A signed photograph of Neville Duke in the late 1940s, standing astride a Sea Fury, which along with the Tempest, was a type he flew frequently while seconded from the RAF as a production test pilot during 1945-46. Duke succeeded Trevor Wade as Hawker’s chief test pilot when Wade was killed flying the Hawker P.1081 in April 1951.

A characteristically splendid photograph by Charles E. Brown of P.1040 VP401 in its silver finish leaving a fuel vapour trail above the clouds in the late summer of 1947. Compared to its propeller-driven predecessors, the P.1040 was the epitome of the modern fighter

Another photograph of VP401 at Elmdon, this time refuelling in front of D.H.103 Hornet PX386, which was to compete against VP401 in the Kemsley Challenge Trophy race - which the N.7/46 won, piloted by Neville Duke. With the introduction of jets, the UK’s National Air Races truly represented the ‘‘fastest racetrack in the world”.

VP401 has its Snarler motor refuelled, the liquid oxygen vapourising on contact with the air. The Snarler’s inspection panels have been removed, as has the fairing over the external pipework channelling fuel and propellant from the tanks located forward of the jet engine along the underside of the fuselage.

The shape of things to come - VP401 as first flown in September 1947 at Boscombe Down, with the original rectangular exhaust fairings and a nose-attitude reference mast ahead of the cockpit. Interestingly, in its issue of September 5, 1947, British weekly aviation magazine The Aeroplane referred to the P.1040 as the "Zephyr”, although it offered a correction the following week stating that it was in fact not so named.

Another of Cyril Peckham’s air-to-air portraits, showing the distinctive modified “pen-nib” exhaust fairings aft of the wing’s trailing edge. The original highly curved canopy, however, which Wade complained had a tendency to distort the pilot’s view forward, is still fitted.

Sporting the revised canopy, with a flat windscreen on the forward section, VP401 is seen here at Langley for its first public display on August 24, 1948. During it, according to The Aeroplane, Trevor Wade ‘‘did full justice to the occasion and showed the paces of his mount in one of the ablest displays we have seen for some time”.

A rear view of VP401 at Boscombe Down in September 1947. The first prototype was originally fitted with a Rolls-Royce Nene I centrifugal-flow turbojet engine of 4,500lb-thrust, later replaced by a more powerful Nene II of 5,000lb-thrust. The mainwheels, attached to the centre-section stub wings, retracted neatly into the fuselage.

The business end of the P. 1072 - VP401 following modification to P.1072 specification, showing the combustion chamber of the Snarler. Owing to modifications to the tail to accommodate the rocket motor, the rudder lost some area at the bottom.

The first prototype Hawker P.1040, what would become VP401, under construction at Hawker’s Kingston factory, in late 1946. The forward and rear sections of fuselage, built as individual sub-assemblies, have been skinned and joined.

The first take-off of the P.1072 under rocket power, from Armstrong Siddeley’s airfield at Bitteswell on November 20, 1950, with Wade at the controls. The forward fuselage housed 75gal of liquid oxygen in a spherical tank, while aft of the rear paraffin tank was another tank carrying 120gal of water-methanol for the rocket motor.

Hawker test pilot Trevor "Wimpy” Wade in the cockpit of VP401 at the Hawker factory at Langley. For its first flight on September 2, 1947, VP401 was sent to Boscombe Down, which had a more suitable runway than Langley’s grass. Three days after its maiden flight the aircraft went to Farnborough, for the continuation of trials.

Sporting red/orange bands around the rear fuselage and racing number “87", VP401 awaits its next race at Elmdon in July-August 1949. To the left is Blackburn Firebrand EK621, which raced against VP401 for the Kemsley Challenge Trophy, and to the right, D.H.108 VW120, which lost out to VP401 in the SBAC Challenge Cup.

With the fitting of an Armstrong Siddeley Snarler rocket motor in its extreme tail in the early summer of 1950, VP401 became the P.1072 experimental research aircraft. The Nene engine remained largely unaffected, but the entire fuel system was revised, with the aircraft’s original 395gal turbojet fuel load reduced to 175gal.

Showing off its extremely clean lines, VP401 was captured in this magnificent air-to-air study by Hawker’s regular photographer Cyril Peckham in 1948 or 1949, with Wade at the controls. Shown to good effect in this head-on view are the type’s air intakes and relatively thin outer wing sections, with a thickness-to-chord ratio of 0.095:1.

The final curtain - VP401’s last major role was as part of the static display at the SBAC Show at Farnborough in September 1951. The P.1072 was presented by Armstrong Siddeley Motors rather than Hawker, although the relationship between the two manufacturers was displayed on the aircraft in the form of a Hawker Siddeley Group emblem on the nose.