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The Hawker Hunter was the best British fighter of the immediate post-war generation and it has the distinction of
being one of the first multi-role aircraft ever used. It was the meat and potatoes of the Royal Air Force Fighter
Command from 1953 through 1964, and it stayed in service into the 1980s. Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands
and about 15 other countries also kept the Hunter in service long into the 1980s. It was a replacement for the
venerable Gloucester Meteor, and in 1953 the first F.1 took to the air. Variants followed thick and fast, and with
the installation of a Rolls Royce Avon Turbojet, the F.6 airframe variant reached perfection, increasing its power
by 30 percent. The first F.6 flew on March 25, 1955 In 1959 a ground attack version was developed by adding armament
and fuel capacity to the versatile F.6. A trainer version, the F.7, appeared in 1955. A
sub series derived from the
T.7, the T.8, for the use of the Royal Navy.
The Museum's Hawker Hunter is a Mk 58 that was delivered to the Swiss Air Force in 1960. It was modified with a
parachute breaking system and also to carry eight Maverick or Sidewinder missiles. It flew last in July 1995,
from Switzerland to England, whereupon it was transported to Canada aboard a Canadian Forces C-130 Hercules.
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