Firestreak Hunter

[Gondor]

Following an idea mentioned by Lee of a Hunter with a detachable missile pack in the same way that it had a detachable Gun pack made me think that such a thing would be ideal for this group build.

So I looked to my right from where I sit at my computer, then go through which Hunter kits I have there and find one that is not allocated to anything yet.



So kit selected, missiles and pylons are from an Airfix Lightning and on hand too so things should be relatively straight forward 

Operating squadron has not been thought of yet, but I am sure that I will come up with something.

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

Reference is in "The design and the Development of the Hawker Hunter The Creation of Britain's Iconic Jet Fighter" by Tony Buttler, The History Press, pages 132-133.  July 1960 proposal.  Straight replacement for the gun pack and the aircraft retains the gun ports.  Couldn't be any simpler.

Seems to have been a Fighter Command desire to improve air to air capability for overseas Hunters, so any unit equipped with them in the MEAF or FEAF would be logical.

However, Fighter Command still wanted a pair of cannons, so it got dropped.

The three view looks to be a standard F6 with missiles fitted on pylons on the lower fuselage.  The nose of the missiles are in line with the base of the windscreen.  No underwing tanks (although I'd add the smaller ones on the inboard pylons) with aerials outboard of where the upperwing blisters got on the FGA9.

There's a photo of the dummy Firestrack pack.  Looks almost identical to the Lightning set up.

Hope that's of some help.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Didn't Singapore or somebody do a similar arrangement with Sidewinders?  Or am I imagining that?

FYI if you wanted to make it an even more capable A-to-A platform the nose of a 1/48 F-15E drop tank grafts onto the Revell Hunter perfectly  to make a decent looking radar nose.

[The Wooksta!]

Singapore had 'winders on the inner inboard pylons,  where those daft xmas tree missiles are on the Swiss FGA58 aircraft.

The proposal that Gondor is going with doesn't have the nose radar.  Other than the cheek pylon mounted missiles, it's a bog standard Hunter F6.

My only complaint is that the Airfix Firestreaks are frankly terrible.  If you have a Sword Lightning T-bird, strip the missiles from there.  Vastly superior, much chunkier and seem to be better detailed.  I may well do the same thing at some point, although with FGA9s rather than F6, given that the FGA9 was intended for overseas use.

[AeroplaneDriver]

I swear I have a pic in a book of a Hunter with a trial Sidewinder pack in a book. I'll look when I get home from work tomorrow. 

[The Wooksta!]

The F6 above has 'winders as a missile fit for either the Belgian or Dutch option in the kit.  I don't think they were ever trialled on RAF aircraft, but wouldn't be surprised.

[AeroplaneDriver]

  I don't think they were ever trialled on RAF aircraft, but wouldn't be surprised.

Fairly certain you are correct there.

[Gondor]

Great info Lee 

I take it the pylons are at roughly 4 and 8 o'clock positions on the lower fuselage with the pylons perpendicular to the fuselage?

Gondor

[Knightflyer]

Somewhere tucked away in the 'normal' Hunter discussion thread on here are the pictures of the sidewinder fit. It's one of those questions that has been around before

I know because I asked the question (and got some good positive responses) in following up a What If book that has RAF Hunters (with sidewinder upgrade) in Scotland operating against Soviet forces attacking from Norway

At some point I intend to use the Revell Hunter / Sidewinder combo to model the Hunter as per the book

[The Wooksta!]

Great infor Lee 

I take it the pylons are at roughly 4 and 8 o'clock positions on the lower fuselage with the pylons perpendicular to the fuselage?

Gondor

Yes on the drawing, but the photo of the dummy pack looks basically the same as Lightning.  A search on Secret Projects may reveal a drawing.

[Gondor]

Great infor Lee 

I take it the pylons are at roughly 4 and 8 o'clock positions on the lower fuselage with the pylons perpendicular to the fuselage?

Gondor

Yes on the drawing, but the photo of the dummy pack looks basically the same as Lightning.  A search on Secret Projects may reveal a drawing.

Could not find a drawing but did order the book for a little over thirteen notes.

I did find my Sword Lightning T.5 which has in its box a set of Freightdog Swing Wings for the Lightning and two PJ Production Matra R- 539's as well so the Firestreaks are certainly available for use.

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

That book is well worth every penny.

[Nick]

Somewhere tucked away in the 'normal' Hunter discussion thread on here are the pictures of the sidewinder fit. It's one of those questions that has been around before

I know because I asked the question (and got some good positive responses) in following up a What If book that has RAF Hunters (with sidewinder upgrade) in Scotland operating against Soviet forces attacking from Norway

What book was this?

[The Wooksta!]

Reference is in "The design and the Development of the Hawker Hunter The Creation of Britain's Iconic Jet Fighter" by Tony Buttler, The History Press, pages 132-133.  July 1960 proposal.  Straight replacement for the gun pack and the aircraft retains the gun ports.  Couldn't be any simpler.

There's a photo of the dummy Firestrack pack.  Looks almost identical to the Lightning set up.

I did mention it.

[Gondor]

Actually started this build now by removeing the molded detail around the cockpit so that the Eduard Zoom set cn be fitted, and I have just found out that part of the ejector seat is short shot 
It's the headrest, or bone dome rest above the the seat cussions which it should be part of. Not a problem as I can use others as a guide to scratch the missing part.

Gondor