WEAPONS OF WAR
Although it flew from the decks of Royal Navy carriers for just six years, the Hawker Sea Hawk proved a useful single-seat fighter – and it looked good to boot. David Hobbs profiles the Fleet Air Arm’s early jet success
As the jet age dawned, there was a rush to adapt the fledging technology for operation from aircraft carriers. The first such aircraft accepted into Royal Navy/Fleet Air Arm service was the Supermarine Attacker, introduced in 1950 and remaining in front-line use for just four years. It was soon eclipsed by an almost equally shortlived, but nevertheless significant and hard-hitting jet, the Hawker Sea Hawk.
While the Sea Hawk was Hawker’s first successful jet of any kind – let alone a carriercapable type – the firm’s links to maritime aviation go back further than when Hawker’s most prolific designer sketched out a new jet-propelled aircraft in the mid-1940s. In late 1920, Hawker had taken over the affairs of the Sopwith company, which had been an Admiralty contractor specialising in the design of fighter aircraft for the RNAS. It produced the 1½ Strutter, Pup and the 2F.1 version of the Camel, all of which had played a part in the development of carrier aviation, and …
