The Hawker Haringey - a 1950's failure

[Bungle]

The Hawker Haringey

With the Hawker Hunter a glowing success Hawker could not rest on their laurels and so decided to look to the future for an all-weather, high altitude interceptor. In 1954 the RAF were looking to replace the Supermarine Swift and had hoped to see Gloster Javelin in service as its replacement. At that time the Javelin had yet to reach the production line and Hawker saw a tentative opportunity to slip in under wire if they could develop something quick enough.

Hawker could not design a new aircraft from scratch in the limited time available and so looked to their sister company, Avro, for inspiration. Not wishing to give much away concerning the Avro Arrow currently on the drawing board, Avro agreed to let Hawker have a couple of the Avro CF-100 Canuck Mk.4 airframes to serve as a base for the proposed new interceptor. Hawker duly took the CF-100s apart and re-engineered them from the ground up.

First Hawker decided to make their new interceptor a single seater dispencing with the Canucks navigator seat position. The Avro Orenda 11 engines were removed and replaced with the upgraded Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.117 units destined for the Comet 3. The wing was modified to a gentle sweep rather than the straight leading edge and a radical 'Butterly' V-shaped tailplane was added following Hawker engineers being impressed by the recent development of the Fouga Magister.

The nose cone was extended to house the latest Ferranti radar being developed for the Bristol Bloodhound SAM and provision was made to arm the Haringey with four de Havilland Firestreak missiles (it was intended for these to be replaced be Hawker's own Blue Jay mk.4 at a later date) with two on the wingtips and two carried beneath the wings.

In 1956 Hawker had flight tested two pre-production aircraft. With a maximum speed of 700mph and a service altitude of 15,000 metres the Haringey (like the Harrow, Hendon and Henley the aircraft bore the name of a delightful township close to the River Thames) was looking very close to the RAF's requirement. But there were dark clouds ahead as rumours were abound the Lockheed were close to launching a radical new design the F-104 Starfighter that would outstrip the Haringey's performance. With the RAF showing an interest in the F-104 Hawker decided to push the Haringey forward without tweaking any additional performance out of her, a decision they would later regret.

It wasn't the American supersonic piloted missile Hawker had to worry about but the venerable carthorse that was the Gloster Javelin. Following its long development process from the late 1940's the Javelin had changed from the lumbering Mk.1 to the stallion like FAW.7 that had come into service in 1956. Now competing against the Javelin FAW.8 the Haringey could not out climb the mark 8 nor could it out run it. Finally with a greater service ceiling the Javelin was again the weapon of choice.

Hawker still believed they had a winner in the Haringey but the death knell finally came when they became aware of English Electric's proposal for a revolutionary interceptor the lightning and the Governments hysteria after the Suez Crisis. In 1957 Duncan Sandys, Minister of Defence produced a White Paper that pulled the rug from under Hawker (and all other aircraft manufacturers) feet. All fighter aircraft development save the English Electric Lightning and the currently proposed aircraft under General Operational Requirement 339 (GOR.339), the often refered to "Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance, Mach 2", was to be cancelled.

The Hawker Harigey project came to an abrupt end. One of the pre-production aircraft was returned to Avro in Canada where it served as a chase plane in the Avro Arrow development program. Unfortunately it was lost in a bizarre accident stalling in the Arrows wake-vortex and crashing into the wilderness that is Canada. The second machine was delivered to Boscombe Down for none other reason than Hawker thought it too beautiful to break up.

Rumours are that in the back of a hangar, somewhere in the dark under a greasy tarpaulin a Haringey resides to this day.


In 1/72nd the kit is the ASTRA Vacuform Avro CF-100 Canuck Mk.4. The nose cone is from an F/A-18 Hornet, the wings were chopped using a number 11 Swann-Morton and the tailplane is actually the hoizontal stabalisers re-positioned. Cockpit is scratch built as is the undercarriage (aluminium tube, brass rod and fusewire). Decals, canopy, drop tanks and the missiles are all from the spares box (save the home made RAE wording decals).

[thedarkmaster]

Love it  love it     

[JayBee]

Pure, Dead, Brilliant!!!

[McGreig]

Beautiful and convincing model and a great backstory.

And a fitting tribute to the paradise that is found in the N11/17/22 postcode area 

[PR19_Kit]

Bungle,

That's amazing!   

I thought you'd converted a Frog Scimitar at first, with the butterfly tail it looks very close to a Supermarine 508.

[Captain Canada]

Very nice. Love the story, sad ending, tho ! She sure looks the part of a rugged beast. And the changes you made to the old -100 really look great.

[The Rat]

 

Whiffing a Clunk is the path to enlightenment - old Canadian proverb.

[NARSES2]

Great model and story

[sideshowbob9]

And a fitting tribute to the paradise that is found in the N11/17/22 postcode area 

As someone who lives a stones throw from that area and has relatives there, may I suggest a healthy dose of " " on that paradise there  .

Apart from the name you have a great model and backstory there   

[kitnut617]

Very nice Bungle, I like what you've done there --- giving me some ideas   

[Brian da Basher]

Just stunning! You pulled off the Raspberry Ripple to a T, Bungle!

Brian da Basher

[B777LR]

Looks like that comical Canadian thingy, the RCAF called a military plane. Looked more like a museum piece to me...

[Hman]

I am using one of the the photos as my desktop piccie!   Love it!

[The Rat]

Looks like that comical Canadian thingy, the RCAF called a military plane. Looked more like a museum piece to me...

Drown that man in maple syrup and bury him under a pile of moose dung!

And in defense of the Clunk, many consider it to be one of the finest all-weather fighters of its time. When other planes were grounded due to all sorts of crap, our lads were casually going about their work of keeping the Free World free.

[Cobra]

Very Cool & Interesting You did a Great Job with the Markings. Small Q:did you use a Croy Lettering Machine to Create the Lettering??? just asking.