Possibly one of the most elegant sub-sonic jets, the Hunter was in service with the RAF from July 1954 for over 30 years and continued to fly with other air forces for even longer.

The Hunter not only comes from the same manufacturer as the Hurricane, it also had the same chief designer; Sydney Camm. In a way it also had the same 'competition', because the manufacturer of the Spitfire, Supermarine, developed an aircraft at around the same time which was intended to meet the same needs. These two swept-wing fighters, the Hawker Hunter, as it became, and the Supermarine Swift, were intended to replace the Meteor to secure Britain's air defences. The prototypes of both types first flew in the summer of 1951. The Swift was found to be prone to high altitude flame-outs and was switched to a low-level fighter and reconnaissance role. The Canadian F-86E Sabre was used to fill the gap immediately following the withdrawal of the Meteor but the Hunter became its eventual british successor.

There were originally three prototypes of the Hunter, using the same frame but with three different engines, two of which made it to the production models. The Hunter F.1 was powered by a Rolls Royce Avon turbojet and the Hunter F.2 had an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Mk101. The maiden flight of the first, an F.1 was on May 16th 1953. The fighter in its original configurations had so little fuel capacity that it could only stay in flight for around an hour, so additional tanks were fitted under the wings. Another problem with the F.1 was engine surge during high altitude gun firing, which required modifications to the Avon engines. The F.1 with extra tanks and modified engine became the F.4 and the modified F.2 became the F.5. An engine change to the more powerful Rolls Royce Avon 203 resulted in the F.6, which was the main RAF Fighter Command variant.

Other variants included the two-seat F.7 and F.8; GA.9, which was optimised for ground attack; the FR.10 which was a conversion of the F.6 for fighter reconnaissance and the GA.11, for Navy training.

Limited speed meant that the Hunter had a limited life as an interceptor. That role was taken over by the Lightning from 1963, but the Hunter remained in RAF service in a ground combat support role until 1971 and in secondary roles and as a trainer until the early 1990s.

Hunters most likely to be seen at british airshows are XF 947 'Miss Demeanour', the elaborately painted 1956-built F.4, owned, restored and flown by Jonathon 'Flapjack' Whaley, and the Delta Jets, based at Cotswold Airport, Kemble.

Former RAF Kemble, now Cotswold Airport, is regarded as the 'home' station of Hunters and several of the few remaining airworthy examples are based there.