A relatively new company Skygate are based on a foundation of Jet success. The two founders Andreas Ruppert and Stephan Volker are very well know on the European Jet Scene. Andreas has a great reputation as a master craftsman and absolute wizard with 
composites. Stephan was well known as the designer of the 1/7 Airworld L-39 that he himself had built and flown to double victory in the Thai and South African Jet masters. With that much knowledge and experience, you just know whatever this company decides to produce will be fully of quality and precision.
The first objective of the company was to makes its stamp on the Jet Scene with a new and special model such as which no kit manufacturer and produced before. They did this with great effect at the Hungarian Jet Masters in 2005 when they showed for the first time their all new Bae Hawk.
What made this stand out from the crowd was not only the sheer size of it, it was the fact that it was all composite, fully detailed with every rivet, panel line and hatch of the full size, and astonishingly enough it fell below the 20kg weight limit. Quiet and achievement considering models a fraction of its size were struggling to make this weight.
On closer inspection you can start to take in how much time and effort was invested in making this a very unique project. Every weight saving exercise has been employed, while still paying great attention to the overall strength of the model. The composite moldings are without a doubt some of the best you will see. Not only are they exquisitely finished and detailed, they are unbelievably light. This attention to detail flows through the rest of the kit. 
The undercarriage is yet another innovation. What looks to be a fully scale metal oleo leg is in fact a molded surround. Inside is a super strong yet light metal trailing link oleo leg, but much smaller than if it were scale. Knowing that if the leg was to be made scale the weight penalty would be huge Skygate have molded a fully detail surround that we challenge anybody to distinguish from the real thing. When ordering your own bespoke Hawk ( Each model is built to order to the customers specifications ) You are presented with a list that contains 38 different options. Now these cover all aspects of the hawk from: Fully built and painted scale cockpit set, Every antenna, aerial and scale feature that is fitted to the full sized. Light sets, decal set, documentation sets, even through to various levels of factory prefabrication to cut down on your build time. Like everything about this model even the buying process is unique. More like buying a hand made sports car than a model jet.
The focus of Skygate is quality not quantity. Andreas and Stephan are working hard to deliver the very best model they can, and all those that have seen the Hawk are confirming that their targets are being reached.
Personally I don’t think enough good can be said about this kit. ( But I am sure you are getting bored by now) I have seen and owned a fair few jets in my time and never have I seen a kit produced to this standard.
As for the flying aspect, well there is no disappointment on this front. They say you get out what you put in, and judging by the way this model fly’s Skygate have poured themselves into the Hawk. 
Powered is a scale type manner with a P-160 turbine, it can be flown with more, but consideration is advised. Careful use of throttle management will have to be exercised as this is a large model and the perception of speed is completely different to that of a much smaller jet. My own example is being flown superbly with a Graupner G booster 160, as is Stephan Volker’s demo model. Mine is in the Red Arrows display team colours and with the G Booster is capable of performing all of the scale type aerobatics that the full size will, and more
One area where this model excels is in its slow speed and grass field capability. With that much wing and such a small AUW the hawk is capable of flying at ridiculously low speeds. Well below scale speeds in fact. I have not had time to measure my landing speeds as yet but I estimate them to be sub 30 Mph which for a fully scale jet is incredible. Most sport jets don’t even land this slow. This slow speed performance and those huge wheels attached to a fully sprung trailing link oleo mean that pretty much any flying field is suitable for this model . Yet again another advantage that most scale jets cant offer.
