Thunder & Lightnings - Hawker Hunter

Hawker Hunter
Survivor WT555
Pickfords Vanguard, Greenford, Greater London

Hawker Hunter

Survivor WT555

Pickfords Vanguard, Greenford, Greater London

WT555 was the first production F.1 and therefore quite an important airframe. First flown on 16th May 1953 from Hawker's plant at Dunsfold, it was retained by them for handling and performance trials. Retired to ground instructional duties at RAF Locking, it was then transferred to the RAF Museum at Cosford. Incredibly, they decided to dispose of it - the owner of Vanguard Haulage wasted no time in snapping it up and displays it from time to time on the roof of his business as a publicity tool. The picture above was taken in 1990 - a few months later the aircraft was removed from the roof and placed in storage; however in March 2004 the aircraft appeared on the roof once more. As Vanguard has now been swallowed up by Pickfords the aircraft's future may be in some doubt.

Information on this page current as of 05/04/2004

Find other photos of WT555 on the following sites:

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

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mark peters from United Kingdom	Posted at 10:39pm on Saturday, June 27th, 2009
I had the pleasure of craning this aircraft in to the location shown in the picture on many occasions when i worked for the owner in the early 90s. The aircraft is owned by 'Mac' the business man that owned Vanguard Engineering and was not sold with the business. The building also remains in Macs ownership and the aircraft still makes appearances on the roof to this day.
Dave Miles from Australia	Posted at 8:06am on Friday, April 17th, 2009
This airframe should be returned to public ownership, or at the very least be added to the Duxford collection for a total rebuild and indoor preservation.