BAe Hawk 50!

[Canberra TT.18]

Today it is 50 years ago that the BAe Hawk (XX154) made it first flight!

https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/ba ... 62.article

[Stocky59]

I saw all the early Hawks (and the USMC AV8As) on the production line at the then Hawker Siddley factory at Kingston. Myself and a mate would cycle there to arrive just before noon. At noon security would open all the gates and the workforce would spill out into the local shops and cafés. We would just walk in stroll round the production lines and as long as we were out before 1 o'clock when they shut all the gates it was all good.

[Seahornet1]

Fifty years!
I well remember seeing the Hawk display at Farnborough 74, just a couple of weeks after the first flight. A fairly tame display, as you might expect, but even then it looked like a winner.

[NigeF-51]

Me too! I had no idea in those days that I would work on that very airframe at the twilight of her operational life. Neither did I know that several other types at that show would also feature in my career, namely Tristar, Alpha Jet and Tornado.

[Finty]

I saw all the early Hawks (and the USMC AV8As) on the production line at the then Hawker Siddley factory at Kingston. Myself and a mate would cycle there to arrive just before noon. At noon security would open all the gates and the workforce would spill out into the local shops and cafés. We would just walk in stroll round the production lines and as long as we were out before 1 o'clock when they shut all the gates it was all good.

Nice. Different world back then!

[bvs]

In my last job I worked on 154 on and off for 13 years - she still had the original wings and fuse + still original type of tailplane,as did XX342 which was one of our other jets,although her wing was replaced at 6,000 hrs by a 'used' wing from the RAF.
154 was quite significantly different in a few areas on the Fuselage + Wing when compared to production standard Hawks,the early production Hawks originally had a few minor differences but nowhere near as much as 154.
Personally I have worked on a few marks of Hawk inc - T Mk1/T2/Mk 51/53/60/63/64/65/200
I bought this cake to celebrate 154's 40th Birthday (gosh 10 years already )
I took the pic with my phone in the Hangar at Bosc Down,the box that the cake is standing on was properly labelled with a 26PL Part Number
I never actually got a piece of cake as the vultures very quickly demolished it .

[memememe]

In my last job I worked on 154 on and off for 13 years - she still had the original wings and fuse + still original type of tailplane,as did XX342 which was one of our other jets,although her wing was replaced at 6,000 hrs by a 'used' wing from the RAF.
154 was quite significantly different in a few areas on the Fuselage + Wing when compared to production standard Hawks,the early production Hawks originally had a few minor differences but nowhere near as much as 154.
Personally I have worked on a few marks of Hawk inc - T Mk1/T2/Mk 51/53/60/63/64/65/200
I bought this cake to celebrate 154's 40th Birthday (gosh 10 years already )
I took the pic with my phone in the Hangar at Bosc Down,the box that the cake is standing on was properly labelled with a 26PL Part Number
I never actually got a piece of cake as the vultures very quickly demolished it .

Hawks and Vultures nice career