Hunter

Glancey is an aviation nut whos interested as much in the technical wonder of these planes as he is in the legacy they leave in the public consciousnessDaily Telegraph

In September 1958, twenty-two RAF Hawker Hunters looped in perfect formation over Farnborough, setting a world record that stands to this day. A decade later, a rogue pilot flew one through the gap between the spans of Tower Bridge at 600mph. In Jordan, a Hunter pilot once landed with a tree embedded in his wing. The Hunter was that kind of aeroplane.

Yet it very nearly never happened. In 1957, Duncan Sandys infamous Defence White Paper declared the age of the manned fighter jet over, condemning many of Britains finest aircraft to the scrapyard. The Hunter survived -just as the Spitfire had survived being dismissed as a transitional design in the 1930s, only to become the defining aircraft of British history.

Designed by Sydney Camm - the genius behind the Hurricane - the Hunter went on to serve twenty-one air forces across six continents over six decades, seeing combat from Suez to the Indo-Pakistani wars and the Lebanese Civil War. In Hunter, Jonathan Glancey tells the full story of Britains global jet warrior: its design and development, its extraordinary service history, and the pilots who fought to keep them flying.