Hawk Industries GAF-125 "GAFHawk 125"

The Aircraft

During a visit on 11 June 2006 to All West Airport (AK77) near Delta Junction in Alaska, an aircraft was noted in storage there of a type I could not recognize. It was a medium-sized high-wing freighter aircraft with a square-section fuselage and a single large radial engine in the nose. It carried the registration N101GH, and the data plate revealed it to be a Hawk Industries GAF-125, msn 001.

Once back home, I searched the books and other resources for information on this aircraft, and it turned out to be a very special and unique machine. The GAF-125 was developed by Hawk Industries Inc. from Yucca Valley, CA. This company specialised in equipment and tools for the off-shore oil industry, and was looking for a more efficient way to transport their products all over the country. Road transport was too slow most of the time, and loading their large and unusually-shaped products onto conventional aircraft often posed many expensive and time-consuming problems.

And so in July 1977, the president of the company, Ernest Hauk (not Hawk!), initiated the development of a freighter aircraft that was to overcome these problems. He named it the GAF-125 GAFHawk, with GAF meaning General Aviation Freighter. The name later changed to GAFHawk 125. The design would have to meet many demands: rear loading door for easy on/off loading, STOL capability for remote airstrips, square-section fuselage for maximum loading efficiency, single engine to lower maintenance time and cost, single-pilot operation etc.

The company obtained a 1956-built Piper PA-22-150 Tri-Pacer, registration N6911B msn 22-4186, which was almost completely disassembled in the workshops of Hawk Industries' Aircraft Division on Aviation Drive, at the small airport of Yucca Valley in California. The aircraft was then rebuilt, but in an extensively modified form. It was made to look like a miniature version of the GAFHawk design, to serve as a small scale flying testbed for the GAFHawk's development. The small aircraft was appropriately named the MiniHawk, and first flew in 1978.

Based on the lessons learned from the Minihawk, an actual GAF-125 prototype was built, and registered as N101GH on 9 December 1981. It made a successful first flight on 19 August 1982, powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-45R turboprop engine.

At first Hawk Industries was fairly successful in selling the GAFHawk, but there appear to have been serious problems with the certification. By 1989 the prototype still hadn't been fully certificated, although by then 20 firm orders had already been received, as well as options for another 93 aircraft once certification would have been obtained. And despite grave competition from the Cessna 208, there were even plans to develop larger as well as smaller versions of the aircraft. But in the 1990's things became very quiet around the GAFHawk. Full certification was never obtained, and production was never started. Prototype N101GH remained the only GAFHawk 125 in existence. Some specifications of this unique aircraft:

Wing span:	21.79 m	Empty weight:	3,085 kg
Length:	14.30 m	Max. takeoff weight:	6,577 kg
Height:	5.49 m	Max. cruising speed:	120 knots (222 km/h)
Tailplane span:	7.01 m	Stalling speed:	47 knots (87 km/h)
Rear freight door:	1.93 x 1.96 m	Max. rate of climb:	280 m/min
Cargo hold int. length:	4.72 m	Service ceiling:	5,485 m (18,000 ft)
Cargo hold int. width:	2.03 m	Takeoff run:	287 m
Cargo hold int. height:	2.13 m	Landing run:	201 m
Wheel track:	3.38 m	Max. range:	1,326 km (716 nm)

Strange Engine

At some point in time, prior to July 1992, the GAFHawk's original 893 kW (1,198shp) PT6A-45R turboprop was replaced by a Polish-built PZL-Kalisz ASz-62IR-M18/K9-BB engine with 853 kW (1,145hp). This is a new and more powerful version of the very successful Soviet-built Shvetsov ASh-62 engine, which dates back to the Second World War and powers the Antonov 2, the Lisunov 2, and several other Russian-made aircraft. New and improved versions of this engine are still being manufactured by PZL-Kalisz in Poland, and are being used on many PZL-M18 Dromaders and even some DHC-3 Otters (those that went through Airtech Canada's conversion program).

Today N101GH is still registered to Hawk Industries Inc., Yucca Valley, CA. However, its status is given as "Undel Tri" (Undeliverable Triennial), which means that an Aircraft Registration Report, sent by the FAA once every three years, was returned by the Post Office as undeliverable. The MiniHawk testbed N6911B is also still registered, with its status quoted as "In Question", and no registered owner. It just says "Sold to Hawk International", which doesn't really tell us very much.

The MiniHawk went to Joshua Tree/Roy Williams Airport, only 16 km (10 miles) from Hawk Industries' workshops in Yucca Valley, CA. The little aircraft is now preserved there, swiveling freely on a pole and acting as a windsock.

Update - March 2007

Late March 2007 I received an email from Jon Anderson from OddPlanes.com, in which he added quite a few interesting details about the GAFHawk's certification problems and about its first years in Alaska, during the early 1990's. Here's what he wrote to me (many thanks, Jon!):

The deal was that the FAA started requiring testing far beyond what would have been considered normal. It never achieved certification, and the engine was sold. It is speculated that Cessna's new (at the time) Caravan had something to do with the FAA difficulty. Bill began negotiations with PZL to build it in Poland for the eastern European market. They got as far as developing the mount for the 62R engine and then negotiations stalled and PZL lost interest.

Wild Bill at All West Freight bought the GAFHawk from Ernie Hauk, reportedly for "the price of an Otter" without an engine. The deal included that Bill would buy a new PZL engine, complete the install, and he would own the aircraft. Hawk maintained the manufacturing rights. Bill worked the aircraft for about four years with the legality of commercial operation being questionable. The FAA finally grounded the airplane in a unique fashion. The airplane is ok to fly, but Bill can not fly it himself, nor direct its operation by court order. The penalty for noncompliance is forfiture. That is why it is sitting where it is now.

Update - October 2007

I received scans from a GAFHawk125 public relations package, which was distributed by Hawk Industries during the early and mid 1980s. It is far too much material to present here, and so I decided to create a separate GAFHawk PR Package page for it.

Help Please

Despite Jon Anderson's help there are still some loose ends to tie up about what exactly happened to the GAFHawk between 1989 and 2005. If you ever saw (or perhaps even photographed) this aircraft prior to 2005, or have any info about its operations during those years, please let me know. And of course I'd also like to hear from you if you know more about the GAFHawk's development and certification problems.

Thanks & Resources

I'd like to express my thanks to AirNikon for the use of his photo of the rare MiniHawk, to Jim Wark for his photo of the GAFHawk when it was still flying commercially in Alaska, and of course to Jon Anderson for his interesting background information. I am also much obliged to François Cousineau, who very kindly sent me some scans from the French "Aviation Magazine-International", dated 15 November 1981. The magazine contained some interesting background information on the MiniHawk and on the development of the GAFHawk 125. Further information has also been taken from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1989-1990.