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the Sea Hawk operated by Royal Navy Historic Flight

Royal Navy Historic Flight's Sea Hawk during a demonstration
 

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Douglas F3D sea-hawk

One of the earliest jet designs, the Hawker Sea Hawk has descended directly from Hawker’s famous line of propeller-driven World War Two aircraft. The Sea Hawk prototype, the P.1040 was basically a modified Hawker Sea Fury. The piston engine was removed and cockpit, nose and nose landing gear were installed in its place. The jet engine was installed in the center of the fuselage. The wings and in particular the tail still show the family resemblance to the Sea Fury.
The most striking aspect of the Sea Hawk’s design was the bifurcated jet engine. While the design of the air intakes in the wing root was basically taken over from the De Havilland Vampire, the single central jet engine split its exhaust to two nozzles at port and starboard. This unique feature gives the Sea Hawk the appearance of a two-engine jet. It had the advantage that it did not need the Vampire’s twin-boom tail and space was gained aft of the engine for more fuel tanks.
The Hwaker P.1040 in flight

The Hawker P.1040, prototype of the Sea Hawk

Development of the P.1040 started in 1944 and as the war ended, the Royal Air Force’s initial interest in the project faded as they were happy with their Meteors. The design was adapted to match naval deployment as the Naval staff was still interested. Eventually the Royal Navy ordered three prototypes. From there on the design team went two ways: Getting the Sea Hawk ready for service in the Royal Navy and also developing it further to what eventually became the Hawker Hunter which was a huge success, not only with the Royal Air Force.
Sea Hawks during the Suez Crisis

Armed Sea Hawks onboard HMS Bulwark during the Suez Crisis
Only 30 Sea Hawks were actually build at Hawker before the production was switched to Armstrong Whitworth. The first two versions of the Sea Hawk were fighters armed with four 20mm guns. The third version and all subsequent ones were fighter bombers, that could be armed with a combination of bombs and rockets additional to the guns.
In the Royal Navy, Sea Hawks took part in the military operation of the Suez Crisis, successfully attacking ground targets in Egypt from three British Aircraft carriers. Sea Hawks serving in this Operation can be easily identified by their yellow-and-black stripes, which resemble the famous d-day stripes from World War Two. Britain replaced all Sea Hawks in the late 1950s.
Sea Hawks having a good smoke

Not sure, what these guys are smoking....
Sea Hawks performing aerobatics
Sea Hawk formation performing aerobatics
  The Sea Hawk was successfully exported to three countries:
The Royal Netherlands Navy had Sea Hawks serving aboard their Aircraft Carrier HNMLS Karel Doorman which were successfully deployed in Indonesia. Dutch Sea Hawks were the only Sea Hawks capable of carrying and firing Sidewinder missiles. They were decommissioned when the Karel Doorman was sold to Argentina.
Germany bought a modified Sea Hawk with taller tail as a strike fighter for its Bundesmarine as well as a night-fighter/reconnaisance version, equipped with a radar pod. These Sea Hawks served successfully until they were replaced by F-104 Starfighters in the early 1960s. Some of them were sold to India, the third export customer for the Sea Hawk.

India was actually where the Sea Hawk served the longest, with the last ones serving until 1983 to be replaced by Harriers. They served in two major wars against Pakistan in 1965 and 1971 and a number of smaller conflicts. The Sea Hawks held up quite well against more modern Pakistani fighters, taking off both from land bases and India’s only aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant.
Although it was quickly replaced by more glamorous swept-wing fighters by Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, the Sea Hawk was a reliable and sturdy workhorse, which did get the job done it was designed for and in the Indian Navy far outlived other aircraft of its time.

Sea Hawk in a museum in India (former German plane)
 
wingspan: 15.24m
length: 12.1m
height: 2.6m (German Sea Hawks 2.9m)
empty weight: 4335kg
max loaded weight: 7350kg
maximum speed: 962km/h
range: 770km
 
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