Hawker Hunter

Updated: October 2026 – A slim, silver-gray jet thunders low over a mountain valley, the swept wings gleam in the sun, and the typical whistle of the Avon engine echoes back from the rock walls: that is how many Swiss know the Hawker Hunter. The British jet classic flew with the Swiss Air Force from 1958 to 1994, was the first aircraft of the Patrouille Suisse and, with the Papyrus Hunter in the Obersimmental, still has a loyal fan base today. On this page you will learn how to identify the Hunter with certainty, what variants there are and where you can still experience it today.

What is the Hawker Hunter?

The Hunter is a single-engine combat jet with swept wings that Hawker Aircraft developed in the early 1950s for the Royal Air Force. The project ran internally as P.1067, and the design came from the team around Sydney Camm, who had previously designed the Hawker Hurricane. Britain urgently needed a modern interceptor at the time that could keep up with the swept-wing jets from the US and the Soviet Union.

The first prototype took off on July 20, 1951 at Boscombe Down, flown by Hawker test pilot Neville Duke. Two years later the same pilot made history: on September 7, 1953, he flew the converted first prototype at about 1,171 km/h over Littlehampton on England’s south coast and took the absolute world speed record. In July 1954 the RAF received the first production aircraft of the F.1 version.

The early versions still suffered from teething problems and short range. The breakthrough came with the F.6 and its more powerful Rolls-Royce Avon of the 200 series. Most export versions emerged from it, including the Swiss F.58. Across all versions, 1,972 Hunters were built, some of them under license in Belgium and the Netherlands. The type flew with air forces in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia; the Lebanese Air Force did not retire its last Hunters until 2014.

Hawker later merged into Hawker Siddeley, whose heritage today lies with BAE Systems. The engine comes from Rolls-Royce.

Recognizing the Hunter in the field

The Hunter is one of the most elegant jets of its generation. Once you have consciously seen it, you quickly recognize the stretched silhouette again. Three observations are usually enough.

Another detail is the dogtooth on the wing leading edge: from the F.6 on, the outer wing section is extended slightly at the front, forming a small step. It improves handling at high angles of attack and helps you tell later Hunters from the early versions.

On Swiss Hunters, the serial also helps: Swiss military jets carry a “J” and a four-digit number. The first Swiss Hunter was J-4001; the Hunter fleet was numbered in the J-4xxx range. On civil-registered ex-Swiss aircraft you often still find the old military serial on the fuselage.

Variants at a glance

Variant	Feature	Meaning for spotters
F.1 / F.2	First production versions, Avon and Sapphire engines respectively	Today only in museums
F.4 / F.5	More fuel, external loads under the wings	Rarely preserved
F.6	More powerful Avon 200, dogtooth wing	Basis of most export versions
FGA.9	Fighter-bomber with brake parachute and reinforced structure	At airshows and museums in Britain
T.7 / T.8	Two-seaters with side-by-side seats	Trainers, several preserved in civil hands
F.58 / F.58A	Swiss single-seaters based on the F.6/FGA.9	Backbone of the Swiss Hunter fleet
T.68	Swiss two-seater, converted airframe	Eight aircraft, used for training in Switzerland

The Hunter is most easily confused with the de Havilland Vampire, which also flew in Switzerland. It has straight wings and a twin-boom tail, though, so two booms behind the wing. The North American F-86 Sabre has a large air intake in the nose. The later British trainer BAE Systems Hawk is smaller, has a tandem canopy and air intakes on the sides of the fuselage.

The Hunter in the Swiss Air Force

For Switzerland the Hunter was a generational change. On January 29, 1958, the Federal Assembly approved the purchase of 100 aircraft with spare parts and ammunition for CHF 313 million. In the evaluation it had prevailed against the F-86 Sabre and the Folland Gnat, among others. The first twelve aircraft were overhauled F.6s from RAF stocks, and the rest were newly built as the F.58. Delivery began in 1958.

In the following years further batches were added as the F.58A, plus eight T.68 two-seaters. In total, about 160 Hunters flew in Switzerland. That made the type a backbone of the Swiss fighter force for decades, before the F-5 Tiger II took over part of its tasks from 1978 and it increasingly concentrated on ground attack.

From 1980 the Swiss Hunter was modernized in a combat upgrade: radar warning receivers, countermeasure dispensers, additional pylons and new radio antennas. With the 1982 armaments program, Switzerland procured the AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile, which was delivered in 1986.

The record is impressive: about 310,000 flight hours in 36 years. It has a downside too, though, as 28 aircraft were lost in accidents. The Hunter was retired at the end of 1994 with the army reform Armee 95; the introduction of the F/A-18 Hornet ran in parallel. Many aircraft were sold, some went to museums, others to private operators at home and abroad.

Hunters in the Alps

Typical for Switzerland were the caverns: hangar tunnels in the rock in which jets stood protected. At St. Stephan airfield in the Obersimmental a cavern was built in 1976/77, and from 1980 Hunter units used the field. Takeoffs from the narrow mountain valley and low-level flights between peaks shaped the image of the Hunter in Switzerland – and still make old photos of it so sought after today.

Patrouille Suisse: the beginnings on the Hunter

The Patrouille Suisse was founded in 1964 and flew its first three decades on the Hawker Hunter. After the 1994 season the Hunter era ended, and from 1995 the squadron switched to the F-5E Tiger II.

The change was a direct consequence of the Hunter’s retirement. Many longtime fans remember the Hunter years as the time when the Patrouille Suisse built its reputation as one of Europe’s best teams. Today the squadron again faces an upheaval: with the decided end of the F-5 by the end of 2027 at the latest, it will lose its jets again. You can read the whole story in the profile of the Patrouille Suisse, and a comparison with other teams in the overview Aerobatic teams of Europe.

The Papyrus Hunter and the Hunterverein Obersimmental

The best-known Swiss Hunter is white and looks like a flying newspaper: the Papyrus Hunter. Behind the name is the badge of Fliegerstaffel 15, a paper plane folded from newspaper. In November 1993, a year before the end of the Hunter era, a ten-person team around François Bertherin painted the aircraft, originally serial J-4040, in a newspaper design in a hangar at Interlaken airfield. It subsequently carried the serial J-4015 as a homage to the squadron. On the fuselage are the names of helpers and sponsors, on the wings those of the squadron pilots at the time.

When it was clear the Hunter would be retired at the end of 1994, fans and the four municipalities of the Obersimmental campaigned for its preservation. That is how the Hunterverein Obersimmental was founded in 1994, and the jet stayed in the region. According to the association, the aircraft belongs to the four Obersimmental municipalities, and its home is St. Stephan airfield. From August 18, 2000, the Papyrus flew again after a six-year break, now with a civil registration, and appeared at airshows all over Europe. At the Royal International Air Tattoo at Cottesmore, the display even won the King Hussein Memorial Sword.

The Papyrus made its last flight on October 17, 2022. Since then the association has kept the jet in shape: the Rolls-Royce engine runs regularly in ground runs, and brakes and systems are maintained. Whether and when you can see the Papyrus up close is best clarified directly with the association.

St. Stephan airfield and the Hunterfest

St. Stephan airfield was built in 1941/42 as a Reduit airfield (part of Switzerland’s alpine fortress defense) and expanded in several steps until the runway reached its length of 2,000 meters in 1957. After the war it was the base for Vampires and Venoms, and from 1980 for Hunters. Today St. Stephan is a company airfield; flights of historic jets take place mainly around the airfield festival.

Since 1995 the association has organized an airfield festival with classic aircraft and historic jets. In 2026 the Hunterfest took place on August 21 and 22, with the Patrouille Suisse on the program. Whether, when and in what form the next festival takes place is best checked directly with the association.

Besides the Hunter, the association looks after other classics. In spring 2024 it took over a Dornier Do 27 from the holdings of the Air Force Center Dübendorf for an exhibition at St. Stephan, and a Harvard with the serial U-328, which a separate association in Bleienbach is making airworthy again.

Hunters today: where to experience one

Flying Hunters have become rare. Militarily the type has practically disappeared, and in civil use individual aircraft fly with private operators. Former Swiss F.58s are in service with the US contractor ATAC as adversary aircraft in military training, and a few more Hunters are civil-registered in Britain. Which of them are currently flyable changes with maintenance, changes of ownership and permits.

A shadow was cast over civil Hunter displays by the Shoreham crash on August 22, 2015: a Hunter T.7 crashed onto a road at an airshow in southern England, killing eleven people on the ground. Since then, much stricter rules have applied to displays of historic jets in Britain.

Location	Chance of a Hunter	Why
St. Stephan airfield	high (on the ground)	Home of the Papyrus Hunter, clarify access with the association in advance
Hunterfest / airfield festival St. Stephan	medium	Historic jets on the program, check the program every year
Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf	high (static)	Several Swiss Hunters in the collection
Airshows in Britain	low to medium	Individual civil Hunters, depending on season and registration
Museums in Britain	medium	Many RAF collections show jets of the 1950s – check the display in advance

In Switzerland, the Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf is the first address: the collection includes several Swiss Hunters. You can find tips for your visit at the spot Flieger Flab Museum at Dübendorf airfield. If you are looking for Swiss aviation in a broader context, drop by the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. In Britain, the Imperial War Museum Duxford is worthwhile as a starting point for British military jets; spot tips are available under IWM Duxford, and airshows are covered in the article Airshows at Duxford. Check which exhibits are currently on display before you travel.

A highlight for military fans in the Bernese Oberland is the Axalp live-fire demonstration. Hunters long ago stopped flying there, but the backdrop shows why Swiss jet photos from the Hunter era are so legendary. For British airshows, the Royal International Air Tattoo is a good starting point for finding historic jets on the program.

Risk of mix-ups: Hunter, Vampire and co.

You can find more help identifying old aircraft in the guide Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky. How to tell modern military jets apart is shown in Identifying fighter jets in Europe.

Photo tips for the Hunter

The Hunter is a rewarding subject: slim line, clear swept shape and, on many preserved aircraft, a striking livery. A few points help you.

You can find more technique for displays in the guide Photographing airshows.

Conclusion

The Hawker Hunter combines British engineering with a major chapter of Swiss aviation history. It held a world speed record, flew for 36 years with the Swiss Air Force and was the first aircraft of the Patrouille Suisse. It is easy to recognize – closed nose, intakes in the wing roots, swept wings. You rarely experience it flying today, but in Dübendorf, in St. Stephan with the Papyrus and at selected airshows, the classic remains present.