Hawker Hunter - Survivor QA12

Hawker Hunter FGA Mark 78 QA12 was originally built as an F.6 under license by Fokker-Aviolanda, Amsterdam in 1957. After serving with the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Netherlands Air Force) as N-222 with 324 and 325 Squadrons, the aircraft was purchased by Hawker-Siddeley Aviation on 13th August 1968 as airframe no. G-9-284 with 1,354.56 flying hours logged. As one of a batch of ex-Dutch and Belgian Hunters destined for refurbishment and resale, the aircraft was upgraded to FGA.9 standard by Armstrong-Whitworth at Bitteswell, redesignated an FGA.78 and sold to the Gulf state of Qatar who based QA12 at Doha airport. Delivered on 8th December 1971, QA12 served with the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) until December 1982.It is believed that QA12 was purchased by a company in Bournemouth with the intention to fly her and returned to the UK in 1988/89. For whatever reason the return to airworthy status never happened and the airframe was 'spares-recovered' and sold on. In the mid-1990s the stripped airframe was dismantled at Enstone with the nose section being detached, the wings removed for use on another restoration and the fuselage scrapped. Soon after, the cockpit section was installed in an entertainment complex in Woking along with Buccaneer S.2B XX895. It was removed from the building in late 2001/early 2002 and is currently undergoing extensive rebuilding and restoration by Mark Gauntlett . When complete, the cockpit will be returned to it's QEAF colour scheme.

Information on this page current as of 24/08/2002, last updated by Damien

Find other photos of QA12 on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net