A Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6 of the Royal Navy Historic Flight in flight on June 8th, 2008.
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 successful 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 operation in Australian, Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese, Dutch, German, Indian, and Irish service. The last operational Sea Hawks, operated by the Brazilian Navy, were retired in 1983.
Variants[]
- Sea Hawk F1: Production fighters powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene Mk.101 turbojet engine.
- Sea Hawk F2: Production fighters with powered aelirons and swept wings.
- Sea Hawk FB3: Fighter-bomber variant with stronger wing for external stores.
- Sea Hawk FGA4: Fighter/Ground attack variant
- Sea Hawk FB5: FB3 fitted with the Nene Mk.103 turbojet engines.
- Sea Hawk FGA6: FGA4 with the Nene Mk.103 turbojet engines.
- Sea Hawk Mk.50: Export variant based on the FGA 6 for the Royal Netherlands Navy.
- Sea Hawk Mk.60: All weather export variant based on the FGA6 for the Irish Air Force.
- Sea Hawk Mk.90: All-weather export variant for Brazil and the Republic of China.
- Sea Hawk Mk.100: Export variant for the German Navy's Marineflieger.
- Sea Hawk Mk.101: All-weather export variant for the Marineflieger fitted with a search radar in an underwing pod.
