IIRC the Hawk was the last design supervised (at the early stages at least) by Sir Sydney Camm, probably the greatest designer of fighter aircraft EVER. This is not to overlook the genius of RJ Mitchell, but Camm started with the Hart, led the change to monoplanes, retracting gear, etc, then went on to Jets.
It may be old but (to an outsider anyway) it's a masterpiece.