Northern Ireland Aviation Enthusiast's Forum
Military Aviation => Historical Military Aircraft => Topic started by: Angry Turnip on February 10, 2021, 03:36:53 PM
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Just noticed XE668 Hawker Hunter T.72 8) airborne out of RAF Leeming, it`s doing some orbits east of Carlisle as SMZ33 (1535)
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Working Spadeaddam range
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Lovely looking Hunter. Isn't she still on the military register with HHA?
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Yes indeed it is, it was previously operated by Embraer in Brazil as a chase plane.
https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/hunter/survivor.php?id=491 (https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/hunter/survivor.php?id=491) and returned to the UK in Sept 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4mz3Q0Ec0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4mz3Q0Ec0) Video from Dec 2020.
Also found this article on the aircraft....
This week, Hawker Hunter Aviation Ltd. (HHAL) at RAF Scampton (UK) performed the first trials of Hunter T72 XE688’s Rolls Royce Avon engine. The two-seater was used by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer as PP-XHH. It still has the striking livery from those days. XE688 arrived at Scampton in 2018 (*).
The aircraft’s history is somewhat obscure: XE688 was built as a model F4 with serial XE704 (construction number HABL-003035). For unknown reasons, the factory plate located in the nose gear bay is that of ex Fuerza Aerea de Chile (Chile Air Force) serial (J-)736, which had construction number HABL-003031. This Chilean aircraft was also originally built as a model F4 and allocated the serial XE688.
However, records show XE688 was written off in 1957 and the factory plate has found its way on to this aircraft. It is thought that the front fuselage/nose section of the original XE688 was used to convert the aircraft into a T72 and the data plate was not changed.
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Looks to be working Spadeadam today as well, callsign is Scampton 34