Hawker Sea Hawk
| Sea Hawk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sea Hawk in livery of the Fleet Air Arm | |
| Role | Naval fighter |
| Manufacturer |
Hawker Aircraft Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft |
| Designer | Sydney Camm |
| First flight | 2 September 1947 |
| Introduction | March 1953 |
| Retired | 1983 |
| Primary users |
Royal Navy German Navy Royal Netherlands Navy Indian Navy |
| Number built | 542 |
| Variants | Hawker P.1072 |
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, 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.
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