Jet Provost T Mk.5

BAC Jet Provost T Mk.5, XW325, G-BWGF, with Chris Heames at the controls, doing a solo display at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford for the Duxford Flying Finale 2023. This aircraft was not 'based' at Duxford for the show.
XW325 was constructed as a T. Mk.5 and taken on strength by the Royal Air Force on 29th September 1970. It spent the majority of its service career at RAF Finningley as a NavEx trainer. On 14th January 1975 it was converted by BAC at Warton to a T.Mk.5A. It was with the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell between 1979 and 1989, when it transferred to 6 Flying Training School (FTS) at RAF Finningley. It went into storage at RAF Shawbury in February 1993 and was sold to Global Aviation at Binbrook on 19th November 1993, taking up the civil registration of G-BWGF. It went to Humberside Airport, was civilianised and issued with a CAA Permit to Fly. It was sold to the Specialscope Jet Provost Group in August 1996 and then went to the Viper Jet Provost Group in October 2007. In March 2014 it briefly went to a new owner at St. Athan, Wales, before moving on to Dragonjet Ltd at Cardiff between May 2014 and December 2016, when it was sold to the current owner G-JPVA Ltd. XW325 has been repainted into her original 6 FTS marking's.
The Hunting Percival Jet Provost was initially developed as a jet engine modification of the piston-engine Percival P.56 Provost, retaining to original wing structure mated to a new fuselage. It was built as a private venture by Hunting Percival Aircraft Limited at Luton Airport.
The P.84 Jet Provost prototype (XD674) first flew at Luton on 26th June 1954, with Dick Wheldon at the controls.
The aircraft was developed in liaison with the RAF Flying Training Command to ensure that it incorporated many of their desired characteristics required, such as easy instructional processes and a low cost of maintenance.
Later flight testing at Boscombe Down refined some of the designs and in February 1955, the first of 10 pre-production aircraft took to the air. Just 3 months later, three aircraft were assigned to the Central Flying School for assessment as an 'Ab-Initio' ('from the beginning') training role.
A number of design changes and refinements were made by Hunting Percival and the Jet Provost T2 made its maiden flight on 1st September 1955. The Jet Provost T2 was purely a development variant and a number visited Scandinavia for 'winterization trials' during the latter part of the year.
In 1957, Hunting Percival received their first tangible success for Jet Provost when a production order was received for forty Jet Provost T3 aircraft. The requirement called for the increased-power Armstrong Siddeley Viper engine, as well as ejector seats and a revised undercarriage arrangement.
In total, 201 Jet Provost T3's were built at Luton between 1958 and 1962, although the Jet Provost T4 variant was already underway by mid-1960. The T4 carried an improved Armstrong Siddeley Viper ASV.11 power unit which was quickly adopted by the key RAF training facilities at Cranwell, Little Rissington, Linton-on-Ouse, as well as RAF Leeming and RAF Ackington.
198 Jet Provost T4's were built ahead of a further engine upgrade and the addition of pressurisation, seen in the arrival of the Jet Provost T.5 (Developed by BAC), which first flew on 28th February 1967.
Numerous militarised export versions of the Jet Provost T3 and T4, known as the Jet Provost T51 and T52 respectively, served with Air Forces in Ceylon / Sri Lanka (12 T51), Kuwait (6 T51) and the Sudan (4 T51), as well as Jet Provost T52's in Iraq (20), South Yemen, Sudan (4) and Venezuela (15).
110 examples of the pressurised BAC 145 Jet Provost T5 were built by BAC at Warton for the RAF, with export aircraft bringing the total number built to 189. As well as a larger, raised cockpit, most T.5s also have large strakes on the lower side of the fuselage nose.
In October 1967, the new BAC Strikemaster took to the skies and so dawned a new era for this iconic design which had started out as a private venture for Hunting Percival Aircraft over 15 years earlier. The BAC 167 Strikemaster was an armed development of the BAC 145 Jet Provost T5.
Hunting Jet Provosts remain in service into the 1990's and due to its easy, inexpensive maintenance, a number still remain in flying and taxiable condition in private hands today.
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