Hunter FGA Mk.9 XE597
16/04/1956
First flew from Kingston-upon-Thames.
As an F6, displayed at Heathrow on 21/09/1958 whilst with 63 Sqn
22/02/1960 FGA9 conversion completed.
01/03/1960 Delivered to No.19 Maintenance Unit at St. Athan.
01/04/1960 Delivered to 208 Sqn at Stradishall, coded "G".
01/06/1960 Relocated with 208 Sqn to Eastleigh, Kenya.
Temporarily loaned to the Ministry of Aviation from 1961 to 1963.
18/03/1963 Transferred to 54 Sqn at Stradishall.
14/08/1963 Relocated with 54 Sqn to West Raynham.
04/10/1963 On returning to base at El Adem Airfield, Libya whilst participating in Exercise Triplex West. During the downwind leg and final approach, the pilot was paying particular attention to two aircraft. One, which had just taken off, and the other that had received permission to do a photographic run across the airfield at 800 feet. On finals, the pilot radioed “three greens”. Touchdown was very gentle, but the pilot had no idea that the undercarriage was unfortunately still in the raised position, until after several hundred yards the aircraft started to drift to starboard. Eventually the aircraft swung off the runway and turned through 150 degrees.
20/12/1963 To Hawker Siddeley for repairs following the CAT.4 damage described above.
06/04/1965 Delivered to 1 Sqn at West Raynham, coded "A".
As an FGA9, serving with 1 Sqn in 1969
18/07/1969 Relocated with 1 Sqn to Wittering.
30/10/1969 Transferred to West Raynham Station Flight.
16/03/1970 Transferred to 229 OCU at Chivenor.
02/09/1974 229 OCU unit designation changed to TWU.
11/07/1977 Transferred to Brawdy, coded "F".
09/06/1978 Transferred to Lossiemouth as part of 2 TWU, coded "F".
14/04/1981 Transferred to 1 TWU at Brawdy, coded "F".
In 1 TWU/79 Sqn marks coded F
Painted with 79 Sqn markings as a 1 TWU "Shadow Squadron".
Remained operational at Brawdy as such until 1985.
May 1987 Issued to 1 SoTT at Halton as an instructional airframe.
June 1989 Cockpit section removed, and rest of airframe placed on the dump.
Cockpit section moved to Moreton-in-Marsh Fire School College in 1992/1993.
Cockpit section purchased by Bob Dunn, Mick Boulanger and Brian Barrett of the Wolverhampton Aviation Group, and transferred to Finstall, Bromsgrove on 19/03/2002.