Hawker Hunter - Survivor XE689 (ex G-BWGK)

GA.11 XE689 was built as an F4 and delivered to the RAF on 22nd July 1955, serving with 67(F) and 234(F) Squadrons before being bought back by Hawkers in 1961 and converted to GA.11 status. She was delivered to 734 NAS at RNAS Lossiemouth in July 1963, and later fitted with a PR.11 nose. She moved to FRADU at RNAS Yeovilton in 1973 and served there until 1994, being retired to storage at RAF Shawbury.

Sold at auction in 1995 to the Classic Jet Aircraft Company at Exeter, it spent some time at North Weald with another owner but soon returned to Exeter and was flown on the airshow circuit in 2000. However as with many of the Exeter airframes her flying career was brief and in 2006 she was moved - by road - to Kemble and became part of the spare Hunter line-up there.

With Delta's collapse, she changed hands, she reportedly remained in open storage at Kemble until 2012, where she was unfortunately cut up, with the nose section appearing on eBay shortly afterwards. In 2020, a gofundme page was set up for the cockpit to raise funds for its restoration. However, this has seemingly gone rather quiet, and the nose of XE689 is currently believed to be
wrapped up in an ISO container in the Bristol area. Further updates are welcome!

Information on this page current as of 12/10/2025, last updated by Jake

Find other photos of XE689 on the following sites:

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