The trainer jet known simply as ‘JP’ to RAF personnel
THE importance of developing the right training aircraft for RAF pilots goes a long way to explaining why so few have been designed over the decades, with one of the longest serving being the Jet Provost.
The precursor of the Hawk started life as the Hunting Percival (HP) Jet Provost, its service life lasting around 40 years, development beginning in the early 1950s as a modification of the piston-engine Percival P.56 Provost basic trainer. A private venture of HP, it was developed alongside RAF Flying Training Command to ensure aspects of the aircraft’s design fitted the service’s requirements for a jet trainer.
Meeting the RAF's Demands
The HP Aircraft Company were confident they could fulfil all RAF demands by creating a relatively inexpensive two-seat jet version of the piston Provost, with improvements on its non-jet counterpart including swapping the Alvis Leonides engine for the Armstrong Siddeley Viper, capable of generating 1200lbs of thrust, and the fitting of a retractable undercarriage.
The single engine was mounted behind the cockpit which was essentially identical to the Percival: side-by side seating with duplicated flight controls and instrumentation, and a centralised warning panel to notify both instructor and student to any potential problems.
Hunting Jet Provost T5A 1970, taken 2023 RAF Cosford
Early Testing and Prototypes
The Jet Provost was a relatively uncomplicated structure, with the prototype, XD674, first flown at Luton on June 26, 1954, with later testing at Boscombe Down leading to the design being refined, such as the shortening of the legs of the standing gear for a smoother ride.
The project was successful enough for the first of 10 pre-production aircraft, XD675, to be flown on February 19, 1955; capable of flying at speeds in excess of 400mph (twice what its piston counterpart could manage), it had excellent manoeuvrability and, perhaps as importantly, low operating costs.
Soon after, three of the aircraft were assigned to the Central Flying School, CFS, at Little Rissington in Gloucestershire for investigation, flying a total of 111 hours and becoming what were titled ‘ab-initio’ training aircraft – translated as ‘from the beginning’ – and used to train potential instructors and devise a training syllabus for new pilots.
Provost T.1 WV625 ‘A-R’ in formation with JP T.2 XD693 ‘Z-Q’ 1956
Service Trials and T-Variants
Service trials were also conducted by RAF 2 Flying Training School at Hullavington in Wiltshire, where analysis was undertaken on new pilots flying on jet and piston versions of the Provost, the new aircraft becoming known as the JP, with trainees on the jet taking less time to fly solo than those on the piston version.
Despite its success, only 12 T1s were built, 10 for the RAF and two retained by HP, one of which was the prototype, XD674, which is among the RAF Museum collection at Cosford (a number of others are located at air museums across the UK and overseas).
Refinements continued over the following years with T2, T3 and T4 variants developed – the T2 was purely a development design – with 1957 seeing an initial order for 40 T3s made, the first production version, with a request for increased engine power, side-by-side ejector seats, and a revised under carriage arrangement.
The order was later increased with a total of 201 T3s built at Luton between 1958 and 1962, by which time the more powerful T4 was already flying and in service (198 T4s were built); the T3 was operated at various RAF training sites across the country including Cranwell, Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire, and Acklington in Northumberland.
Pressurisation and the T5
By the 1960s, the requirement for pilots to work at higher altitudes for longer periods saw the need to replace the oxygen system that was incorporated into the cockpit by a pressurised version of the Jet Provost.
It was 1964 when designers at the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), which had now taken over Hunting Percival, started work to create the T5 version, possessing a redesigned hood and more bulbous shape. The new version’s first flight was in February 1967, with 110 produced for the RAF, the first delivered to the CFS in September 1969.
By the mid-1970s there were reports of concerns growing about fatigue in the T4s, reducing their service life considerably, many withdrawn from air service early and ending up as ground instructional airframes at a number of RAF locations.
However, an alternative view was that the T4s were a victim of the scaling down of RAF flying training schools at the time, a number closing in the late 1960s at Church Fenton in Yorkshire, Syerston and Acklington, leading to a need to cut down the number of training aircraft in operation.
Global Success and Export Markets
But the JP would continue to serve both at home and abroad, with the aircraft’s success not just in a training role, the pressurised cockpit of the T5 seeing it utilised as an aerobatic aircraft as well as for advanced training.
Its export market saw several air forces use it as a ground-attack aircraft, the T51 (export version of the T3) and T52 (exported T4s) fitted with two machine guns and sold to a number of countries including Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Sudan and Kuwait.
On February 1, 1960, a T51 operated by the Royal Ceylon Air Force crashed in the Negombo Lagoon, north of Colombo, soon after take-off, its pilot, Noel Lokuge, safely ejecting and becoming the first Sri Lankan pilot to eject and survive.
A single T2, A99-1, was exported to Australia in 1959 to be evaluated by the Royal Australian Air Force as a potential jet trainer, but six months later the RAAF decided to retain the de Havilland Vampire in the role, later opting for an Italian aircraft as the replacement for the Vampire. However, A99-1 is preserved to this day at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook in Victoria.
Retirement and Ongoing Legacy
It was 1988 when the RAF decided to replace the remaining Jet Provosts in service with the turboprop Shorts Tucano T.1, September 20, 1993, seeing the last operational flight of the first trainer jet used by the RAF.
Following its withdrawal by the RAF, a number were sold to private operators and aircraft enthusiasts, keen to get their hands on what was a relatively inexpensive jet; many were kept in airworthy conditions, with a number still flown today at airshows.
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