Hawker Hunter Info needed

Ray Jade,

I saw a complete hunter advertised in Flypast magazine about 1 or 2 years ago for £3500.

Got to be a bargain.

Jsut to keep those interested up to date, the wings are now back with the fuselage and have been reattached to it. She is now sitting on her own wheels again, being cleaned and readied for a respray.

Well if anybody is going to be travelling along the A40 into London, they will see the earliest known F.1 WT555 sitting high up on top of the Vanguard tower again.
You can’t miss it…. 😮
It seems to have appeared again at the end of last week. I wonder how long it’ll stay up there for this time…?

Now that’s what I call a fun weekend – much better than mine which only seemed to consist of baby-feeding, shopping and lawn-mowing 😡

Anyway, congratulations on a successful move. Got any piccies?

Well the fuselage is now at its new home with the wings to follow later this week. After arriving at the aircraft about 9.30 sat night, working on the pannels for a couple of hours then starting again at 6am/ We finally moved off at 8.30 sun eve an arrived home at 5am aftera journey of about 300 miles. She is looking in need of some TLC, but a good clean and a lick of paint will have her looking great again. Many thanks to all those who offered help and advice in moving her. It all came in useful.

I think Henlow’s was recently resprayed by the guys at RAF Wittering from what i heard if i have remembered correctly.

Ray Jade, not in a position to say how much this one cost, but i have heard of another going for around the 5K mark.

I think RAF Henlow used to have an F.1 as a gate guard.

They still do, I saw it last week. I think it’s WT612 (memory not what it used to be!!).
It might have been recently resprayed as the paintwork looks to be in really excelent condition. It is in an early RAF scheme but without squadron markings. Sadly, it is too close to the fence to photograph but at least it’s being well looked after.

Willow

Would it be impolite to ask the sort of money a static Hunter costs?

Hunter F.1 WT651 at Newark Air Museum…

No problem, hope it was useful.

If I remember correctly there are actually 7 or 8 Hunter F.1s still around plus a couple of cockpit sections.

Besides WT680 there are 2 others in Wales, one just up the M4 in Kenfig Hill (also owned by an ATC squadron) and another in Caernarfon. There’s also a fairly decent example at Newark Air Museum and one in Manchester that has had some of the skin panels removed to show the structure beneath. I think RAF Henlow used to have an F.1 as a gate guard.

MarkG, cheers mate, got them today.

Anyone know of any other FG.1’s still around, someone i spoke to seemed to think it might be the only original one left?

Thanks for the info guys, its all much appreciated. Trying to get in touch with a few people now and also getting some good gen from you guys aswell. Will keep you informed of the progress. Should hopefully get it over in the next couple of weeks then we can look at the paint job to get it into true colours, favouring the DFSL scheme at the minute.

I would contact ‘crash & smash’ at St Athan as they are only a few miles away and might well consider it as a training exercise if it’s going to be maintained by an ATC unit.
Second option is contact Bill Fern at Aeroventure as he can give you chapter and verse on the dismantling procedure.
Suffice to say you will need a standard articulated trailer i.e forty feet
long to take the fuselage and one more load to move the wings if you want them flat. A standard trailer is usually quite a lot cheaper than using a low loader. I would tend to trestle the aircraft and then retract the nose and main uc units. It’s advisable to have plenty of ratchet straps to hold these retracted . One option then is to lift it as a complete aircraft onto the trailer and then remove each wing individually making sure the aircraft is firmly chocked to prevent roll.
If you use a low loader depending on the type you should be able to reverse the aircraft onto the trailer and then bring the trailer up on the coupling until the bed trestles the fuselage. For stability I would then support the nose and retract the nose gear so she can sit flat. Wings off again similar to the standard trailer.
One disadvantage of a low loader is that they tend to have quite short beds so you might well overhang. A standard articulated trailer is better in my opinion. One thing you must expect is corrosion! Plenty of WD40 and even possibly applying gentle heat. I brought a Canberra nose out of Aberporth a few years ago and the corrosion on the rest of her was severe! Take plenty of drill bits!

Wrecks and Relics also lists DFLS – the Day Fighter Leaders School as well as the station flight.
Air Britains RAF Aircraft WA100-WZ999 lists DFLS (at RAF West Raynham), then R-R (Rolls Royce), then to 7533M at RAF Weeton, 22/11/57.
Colour scheme – that would be standard 1950s camouflage topside, aluminium/silver underside?

Flood™

May I suggest that to save the guy you get to move the Hunter time, which in turn will save you money, is to get some WD40 and spray the screws that hold down the panels arround the wing roots.

Remove thies panels by either unscrewing or drilling out the screws and spray the wing bolts with plenty of WD40.

Also spray the blanks and remove ready to take the wing and fuselage lifting slings. There are 3 in the wings and 4 in the fuselage.

I hope the move goes well.

A few experienced ‘movers’ of Hunters are;

– The Hunter Flying Club at Exeter (have a chat to John Sparks)
– Barry Parkhouse of Parkhouse Aviation at Booker

PM me if you need contact details, I have e-mail addys and tel. nos etc..

As for the history of WT680 the only info I have is that she was built as part of the first production batch of 113 aircraft at Hawker’s Kingston-upon-Thames factory. She had her first flight on 6th Oct 1954, with Hawker test pilot Hugh Merewether at the helm, and was delivered to the RAF on 10th Nov 1954. The only squadron service I have listed is “West Raynham Station Flight”. Best bet is to get a copy of the movement card from the RAF Museum to confirm that though.

The last time I saw 680 she was painted in a totally inappropriate (for an F.1) late 54 Squadron colour scheme so I’m glad you’re planning something more accurate 🙂

Have a chat with the lads at Exeter

www.hunterflyingclub.co.uk