The RAF trainer made famous by the Red Arrows
IT was August 21, 1974 when the prototype of the Hawk T1 aircraft, XX154, took off from the runway at Dunsfold in Surrey, a test flight lasting just 53 minutes with records at the time noting that the aircraft reached a height of 20,000ft and travelling at speeds in excess of 360mph.
It was piloted by Hawker Siddeley Aviation’s (HSA) chief test pilot, Duncan Simpson, who repeated the feat the following day extending the height to 27,000ft and reaching speeds approaching 500mph.
The response to the new design was highly favourable in terms of handling and performance, with the cockpit described as ‘outstanding’; the few teething problems encountered were quickly ironed out, a relatively trouble-free development programme seeing the Hawk enter service just 27 months after its maiden flight.
(XX154 1 September 1974 - 📸Clive R Martin)
In total it would be eight years from the date HSA began initial investigations into creating a specific fast-jet trainer that the Hawk was on its way to Anglesey to enter RAF service, the P.1182 chosen in October 1971 as its preferred design – the aircraft became the HS.1182, then later the Hawk, with an initial contract signed in March 1972 for 175 of the aircraft.
With little in the way of adjustments required on XX154 before it was ready for RAF service, the whole process from testing of the new aircraft to operational use came in on time and within budget.
The tandem cockpit trainer, with a height differential between the two seats allowing for high levels of visibility for the instructor in the rear, was powered by a single turbofan engine and was capable of reaching speeds in excess of 650mph at level flight, and approaching 900mph (Mach 1.15) in a dive, levels that exceeded expectations.
Despite its training focus, HSA had one eye on a wider export market during development, the design able to switch to create a single-seat model offering combat capability – the solo pilot variant could operate as a ground-attack fighter, the forward cockpit replaced by an electronics bay for avionics and an onboard systems control centre.
(Greenham Common - 📸 Rob Schleiffert 22 July 1983)
The Hawk T1 entered service late in 1976 with 4 Flying Training School (FTS) at RAF Valley, and it soon became one of the world’s most successful advanced jet trainers; by November 1978 4 FTS had replaced the last of its Gnat trainers.
Its popularity and capabilities saw it attract interest from across the globe with an export market of 19 nations, with Canada, Finland and India amongst its overseas customers. The importance of the Hawk to the Indian Air Force saw Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, headquartered in Bangalore, assembling a number of the aircraft on site in the southern state of Karnataka under licence from BAE Systems, the successor to HSA.
As relations between the Soviet Union and the West showed no signs of improvement in the late 1970s, the British government investigated how to improve the UK air defences, the result of which was the identification of the need for a jet that could intercept enemy aircraft that had evaded the QRA (quick reaction alert) fighters. A decision was made to modify the Hawk to fill that role, with a number of the T1s – around 90 – undergoing conversion into interceptors in the mid-1980s, now known as T1As and designed to carry AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and a 30mm ADEN cannon gun pod.
(Hawk T.1A of 234 Squadron, armed with a pair of AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles and a 30mm gun pod - 📸Mike Freer 1987)
The ’mixed force’ role for the Hawk as an interceptor envisaged a situation where they would work alongside Tornados in the event of a wartime situation, the T1As frontline duties continuing until the ‘first’ Cold War effectively ended in the early 1990s, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down,
Over the decades since its first flight, the Hawk has become one of the most successful advanced trainers in the world, used by the RAF and around 14 other air forces worldwide. Despite it being known as an advanced trainer, the best-known role of the Hawk to the public, however, is as a Red Arrows jet, the unit re-equipping from the Folland Gnat in the late 1970s to a version of the T1A, the underbody gun pod replaced by a device carrying diesel fuel and dye for the display smoke system.
It was late in 2004 that the MoD awarded a contract to BAE Systems, to develop an advanced model of the Hawk, designated the T2, the first arriving at RAF Valley in 2009; training at the Anglesey site sees new pilots who have completed Elementary Flying Training on the Grob Tutor or the 120TP Prefect (Prefect T1), and have been selected and streamed to fast-jets, progress to the Texan T1, before taking control of the Hawk.
(The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (The Red Arrows) training over RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus 2013 - 📸 MOD)
In August 2024, the Red Arrows marked the golden anniversary of the Hawk with a flypast at Dunsfold, the location from where XX154 had took off 50 years earlier. While the Hawk is no longer in production, it is believed around 450 are still in military operation around the globe serving 13 nations, including around 190 flown by the US Navy.
