Hawker Hunter?

goldtop

The most gorgeous of all the cold war jets. My ex-neighbour (wing co and station master) flew them and said they were "gentlemen's aircraft". He also flew the Lightning and said that was a bit more of a handful.

And it gives me the chance to post a couple of videos that are beyond awesome (both filmed on potatoes, but who cares!):

Bloody Swiss Air Force - part-timers with the best kit!

Moominpapa

^ I love in the first video how, at about 0:55 he rounds the peak and then rolls as he drops - so elegant! Beautiful aircraft.

HAL9000

I can remember as a kid being on holiday in Switzerland and being up in the mountains near Wildersville and seeing Hawker Hunters doing the low-level stuff below where we were standing.

viz

Headphones said:

A Hunter did a roll inside a 707?

That would take some sci fi level talent.

I did lol at that

crunchman

HAL9000 said:

I can remember as a kid being on holiday in Switzerland and being up in the mountains near Wildersville and seeing Hawker Hunters doing the low-level stuff below where we were standing.

I grew up in Devon on a farm at the top of a hill.  We used to get some low level flying.  The fast jets would just give you shock because they were going fast enough you didn't here them coming.

There were also some big old Hercules transports practicing low level flying.  I remember seeing one of them bank so that it's wing avoided an oak tree at the end of the field behind our house.

SteveRobinson

My Dad worked for Hawker Siddeley (later BAe, Airbus) and every year the company would put on an air show for their open day.

I remember the time they had a Harrier there, it was just amazing.

Blackjack

breezytele said:

Talk of Hawker Hunters will always remind me of my cousin Stefan Karwowski. 

He flew Hunters in the RAF and later, the same aircraft in the Oman North Yemen ‘war’ (one of 6 ex pat pilots) in the early 70s I  think.

when I was about 10, he buzzed my grandparent house on the river Barle in Dulverton. His first approach was following the curve of the valley, at valley top height 

(in my memory at least) which was some entrance... Fantastic noise.

He followed up with a vertical climb whilst spinning , going straight up from where we were waving tea towels and  watching from below.

all that was of course not permitted, but nil trouble ensued for him. He was a bit of a playboy, drove a white E type, He later died in a freak accident during a display in NZ. 

  A memorial service was subsequently held for him at the RAF church, St Clement Danes

I remember your cousin Stefan well!
i used to volunteer for The Fighter Collection at Duxford and he used to fly Stephen Gray’s Bearcat.  A fabulous display pilot, and very sadly missed. It’s an honour to speak to his cousin. 

I also remember him ripping up my home airfield, Biggin Hill, in the Hunter.  Truly outstanding. 

steveledzep

SteveRobinson said:

My Dad worked for Hawker Siddeley (later BAe, Airbus) and every year the company would put on an air show for their open day.

I remember the time they had a Harrier there, it was just amazing.

I'm guessing this would be at Woodford Steve ?  I went to air shows there a few times in the seventies.  I remember seeing the Harrier, what a marvellous piece of engineering, deafening too !  I lived near Chester, so used to go to Valley too for air shows.  I'll always remember a Vulcan flying low over the crowd with its bomb bay doors open, magnificent.

HAL9000

I do think that some of the fighter jets of that era were among the best looking aircraft ever built. The Hunter and the American F86 Sabre in particular had a certain elegance that the more bulky and angular aircraft that followed can’t match...

breezytele

Blackjack said:

breezytele said:

Talk of Hawker Hunters will always remind me of my cousin Stefan Karwowski. 

He flew Hunters in the RAF and later, the same aircraft in the Oman North Yemen ‘war’ (one of 6 ex pat pilots) in the early 70s I  think.

when I was about 10, he buzzed my grandparent house on the river Barle in Dulverton. His first approach was following the curve of the valley, at valley top height 

(in my memory at least) which was some entrance... Fantastic noise.

He followed up with a vertical climb whilst spinning , going straight up from where we were waving tea towels and  watching from below.

all that was of course not permitted, but nil trouble ensued for him. He was a bit of a playboy, drove a white E type, He later died in a freak accident during a display in NZ. 

  A memorial service was subsequently held for him at the RAF church, St Clement Danes

I remember your cousin Stefan well!
i used to volunteer for The Fighter Collection at Duxford and he used to fly Stephen Gray’s Bearcat.  A fabulous display pilot, and very sadly missed. It’s an honour to speak to his cousin. 

I also remember him ripping up my home airfield, Biggin Hill, in the Hunter.  Truly outstanding. 

Thanks !  I’ve sent you a pm

RobDavies

I’ve seen the Hunter at Bournemouth a couple of times....wonderful noise.  Although nothing beats an F4 for volume. 

My Dad lives near Yeovilton and when they had Harriers there it wasn’t uncommon to be in his garden, listening to the peace of the Dorset countryside, only to be buzzed by a couple of very low level jump jets.  Loved it.  

goldtop

And, from the "It was different back then" files, there's this Hawker Hunter tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident

drofluf

goldtop said:

And, from the "It was different back then" files, there's this Hawker Hunter tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of a graduation flypast at Cranwell one year. I was a couple of months away from graduating doing a leadership exercise behind (which seemed to consist of running as a flight with a telegraph pole) when from the otherside of the main college we heard the roar of jets and a pair of F4's popped up from behind the college. Apparently the graduation parade was decimated, hats blown off, a couple of people knocked over etc.. Subsequent  flypasts were a lot more subdued.

EDIT looks like I was wrong about people being knocked down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yV7pL1p24

ICBM

Many years ago when I was a teenager, I was walking in north Wales with a friend. We’d sat down on a flat piece of land between a ‘hanging valley’ with a lake in it and the main valley below to have lunch, looking out over the fantastic view in front of us. After a while we became aware of a strange low whistling noise behind us, and turned round to see the front ends of two Tornados coming straight towards us, so low they were leaving wakes in the water - it looked like they were about 10 feet up, although probably more like 20 or 30 - but I think less than a wingspan. We just had time to throw ourselves to the ground as they went almost straight over us - one either side - and then turned into the main valley so we were looking straight down on the tops of them. The sudden noise as they went from behind to in front of us was absolutely staggering.

The pilots were probably pissing themselves at us .

GSPBASSES

My mum worked for Hawker Siddeley at Kingston upon Thames, didn’t know what she did there and she said everyone in her department had to sign the official secrets act, my uncle who was her brother was some kind of manager there but again no idea what he managed.

goldtop

ICBM said:

Many years ago when I was a teenager, I was walking in north Wales with a friend. We’d sat down on a flat piece of land between a ‘hanging valley’ with a lake in it and the main valley below to have lunch, looking out over the fantastic view in front of us. After a while we became aware of a strange low whistling noise behind us, and turned round to see the front ends of two Tornados coming straight towards us, so low they were leaving wakes in the water - it looked like they were about 10 feet up, although probably more like 20 or 30 - but I think less than a wingspan. We just had time to throw ourselves to the ground as they went almost straight over us - one either side - and then turned into the main valley so we were looking straight down on the tops of them. The sudden noise as they went from behind to in front of us was absolutely staggering.

The pilots were probably pissing themselves at us .

I was mooching about the peatlands around Port Stanley in '86, minding my own business, taking photos of this and that, when a Phantom passed low over me, from behind. I think that counts as sport for pilots bored of making sheep scatter. My fault for wearing a bright red kagoule.

HAL9000

ICBM said:

Many years ago when I was a teenager, I was walking in north Wales with a friend. We’d sat down on a flat piece of land between a ‘hanging valley’ with a lake in it and the main valley below to have lunch, looking out over the fantastic view in front of us. After a while we became aware of a strange low whistling noise behind us, and turned round to see the front ends of two Tornados coming straight towards us, so low they were leaving wakes in the water - it looked like they were about 10 feet up, although probably more like 20 or 30 - but I think less than a wingspan. We just had time to throw ourselves to the ground as they went almost straight over us - one either side - and then turned into the main valley so we were looking straight down on the tops of them. The sudden noise as they went from behind to in front of us was absolutely staggering.

The pilots were probably pissing themselves at us .

https://youtu.be/4iOoiEbtf2w

Pilot: How tall are you?
Presenter: Why do you ask?

Funkfingers

GSPBASSES said:

My mum worked for Hawker Siddeley at Kingston upon Thames

My maternal grandfather worked there during WW2 and for a while afterwards, when it was Vickers/Rolls Royce. 

chillidoggy

It’s not been the same since they named air displays over crowds. Alright, there were a few deaths, but so what, it was a dangerous environment and if you didn’t like it then stay at home.

As a young lad I can recall standing glued to the runway fencing to watch the BAC Lightning. What I didn’t know was it would come in perpendicular to the runway from behind me, and stand on its tail with both afterburners on, climbing vertically. The noise turned my insides to mush. I was utterly terrified by it, and I could feel the heat on my face from the engines.

I’d give my mother’s right arm to experience that again.

breakstuff

chillidoggy said:

It’s not been the same since they named air displays over crowds. Alright, there were a few deaths, but so what, it was a dangerous environment and if you didn’t like it then stay at home.

As a young lad I can recall standing glued to the runway fencing to watch the BAC Lightning. What I didn’t know was it would come in perpendicular to the runway from behind me, and stand on its tail with both afterburners on, climbing vertically. The noise turned my insides to mush. I was utterly terrified by it, and I could feel the heat on my face from the engines.

I’d give my mother’s right arm to experience that again.

I've also fond memories of the Lightnings. RAF Binbrook, where they where stationed, is only about ten miles from me, so seeing them fly overhead was a daily occurrence, along with the aforementioned Hunters, V bombers, Phantoms and the odd Mirage fighters, to name a few, when exercises were going on.

I remember, when I was around ten years old, playing in my back garden, when I heard an almighty whine, followed seconds later by an F104 Starfighter screaming directly overhead at about one hundred feet. It was probably my favourite plane at the time, and the first time I'd seen one in the flesh. A great experience, and one I'll never forget.