The Hawker Hunter was a jet fighter aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s. The Hunter served for many years with the Royal Air Force and was widely exported, serving with 19 air forces. A total of 1,972 Hunters were produced by Hawker Siddeley and under licence.

The Hunter F.1 entered service with the Royal Air Force in July 1954. It quickly became apparent that the new fighter had insufficient fuel capacity. In addition, incorrectly-designed air intakes produced disruptions in air flow to the engine, with resultant compressor stalls. The engine problems were compounded by ingestion of gas when the cannon were fired, which resulted in flameouts. Many modifications and marks lead to the F6.

To deal with surging and flameout problems, Rolls-Royce fitted the Avon with a new automatic fuel system and redesigned compressor. The resulting Avon 203 was fitted, this became the definitive Hunter F.6. The other crucial revision on the F.6 was the new wing, which had a larger area, a distinctive "dogtooth" leading edge notch to alleviate the pitch-up problem, and four "wet" hardpoints, finally giving the aircraft a good ferry range.

The Hunter F.6 was retired from its fighter role in the RAF in 1963, being replaced by the English Electric Lightning. The ground attack variants served until 1970. Some aircraft remained in use for training and secondary roles up to the early 1990s.

Wikipedia entry

This model, by Dave Garwood and Rick Piper, represents a Hunter F4 of 4 Squadron based at RAF Jever, Germany, 1956.