Hawker Hunter weapons pylons

I don't think there ever was one. There was one Hunter F4, XF310, which was experimentally fitted with 2 Fireflash missiles on pylons, but it was not proceeded with. Also, there was a proposal to produce a "Super Hunter" which would have had provision for Sidewinders but, again, it came to nothing.

Regards

Pat Macguire

There is a picture of an Omani T.MK.66 in Wings of Fame showing it with an AIM-9P on a special inboard pylon. I believe I have seen Omani single seater Hunters with the pylon/missile also. Swiss Mk. 58s also have an extra inboard pylon, although I don't know if it was used for Sidewinders or just A-G ordnance. Finally, there is a photo of a Singapore Hunter carrying the Sidewinder/extra pylon at the bottom of this page:

Dave

P & H Macguire wrote:

Some of the overseas Hunter customers did get early model Sidewinders stuck on them:

"The effect of the White Paper on the Hunter was that production tailed off quickly and plans for improved variants, such as the CFE Hunter, were filed away. Even fairly simple improvements to the type were neglected. One significant improvement would have been a "wet" centerline stores pylon, which would have allowed carriage of bombs on the inner stores pylons. This modification was actually performed on Singapore's Hunters, but it was implemented with assistance by Lockheed. Similarly, several foreign users, including Chile, the Netherlands, Oman, Rhodesia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Singapore, wired up their Hunters to carry the US-built AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM or foreign counterparts like the Israeli Shafir and South African Atlas Darter. Although Sidewinder variants available in the 1960s were of limited effectiveness, they still provided a significant improvement in air combat capability. The upgrade was straightforward, since the Sidewinder's seeker obtained a target lock on its own, indicating the lock to the pilot through a tone wired to the pilot's headphones. The RAF was promised Sidewinders for their Hunters but never got them. Although some Royal Navy Hunter trainers were wired for Sidewinders, no British Hunter ever carried them operationally." I'm still trying to track down photos of the pylon.

Pat

Drat, when I did my Swedish F.50 I went to some trouble to eliminate the shell collectors. Now I read they were added on later. IIRC, I used missile rails from an F-104 kit. Removing the dogtooth leading edges wasn't too difficult using the Airfix kit.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I think it was a modified FGA.9 and the serial number was XF378 - but otherwise that's basically correct.

Cheers,

They ran into real problems with high subsonic and supersonic fighter's large caliber shell casings damaging the underside of the aircraft on ejection.

Pat

My sources say:

Two Mk6 Hunters, WW594 and XF378, were modified for the Ministry of Supply and designated , respectively, as P1109A and P1109B. They were fitted with Firestreak missiles, but not proceeded with. The aircraft apparently performed perfectly well, but it was felt to be not worth it as the Hunter's days were seen as being numbered.

XF310, a Mk4, was modified for Fairey Aviation as trials aircraft for the Fireflash missile. When finished with, it was converted to a T Mk7.

Regards

Pat Macguire

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messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Thanks to the guys at the start of this disscution for confirming the existence of the inner pylon. However I am still after information regarding its location and size so I can reproduce the pylon reasonably accurately.

The radar and fireflash equipped hunter is a future project for myself, but first things first.

Gondor