Red Hunter 4.3%

Celebrating the aircraft that broke the world speed record over Sussex 1953 A deep mahogany to ruby red bitter. Full bodied and slightly vinous malt character soundly balanced with the finest English hops.

The origins of the Hunter trace back to the Hawker Sea Hawk straight-wing carrier-based fighter. Seeking better performance and fulfilment of the Air Ministry Specification E.38/46, Hawker Aircraft's chief designer Sydney Camm created the Hawker P.1052, which was essentially a Sea Hawk with a 35-degree swept wing. First flying in 1948, the P.1052 demonstrated good performance but did not warrant further development into a production aircraft.

As a private venture, Hawker converted the second P.1052 prototype into the Hawker P.1081 with swept tailplanes and revised fuselage, with a single jet exhaust at the rear. First flying on 19 June 1950, the P.1081 was promising enough to draw interest from the Royal Australian Air Force but development went no further and the sole prototype was lost in a crash in 1951.

The Ministry of Supply ordered the Hunter into production in March 1950, a year before the first flight. The first production Hunter F 1 with a 7,600 lbf (33.80 kN) Avon 113 turbojet flew on 16 March 1953. The first 20 aircraft were, in effect, a pre-production series and featured a number of "one-off" modifications such as blown flaps and area ruled fuselage.

The Hunter was used by The Black Arrows, one of the predecessors of the current Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, were an aerobatic demonstration team formed in the 1950s from 111 Squadron (treble-one). One of the many memorable feats accomplished by the Black Arrows was the execution of a 22-plane formation loop in 1958, a photo of which can be seen on the externally-linked web page, and which remains on the record books to this day.

The Black Arrows flew Hawker Hunters and were based at RAF Wattisham in Suffolk. Prior to this the Black Arrows were actually formed at RAF North Weald. It was only later that they were transferred to RAF Wattisham.

On 7 September 1953, a Hawker Hunter F 3 flown by Neville Duke broke the world air speed record, achieving 727.63 mph over Littlehampton