COBI BAe Hawk T1 Set 5845

COBI's BAe Hawk T1 is a 1:48 model built from 362 blocks, 24 cm long with a 19.5 cm wingspan, in Royal Air Force colours. The cockpit opens, the wheels work and detach for display on the included brick stand, and simplified pilot figures are supplied. A nameplate is included. All markings are printed.

The Red Arrows fly this aircraft

The RAF Aerobatic Team has used the Hawk since 1979 — nine of them, in red, flying the display most British people have seen at least once. They are the same airframe as the trainer in this set, with smoke tanks fitted where the gun pod goes.

A display team flying its air force's actual trainer rather than a special aircraft is unusual and deliberate: the pilots are serving instructors and front-line pilots on a three-year tour, and the aircraft are drawn from the training fleet.

The American version had to be rebuilt

The US Navy chose the Hawk as its jet trainer, and then discovered how much has to change before an aircraft can land on a ship.

Carrier landings are controlled crashes. The T-45 Goshawk needed a strengthened fuselage and much heavier landing gear to survive the impact, an arrestor hook and its attachment structure, a catapult launch bar, wing changes and full-span slats to fly slowly enough for the approach, and a redesigned fin. Very little of the original structure survived unaltered.

It is the clearest illustration of what naval aviation costs. The same aeroplane, doing the same job, with a boat instead of a runway — and it is essentially a different aircraft.

Service

In RAF service since 1976, around 1,000 built, and sold to eighteen air forces. It is a trainer that can be armed, which is why several of those customers bought it as a light combat aircraft.

Specifications

Pieces: 362 · Scale: 1:48 · Display stand and nameplate
Model dimensions: 24 × 19.5 × 9.5 cm (9.4 × 7.7 × 3.7 in)