G-PSST "Miss Demeanour" Hawker Hunter loss
Ref: https://sites.google.com/view/fgukhangar/flightgear-uk-home-page/hangar/jets/hawker-hunter
Sadly last week airshow favourite, Hunter F.58 G-PSST, "Miss Demeanour", was lot in the drink due to loss of engine power.
The pilot ejected and survived.
She was being operated in the USA for "adversary training". The company operating her https://www.atacusa.com/ has actually managed to crash several Hunters over the last few years, doing a good job of diminishing the number of remaining airworthy airframes, with G-PSST believed to be their 9th Hunter loss - these crashes have sadly resulted in two fatalities so far.
Reading through some of the crash reports (not all are available, or actually contain much detail when they are), several have been lost due to lack/loss of engine power. Which is odd, as a well maintained Avon is a really tough engine.
Albeit in a different application, there are about 700 of the industrialised version still in daily operation globally for power generation, natural gas compression and oil pumping applications. This is because operators find them to be incredibly tough and reliable, and can survive some moderate levels of abuse.
Makes me question if its something physical like combustor liner cracking, compressor/turbine blade failure; or the on-engine fuel control unit and burners; or the aircraft fuel delivery systems. Or more difficult to pin-point as they are used in various locations if there's been something up with the fuel itself, or simply something like having some un-drained water in the tanks... big question is, if there's something in common between the crashes. Guess we'll never know, with the wreckage siting on the USA ocean floor.
Sad times.
Comments
It's very sad to see Miss Demeanour meet her end like that.
It's something that I heard in a conversation the other day where in the classic/exotic car world people have been noticing that changes in fuel on imported vehicles causes failures quite quickly.
An exotic car gets imported from the USA/Middle east and within weeks it's getting failures in the fuel system. Purely through changes in additives reacting and causing material breakdown or sludge buildup.
I've no doubt that this kind of stuff gets studied extensively but it's odd that such an experienced aviation company loses so many to engine issues over a few years.
A guy I knew years ago who volunteered at Bruntinthorpe, commented about getting Vulcan XH558 flying again, he said something like "It can't be crashed if its on the ground". Outside of the tragedies caused to people wit loss of life or injuries, it's also a shame that quite a number of classic aircraft have been lost over recent years, Shoreham Hunter WB372 (G-BXFI), Cheshire car show Gnat XM693 (G-TIMM) which I knew closely from its time at Cranfield, and recently a favourite of mine: DH.88 Comet G-ACSS... to mention but a few.
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