Recently I learnt that the Hawker Hunter had a side-by-side twin seat trainer version. This is unusual, since more often the tandem configuration is used. I'm sure the engineers had a good reason to choose this solution, but it got me wondering: how much is the top speed impacted by the resulting increase in frontal area?
From what I've found online, the specs are the same for both trainer and single-seat versions but that doesn't seem right; if nothing else, the empty weight should be different. Is there a former Hawker Hunter pilot here who trained on the twin seater and can tell us the truth?