Trumpeter 1/48 Sea Hawk FGA.6, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The Hawker Sea Hawk was the first completely successful British jet-powered carrier fighter. It was roughly equivalent to the U.S. Grumman F9F Panther, with which it shared a powerplant - the very successful Nene centrifugal turbojet - and of similar performance to the U.S. Navy's jet mainstay of the Korean War. While the Sea Hawk began its development process two years prior to the Panther, it first flew in the same year as the XF9F-2, and yet it entered service with the Fleet Air Arm in 1951, three years after the Panther had reached the same milestone. Even so, it was the most successful British jet of the to be developed in the immediate postwar period, a time marked by a strange technological lethargy in the British aviation industry.

The P.1040, as the Sea Hawk was initially know at Hawkers, began as a proposal for a single-engine jet fighter in the fall of 1944, which was not acted on until nearly a year later when it was rejected by the Air Ministry in favor of maximizing production of Meteors and Vampires. In January 1946, the design was proposed to the Admiralty as a carrier-based fighter; this resulted in an order in May 1946 for three prototypes, the first of which flew September 2, 1947 - within a few months of the XF9F-2 in the U.S.

The most original feature was the bifurcated engine exhaust, which neatly solved the problem of excessive loss of thrust associated with early turbojets when a longer exhaust pipe was used. While the casual observer might think the Sea Hawk was a twin-engine design like the McDonnell F2H Banshee, it had a single Nene at the center of gravity, which greatly aided its handling in flight. Pilots enjoyed the outstanding handling characteristics of the Sea Hawk, which were in direct opposition to the Supermarine Attacker, the other naval jet fighter under development at the time. Pilots particularly liked the fact the cockpit was as far forward as it was, giving good visibility for both combat and carrier landings.

The Sea Hawk F.Mk.1 was ordered into production in 1949. The outbreak of the Korean War gave added impetus to the need for the airplane, but Hawker was now deeply involved in the problems associated with creation of the Hunter. Production was shifted to Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, which had responsibility for further development and all production past the first 35 F.Mk.1s, the first of which flew November 14, 1951.

Service trials with the Hawker-built aircraft occupied most of 1952 while production hit its stride at Armstrong-Whitworth. 806 became the first operational Sea Hawk squadron in March 1953.

Following production of 60 Mk.1s, 40 F. Mk.2s appeared with powered controls. The demand for increased operational versatility was met with 116 F.B.Mk.3s which could carry bombs in place of the underwing drop tanks. The 97 FGA Mk.4s appeared with a "4 store" wing and the ability to carry rockets outboard of the pylons, but performance suffered. The Admiralty decided to upgrade the FB Mk.3s and FGA Mk.4s with the Nene 103, offering an increase in power from 5,000 to 5,200 lbs of thrust, to be known as the FGA Mk. 5 and Mk.6 respectively. Few were re-engined, but 87 new-build FGA Mk.6s were taken into service. When the last of these were delivered in January 1956, production of the Sea Hawk for the FAA came to an end. The FGA.6 was the first variant of the Sea Hawk to see combat action, providing close air support for the Anglo-Israeli-French Suez operation, Operation Musketeer, in November 1956.

If you have ever built a modern Trumpeter kit, you know that they are some of the best fitting kits around. However, they often goof up something. Sometimes it is a shape issue, but in this case it is a somewhat shallow cockpit and some would point at the gear wells. Other than that, the kit is very nice and is undoubtedly easier to build than the earlier Classic Airframes kit and even earlier Falcon vacuform kit in this scale. For some reason, the Sea Hawk doesn't catch the attention of many modelers on this side of the pond and when you do see one, it is inevitably in Suez stripes. Colorful, yes, but there were more than just a few units that flew this plane.

As with most model kits, construction starts in the cockpit with a fair bang seat. There is photo etch used here for the seat harness and for the instrument panel which requires fitting an acetate sheet behind it that contains all the instrument faces. The nose gear well is built up next and then set aside.

This kit has the fuselage in two parts with the forward fuselage split horizontally and the rear vertically. This is to allow the kitting of the Mk. 101 version. In the lower part of the forward fuselage, the main gear well is installed along with a piece for the nose gear. If you want the wings folded, some surgury is required. Then the forward nose gear piece along with the nose gear and the lower intake and the exhaust pieces are installed. On the upper half, several small boxes are attached to the interior sidewall, followed by the rest of the interior.

Then on the aft fuselage sections, a small tail stub for attaching the horizontal stabilizers and the tail hook are trapped between the halve and the stabilizers glued on. At the forward fuselage, the halves are joined. Note that the instructions are totally mum about installing the majority of the nose gear well so you'll need to figure that one on your own.

Then the outer wings are dealt with. There are holes in the lower wings if you want to install the rockets. The flaps/speed brakes are then installed in the open position. There is no indications that they can be posed closed, but I'm sure that most modelers can figure how to accomplish that. These wings can then be attached in either the raised or lowered position. If in the raised position, there are small tabs that fit into slots on the inner wing section.

The last steps cover landing gear, wheels, gear doors and the rockets. This also covers the drop tanks which were almost always installed as these early jets were gas-guzzlers. The final construction step has you attach various antenna along with the windscreen and canopy. The canopy can be posed closed.

Instructions are standard Trumpeter letter box with Gunze paint references. Three options are provided. Two are in extra dark sea grey over sky with Suez stripes from 804 and 810 squadron in 1956. The other has light grey undersides with 801 squadron in 1959. Decals are nicely printed and should cause no issues.

Overall, this is a nice kit. It has been reviewed and gotten decent comments. One doesn't see it built that often, but if you like early jets or are a Fleet Air Arm modeler, this should be considered.

KIT #:	02826
PRICE:	$34.00
DECALS:	Three options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2020 release