Learning from the Hunter (Series)

Learning from the Hunter

<Somewhere in England, 196X>

The rumble of diesel engines from the service trucks and the distant whining of jet turbines greet Henry as he gets off from the car. After getting clearance to access the base's grounds and stepping through the gates, a uniformed figure walks towards him, gesturing in a friendly manner.

"Captain Roberts, I presume?"

"Sir" Henry salutes the mustached man. A major, by the insignias on his jacket.

"Oh, at ease, captain. We can go easy on the formalities for the most part." The major smiles. "Tell me, captain, have you been properly briefed on the details of your assignment here?"

"Well, if I may, sir, the entire situation has been rather unexpected, to say the least. Just a few days ago, a notice came in for me to leave my squadron immediately and to be reassigned to this base. The transfer papers stated that I was to be tasked with 'performing as the test pilot for a new model trainer unit'. What's this all about, sir?"

"Hmm, I see. You'll have to excuse the lack of clear information, but the nature of your mission here required a certain degree of secrecy." The major's reveal doesn't surprise Henry that much. It's not his first experience with the inner workings of the ministry. The major continues. "At least the described duties were not a misleading cover up. You are indeed tasked with the evaluation of an experimental training aircraft unit, but one you should be rather familiar with, judging from your service record."

Henry realizes what the major is referring to. "Sir, do you mean this aircraft we are speaking off is a derivative of the Hunter fighter?" Over his career, Henry has managed to clock several hundred hours flying various marks of the Hawker Hunter. He knows his way around every inch of its cockpit. A machine he has learned to fly as second nature as most people do riding a bike.

"Correct! I would like to present you with the aircraft, so you can begin familiarizing with it. It's a short walk to the hangar." The major proceeds to point out towards the row of hangars, and they both start walking towards the far end of the base. "The service crew should have finished a while ago, so she should be all ready for you, captain." Henry is still dubious about the whole affair. 'Does the RAF really need to go through such troubles just to test out a new trainer?' As they make their way, Henry looks over to see the aircraft taxiing and rolling on the runway. Soon, the two of them arrive at their destination.

Inside the hangar sits a lone aircraft. The sunlight coming in from the big shutter doors casts hard shadows along her fuselage and on the ground, giving the machine a fearsome and mysterious aura. But with only a quick glance, Henry recognizes those lines and edges immediately. The long, streamlined fuselage, housing the powerful Avon engine. The large, swept back wings, with the triangular air intakes on the roots. The shinny canopy sitting above the perfectly round nose, with the four, deadly 30mm ADEN cannons housed just below.

"Look at her. Same old girl." Henry starts circling the aircraft slowly. "After all these years, I still think she's a real beauty. Elegant, fast and nimble." For a second, Henry could swear he saw a strange shift on the fuselage, but ignores it as a trick of the light. He keeps circling the airframe. The two underside bulges, just aft of the cockpit, and the redesigned engine nozzle easily tips the mark off, with the wings edge's and pylons confirming that it must be a direct development of the FGA.9, the latest ground-attack upgraded version.

An evident fact has escaped Henry from the moment he's laid eyes on her, but only now does it hit him. 'Wait, this is supposed to be a trainer? But it's clearly a single-seater!' Henry approaches the canopy, taking a quick look inside with the help of a service ladder. 'Yup. I can't find any single difference from any other production model.' Henry climbs down and walks up to the major with a confused expression. "Uhmm, Sir? This is a single-seat fighter, as far as I can tell. In fact, I couldn't tell her apart from any other FGA.9. Has there been a mistake? What's going on?"