received the
internal designation P.1035.
Use of the Rolls-Royce Derwent engine had been studied but quickly discarded as
being incapable of generating sufficient thrust for an aircraft of this size.
In November 1944 the P.1035
design was submitted for evaluation by the Air Ministry.
In December 1944
Hawker refined the proposed design substantially, the jet exhausts being
re-designed to use short split-lateral bifurcated exhausts (which gained the
name "trouser legs"), which were moved from beneath the tail and
embedded in the trailing edge of the wing root, accompanied by a corresponding
thickening of the wing root; the air intakes also moved, to the forward wing
root area, similar to the contemporary de Havilland Vampire. The unusual
bifurcated jet pipe reduced jet pipe power loss and had the additional
advantage of freeing up space in the rear fuselage for fuel tanks, which thus
led to the aircraft possessing a longer range than many other early jets. The
absence of fuel tanks also meant a thinner wing could be adopted without the
penalty of reduced range; to ease manufacture, the elliptical wingform of the
Fury was discarded in favour of a straight tapered wing design. The fuselage
fuel tanks, being fore and aft of the engine, also provided for a stable centre
of gravity during flight. The tail plane was raised in order to clear the jet
exhausts. The Sea Hawk also featured a nosewheel undercarriage arrangement, the
first for a Hawker-built aircraft. The aircraft was built to accommodate four
20mm Hispano-Suiza Mk. V cannons.
The redesign had
led to a new designation for the project, P.1040, being applied. The Air Ministry quickly issued its
encouragement for Hawker's development of the project, however, according to
aviation author Francis K. Mason, both the Air Ministry and the Admiralty had
initially viewed the project with only academic interest. Official interest had
also been cooled by the expression of doubts voiced by Rolls-Royce Limited on
the viability of the bifurcated jet pipes that the design used. Like the
piston-powered Fury it had been initially derived from, Hawker remained keen to
promote the P.1040 to both the
RAF and to the Navy. Initially, the P.1040 was intended for the interceptor
role, even though a top speed of only 600 mph was forecast. Shortly
following the aftermath of the war, the Royal Air Force (RAF) decided to not
only cancel several large orders for Hawker's piston-powered aircraft, but to
also announce that the service would be taking no further interest in the P.1040 proposals.
As such, Hawker
elected to refine the P.1040
design while it remained as a private venture, albeit being prepared with a
view for service with British military customers in mind. In October 1935,
Sydney Camm, Hawker's chief designer, being satisfied with the results
generated from engineering mock-ups and wind tunnel testing, authorised the
raising of a production order for a single prototype by the company's
experimental department. In light of the diminished RAF interest in the
project, allegedly due to the aircraft offering insufficient advances over the
jet fighters that were already in service, such as the Gloster Meteor and de
Havilland Vampire; in January 1946, a navalised version of the P.1040 was
offered by Hawker to the Admiralty as a fleet support fighter, designated as
the P.1046.
The Admiralty were
not initially encouraging to Hawker's approaches, in part due the presence of
the in-development jet-powered Supermarine Attacker aircraft. However, the
service was intrigued by the long-range capability of the P.1040, as well as by the promise of
increased power from the Nene engine. Thus, in May 1946, the Naval Staff
authorised the manufacture of three prototypes and a further test specimen, one
of these being the original prototype internally ordered by Hawker, in
accordance with Naval Specification N.7/46. Hawker quickly found their
development focus for the type being divided between the navy's P.1046 and the general-purpose P.1040, which was still hoped to be
viable as an RAF fighter. The P.1040
would lead to the eventual development of the land-based swept wing Hawker
Hunter fighter. Swept wing versions (P.1052
and P.1081) were built and
experience gained with these were instrumental in developing the design of the
Hunter.
On 2 September
1947, the P.1040 prototype, VP401,
sometimes referred to as the Hawker
N.7/46 after the related naval specification, conducted its maiden
flight from RAF Boscome Down, piloted by Bill Humble. Three days later, VP401 flew to Farnborough to continue
trials. A month after the first flight, the existence of the P.1040 was
revealed to the general public. Early flight trials encountered
aerodynamic-related teething problems, such as airframe vibrations and tail
buffeting, and thus led to a redesign of the rear jetpipe fairings and the
addition of a bullet fairing on the tail to correct these issues. Other minor
issues were addressed, including high stick forces and windshield distortion; VP401 was limited to performing long
takeoff run, which was attributed to the low-powered Nene 1, at that point, the
engine had been yet not rated for its full power settings.
On 31 August 1948,
a fully navalised prototype, VP413,
which was equipped with folding wings, catapult spools and a full armament,
conducted its first flight. VP413
was quickly subjected to a series of deck assessment trials using a mockup deck
at Boscombe Down. In April 1949, VP413
was transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious to conduct general deck and handling trials at sea.
These trials revealed the need for the wing span to be increased by 30 inches,
the low-speed handling of the prototype having been found to be lacking. In
November 1949, VP413 was
re-deployed to Illustrious,
performing around 25 deck landings without issue.
On 17 October
1949, the third prototype, VP422,
made its maiden flight. Being representative of the subsequent production
aircraft, VP422 incorporated a
number of modifications as a result of the experiences gained from trials with
the second prototype, these alterations included the fitting of a longer
arrester hook when a number of "bolters" were experienced during the
early dummy deck trials. After the longer hook was incorporated, this
modification was carried though the remaining production runs. Other changes
included the addition of fixtures for rocket-assisted take-off gear (RATOG) and
hard points plumbed for external drop tanks. On 22 November 1939, Hawker
received an initial production contract for 151 aircraft, the aircraft also
received the name Sea Hawk at
this point. Throughout 1950, both VP413
and VP422 were used to conduct
preliminary service trials.
Immediately
following the receipt of the first order in November 1949, Hawker set about
establishing a manufacturing line for the Sea Hawk at their Kingston facility.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, an urgent operational demand for
Britain's aircraft carriers, and thus their accompanying aircraft, had become
apparent. The rate of production was substantially increased, and further
orders for the Sea Hawk were soon placed. The issuing of a 'Super-Priority'
status for the Sea Hawk by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1951, served to
speed up production considerably as well as aid the supply of vital materials
for its manufacture.
Under such demands
for the aircraft, in order that production shortcomings could be better
addressed, along with the parallel pressure that Hawker was facing on the
development of another aircraft, the newer Hunter, it was decided that
production would be transferred to a new assembly line ran by Armstrong
Whitworth Aircraft, which were a part of the Hawker group, at Coventry. Prior
to the transfer, a total of 35 Sea Hawk F1, the initial production standard,
were completed at Kingston. On 14 November 1951, the first production Sea Hawk
F1, WF143, conducted its maiden
flight. It possessed a 39 ft (12 m) wingspan and a tailplane of
increased area. The first Coventry-built Sea Hawk F1 made its first flight
prior to the end of 1953; a total of 60 would be produced.
The F 1 was armed
with four 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannons. It was powered by a
single 5,000 lbf (22 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Nene 101
centrifugal-equipped turbojet engine. The Nene engine was viewed as being a
major shortcoming on the aircraft due to its lack of power; in 1950, the
government had cancelled development of the Rolls-Royce Tay, an
afterburner-equipped further development of the Nene engine, leaving no more
powerful engines to equip the Sea Hawk. More minor developments of the Nene engine
were developed and were adopted on the aircraft, providing for some increase in
power.
The F 1 had a
maximum speed of 599 mph (964 km/h) at sea level and a range of
800 mi (1,287 km) on internal fuel. A more refined fighter variant
was the F 2, which introduced power-boosted aileron controls as well as other
modifications, including to its structure. The next variant of the Sea Hawk was
developed into a fighter-bomber, the FB 3, and differed only slightly from its
predecessors; its structure being strengthened to allow it to carry a wider
array of equipment and weaponry on its four hard points, these included
rockets, bombs, napalm, mines, reconnaissance cameras, external drop tanks and
fixtures for rocket-assisted take-off gear (RATOG).
Unlike its rival,
the Supermarine Attacker, which had been the first jet aircraft to enter
service with the FAA, the Sea Hawk had a tricycle undercarriage rather than a
tail-wheel, making it easier to land on carriers, it was also Hawker's first
aircraft to incorporate a nose-wheel undercarriage. The Sea Hawk had adopted a
fairly conventional design, being built with straight wings while a number of
other contemporary aircraft, such as the F-86 Sabre, had adopted swept wings.
The Sea Hawk was a reliable and elegant aeroplane, though its cautious design
meant it would only be attractive on the export market, and thus be in
production, for only a short period before being superseded by more advanced
aircraft.
The first
production Sea Hawk was the F 1,
which first flew in 1951, entered service two years later with 806 Squadron,
first based at Brawdy, then transferred to the HMS Eagle. All Sea Hawks were in service by the mid-1950s and
eventually over 500 were built.
During service
evaluations of the Sea Hawk, both Australian and Canadian pilots from each of
their respective naval services would fly examples of the aircraft, and there
were official suggestions they would adopt the type as standard equipment.
However, both nations were also interested in new American-built naval
aircraft; only a handful of Sea Hawks would be transferred to either nation,
notably some would operate from the flight deck of the Australian Majestic
class aircraft carrier HMS Sydney,
though these did not enter full squadron service.
In 1956, shortly after
the termination of the Sea Hawk production line, the Federal Republic of
Germany placed an order for 64 aircraft to equip the German Bundesmarine, the
Navy of West Germany, having determined the type to represent good value for
money. Requiring both fair-weather daytime fighter bombers and day time
fighters with a bad weather flight capability, these were delivered in two
separate variants. The first of these German export variants, for the
fair-weather role, was designated as the Sea
Hawk Mk 100, while the bad-weather capable model was designated as the Sea Hawk Mk 101; 32 aircraft of each
variant were ordered. The Mk 101 was equipped with a pod-based EKCO-built
search radar for sea reconnaissance. The German Sea Hawks served into the
mid-1960s, until its replacement by the F-104 Starfighter.
The Netherlands
also placed an order for 30 aircraft, designated as the Sea Hawk Mk 50, a ground-attack variant for the Royal
Netherlands Navy, which was financed under NATO-issued funding. The Mk 30 was
externally similar to the Royal Navy's own aircraft, differing in its use of a
Philips-built ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio; Dutch Sea Hawks were also later
equipped to each carry a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air
missiles. Between 1957 and 1964, the Dutch Navy operated a total of 22
aircraft. The last export customer was India who ordered a mix of 24 new-build
Sea Hawks and 12 refurbished ex-FAA Mk 6s in 1959, following up with 30
additional airframes reconstructed from West German stocks, among others.
The Sea Hawk, as
part of the Fleet Air Arm, saw extensive service during the Suez Crisis,
initiated by Egypt's nationalisation of the Suez Canal and naval blockade of
southern Israeli ports in violation of the 1949 armistice and UN Security Council
resolution denying passage of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The
United Kingdom, France and Israel conspired to provoke war, with the
Anglo-French invasion being known as Operation Musketeer, beginning on 31
October 1956. During the conflict, six Sea Hawk squadrons took part: two were
aboard the fleet carrier HMS Eagle
and two each aboard the light fleet carriers HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark.
The Sea Hawks were primarily used to perform ground attack missions in the
theatre, due to aircraft such as the Hunter lacking the range or clearance to
deliver munitions, the entire British ground attack capability during the
conflict was delivered by the Royal Navy's Sea Hawks, typically being escorted
by de Havilland Sea Venom fighters.
Sea Hawks launched
many attacks upon Egyptian shore-based targets, often in the face of heavy
anti-aircraft fire, resulting in several aircraft being severely damaged. The
military conduct of the Suez Campaign was successful, unlike the political
disaster, and all invasion forces were withdrawn by 1957, though the waterway
was reopened to Israeli ships. The Suez Crisis was to be the key note of Sea
Hawk combat operations with the Royal Navy, as a new generation of strike
aircraft were introduced in the aftermath of the conflict, namely the de
Havilland Sea Vixen and the Supermarine Scimitar.
The Sea Hawk was a
successful export aircraft. In the Royal Netherlands Navy, it served aboard the
Dutch aircraft carrier HNLMS Karel
Doorman, ex-HMS Venerable,
including decolonization operations guarding against Indonesian threats in the
area. From 1959 they were equipped with Sidewinder missiles significantly
enhancing and extending their air-to-air combat capabilities. In 1961, the Sea
Hawks that served on her were moved ashore when the NATO mission profile was
changed to all ASW aircraft; by October 1964 they had been taken out of
service.
In Indian Navy
service (beginning in 1960), Sea Hawks were used aboard the aircraft carrier
INS Vikrant, ex-HMS Hercules and saw service during the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The latter war
saw Sea Hawks being used by the Indian Navy; these aircraft scored nearly a
dozen "kills", mainly of Pakistan Navy gunboats and Merchant navy
ships and cargo ships in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) without losing
an aircraft in the war. Aided by Breguet Alize aircraft, the Sea Hawks emerged
unscathed, achieving the highest kill ratio for any aircraft in the war. The
Sea Hawk was withdrawn from Indian Navy service in 1983, being replaced by the
far more capable BAE Sea Harrier.