Hunter F.1
| This page is about the British jet fighter Hunter F.1. For other versions, see Hunter (Family). |
Contents
Description
The Hunter F.1 is a rank VI British jet fighter with a battle rating of 9.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.53 "Firestorm".
The Hawker Hunter is the iconic 1950s British swept-wing fighter. Produced from a requirement for a jet interceptor dating back to 1946 it fulfilled its role with outstanding success. Able to deliver a punishing blow with its four 30 mm ADEN cannons and manoeuvrability at high speed, it is a very capable jet. The F.1 follows the Vampire FB.1 and Venom FB.4 in the tree, providing an initial steep learning curve. Its calling card is sheer speed, with the Hunter able to go supersonic in dives once spaded.
General info
Flight performance
The Hawker Hunter is a transonic jet fighter, powered by the Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.113 engine. It is able to reach 1,109 km/h at sea level and 1,013 km/h at 9,000 m, very similar to the F-86F series. It can reach 1.0 Mach in dive and be able to recover from it. Its thrust to weight ratio is 0.50 with fuel tanks and 0.57 with 5 minutes of fuel, making the level acceleration very good. The climb rate is also good, 55 m/s at sea level, but in order to achieve it the Hunter needs to keep 920 km/h TAS, it is better in comparison to other jets without an afterburner like a F-86F or MiG-17. The engine might start overheating after 10 minutes of flying at 100%, which can be mitigated by setting RPM to 7550 or lower.
Despite having low wing loading compared to other jets it is not particularly manoeuvrable and has a high stall speed, due to the low amount of lift generated by its wings. While its high speed turn rate is decent and the plane can pull up to ~12 G, once the plane decreases its speed to around 700 km/h it begins to struggle and it only gets worse the slower it flies. Outturning any Sabre or MiG-15 is not possible and the plane will have a hard time even against planes like the F11F-1. The elevator starts to lock up above 0.85 Mach, below that speed it should be able to pull at least 11G. Its roll rate is decent and just good enough to make flying it comfortable, ~120°/s at 900 km/h, ~105°/s at 600 km/h and ~50°/s at 300 km/h, making it better than the MiG-15bis or MiG-17, but worse than all American Sabres. The flaps can slightly improve the turning performance, however they can only be used below 600 km/h IAS, where it struggles to turn. The airbrake provides as much drag as in similar planes like the Sabre, but has one issue, it is located under the plane, so it cannot be deployed when the landing gear is extended. This can make landing quite tricky since its wheel brakes are also weak and landing speed is high: around 300 km/h IAS with flaps.
The Hunter is a very nice to fly plane in both Realistic and Simulator battles, aiming is easy since it is very stable. A slight pitch trimming might be required to stop its nose from dropping, up to 3%. Reaching the maximum angle of attack will not make it start spinning immediately, that can happen only after a few seconds pulling it all the way to yourself, but it also can be easily recovered from that state.
| Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at 0 m - sea level) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | 1,098 | 1,092 | 14000 | 32.0 | 33.3 | 44.6 | 40.7 | 820 |
| Upgraded | 1,117 | 1,108 | 30.1 | 31.0 | 65.8 | 55.0 | ||
Details
| Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear | Drogue chute |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 0 | 450 | 603 | 581 | 465 | ~12 | ~5 |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 850 | < 600 | < 650 | N/A |
Engine performance
| Engine | Aircraft mass | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine name | Number | Basic mass | Wing loading (full fuel) | ||
| Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.113 | 1 | 6,069 kg | 230 kg/m2 | ||
| Engine characteristics | Mass with fuel (no weapons load) | Max Takeoff Weight | |||
| Weight (each) | Type | 5m fuel | 16m fuel | ||
| 1,175 kg | Axial-flow turbojet | 6,426 kg | 7,259 kg | 9,530 kg | |
| Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB) | Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (100%) | ||||
| Condition | 100% | WEP | 5m fuel | 16m fuel | MTOW |
| Stationary | 3,283 kgf | N/A | 0.51 | 0.45 | 0.34 |
| Optimal | 3,631 kgf (1,193 km/h) |
N/A | 0.57 | 0.50 | 0.38 |
Survivability and armour
- 64 mm Bulletproof glass - Armoured windscreen
- 12.7 mm Steel - Armour plate behind the pilot
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Offensive armament
The Hunter F.1 is armed with:
- 4 x 30 mm ADEN cannons, chin-mounted (150 rpg = 600 total)
Usage in battles
The Hunter's main strengths are high top speed and good guns, making it a good Boom & Zoomer.
The Hunter is less manoeuvrable than the F-86 and MiG-15 while being the second fastest with a good thrust-to-weight ratio. However, the rate of climb is significantly worse than the other jets and so it requires some side climbing. Stay fast at all times and never drop beneath 850 TAS (~800 km/h in air).
The 30 mm ADEN cannon is an extremely powerful cannon. Being a revolver cannon, it fires extremely fast and has excellent ballistics. The Hunter F.1 has, thanks to mounting a pack of four ADEN 30 mm cannons, one of the highest one-second burst masses, near 21 kg/s. This weapon's characteristics mean that the 4 of them pose a serious threat for any aircraft that happens to be the target of them. The cannon, however, has the disadvantage of chewing very quickly through ammo thanks to its high rate of fire, so being wary of the ammo count is a necessity. The discrete tracer rounds may induce the player into error, causing the impression that only a light burst is being fired, however experience will quickly disprove anyone who thinks in this manner.
The armour-piercing rounds of the Hunter enable it to do some ground attack against light tanks, medium tanks, and pillboxes.
Radars
The Hunter F.1 is equipped with an AN/APG-30 rangefinding radar, located in the nose of the aircraft. It will automatically detect other planes within the scanning area and display the range to the closest target. It is linked with a gyro gunsight and can help with aiming at close range.
| AN/APG-30 - Rangefinding radar | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Tracking Range |
Minimum Tracking Range |
Azimuth Tracking Angle |
Elevation Tracking Angle |
| 2,750 m | 300 m | ±9° | ±9° |
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Decent acceleration above 900 km/h
- Large and effective air brake
- Insanely good armaments; four rapid-firing 30 mm ADEN cannons shred everything in a short burst
- Very good energy retention; does not lock easily
- Can out zoom climb MiG-17s and MiG-15bis
- Can outrun most contemporary jets on your six if put into a 10° climb
- Armament is capable of destroying tanks and light pillboxes
- New boosters modification allows it to make deflection shots at high speeds
- Very stable, makes aiming at any speed easy
Cons:
- Most jets in uptiers can out-speed, use afterburner, out-turn the Hunter, or rely on their air-to-air missiles
- AAMs (even AIM-9Bs and R-3Ss) nullify your speed advantage and force Hunter to bleed speed to avoid them
- Nearly all supersonic jets will be very hard to face
- Doesn't have air-to-air missiles
- Worst jet in terms of 1 vs 1 due to the bad manoeuvrability; it will be left in desperation when the rest of the team is gone
- Poor performance in horizontal turning; must rely on the speed advantage
- Very large target, especially when turning
History
In the aftermath of the second world war the Air Ministry issued Specification E.38/46 for a swept wing research aircraft that was fulfilled by a modified Hawker Sea Hawk (P.1052). The experimental aircraft showed an jump in high speed performance and as a result Hawker went forward to modify the second P.1052 into the P.1081. With a swept tail plane and the engine exhaust now located at the rear of the fuselage instead of the split exhaust further improving performance, it attracted the RAAF. The P.1081 gave Hawker useful information for the development of the Hunter.
In 1946 the Air Ministry issued Specification F.43/46 that was later added to in 1948 by Specification F.3/48. This demanded a speed of 629 mph at 45,000 ft and a high rate of climb (as F.43/46 was for a jet powered interceptor), while carrying an armament of four 20 mm or two 30 mm cannons. Using what they had learnt from the P.1052 and P.1081 they produced the Prototype P.1067. The new prototype first flew with the Avon 103 engine in 1951 with a second powered by the Avon 107 in 1952.The Air Ministry ordered the Hunter into production in 1950 with the Avon 113 power plant. Thus the iconic Hawker Hunter was born.
The first production or pre-production F.1s entered service in 1953. The first was WT556 that entered service with A&AEE on the 16th of July 1953 and a further 15 delivered the same year. The Early F.1's featured boosted control surfaces but not the under belly air brake. The armament consisted of four 30 mm ADEN cannons with 150 rpg at 1200 rpm located under the nose.
Media
- Skins
- Images
- Hunter F.1 Devblog Images
- Videos
See also
- Related development
- Hawker Sea Hawk
- Hawker Hunter F.6
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
- Dassault Super Mystère
- Mikoyan MiG-17
- North American F-100 Super Sabre
- North American FJ-4B Fury
External links
- [Devblog] Yak-9B and Hawker Hunter F.1
- Official data sheet - more details about the performance
- Hawker Hunter F.1 forum thread
| Hawker Aircraft Limited | |
|---|---|
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| Captured | ▀Tempest Mk V |
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| JAS39C (Sweden) | |
