Shortfinals – aviation and more!

By: shortfinals

Dec 19 2010

Tags: 'Fuerza Aérea Ecuatoriana', 'Team Viper', .303, 000lbs, 1950, 1950s, 1957, 2 x .303 machineguns, 3, 410 lbs thrust, 472 mph, Aermacchi, Air Show, aircraft, airframe, assorted stores, AT-37, AT-37 Dragonfly, attack aircraft, Aviation, BAC, BAC Lightning, BAC Type 167 Strikemaster, Blunty, boron fibre, Botswana, Bristol-Siddeley, British Aerospace, Cessna, COIN, combat aircraft, company demonstrator, comprehensive avionics, cracking, Dhofar, Duxford, Ecuador, Ecuadorian Air Force, ejection seat, Esc. de Combate 2313, Europe, fatigue, fatigue life, fatigue problems, fighter aircraft, fighter/attack squadrons, flight profile, flying training schools, FN machineguns, frontline 'fighter', G-AOBU, German, Great Britain, hardpoints, Hunting, Hunting Jet Provost T.Mk 5, Imperial War Museum, improved brakes, IWM, J21R, jet power, Jet Provost, Jet Provost T.Mk 5A, jet trainers, Jumo, Jumo 004 engine, Kenya, Kuwait, light attack, light attack missions, light strike, light-strike aircraft, low-level, lower spar boom, Martin-Baker, Matra rocket pods, MB-339, MB-339CB, Mk 51, Mk 52, Mk 55, Mk.80A, New Zealand, non-belligerent role, NZ Labour Government, Oman, Percival, Percival P.56 Provost, Percival Prentice, Peru, Pilatus PC-9, piston-engined, pressurized, prototype Jet Provost, RAF, RAF Hullavington, RAF service, regional conflicts, repair schemes, Rolls-Royce Viper 535, Royal Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Royal Saudi Air Force, RSAF, SAAB, SAAB J21A, Saudi Arabia, service acceptance trials, Singapore, SNEB rockets, SOAF's 'Strike Squadron', South Yemen, Strikemaster, Strikemaster Mk 80A, Strikemaster Mk 81, Strikemaster Mk 82, Strikemaster Mk 82A, Strikemaster Mk 83, Strikemaster Mk 84, Strikemaster Mk 87, Strikemaster Mk 88, Strikemaster Mk 89, Strikemaster Mk 89A, Strikemaster Mk 90, Strikey, Sudan, Swedish, T-37 Tweet, T.Mk1, T.Mk5A, Third World, undercarriage, underwing hardpoints, Viper engine, War of the Condor, warbird, Yak-15, Yak-3

Category: aircraft, Aviation, England, military, Museums, RAF, Royal Air Force, warbird

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You could say the BAC Strikemaster is the powerful cousin of the Hunting Jet Provost T.Mk 5, a light strike, COIN machine, capable of providing a respectable punch in Third World areas of operations. You could even go further and assert that this is the last flowering of the original piston-engined Percival P.56 Provost, of 1950. A few jet trainers have made the transition from a non-belligerent role to that of frontline ‘fighter’ – the Cessna T-37 Tweet to AT-37 Dragonfly, for example – and fewer still are those piston-engined combat aircraft which have been successfully converted to jet power; the Swedish SAAB J21A to J21R is the only one which springs to mind, although the Yak-15 could be said to be a Yak-3 redesigned for a captured German Jumo 004 engine.

By the early 1950s, it was obvious that the Percival Prentice needed replacing. I think the kindest thing that anyone said about the Prentice was that it was underpowered. If the P.56 Provost was an improvement, the Jet Provost (powered by a Bristol-Siddeley Viper engine)  was a revelation. The stalky undercarriage of the prototype Jet Provost T.Mk1 can still be seen to this day, as the ex-company demonstrator, G-AOBU is in private hands. The undercarriage having been quickly redesigned the ‘JP’, as it was known in RAF service, progressed rapidly through its service acceptance trials at RAF Hullavington, and by 1957 was being issued to RAF flying training schools.

The Jet Provost  T.Mk 5A was the final service variant, (the first pressurized mark) with a longer nose and more comprehensive avionics. There had been export Jet Provosts (Mks 51, 52, 55) armed with 2 x .303 machineguns, but  BAC realized that with the uprated Rolls-Royce Viper 535 (of 3,410 lbs thrust) fitted, and a maximum speed of 472 mph, they had an aircraft that could not just train pilots, but could actually be used on COIN or light attack missions, too. The T.Mk5A airframe was strengthened, with low-level Martin-Baker ejection seats, improved brakes, armour, 2 x .303 FN machineguns, and underwing hardpoints for up to 3,000lbs of assorted stores, including bombs up to 500lbs and MATRA rocket pods. The BAC Type 167 Strikemaster was born.

Since the RAF had no major need for a COIN aircraft at this time, the 146 Strikemasters which were built from 1968-1984, were exported all over the world, particularly were BAC were trying to sell their frontline attack or fighter aircraft (such as the Lightning). Users of the ‘Strikey’ included Botswana (Mk 83 -ex-Kuwait, Mk 87 – ex-Kenya), Ecuador (Mk 89/89A), Kenya (Mk 87), New Zealand (Mk 88), Oman (Mk 82/82A), Saudi Arabia (Mk 80/80A), Singapore (MK 82 – ex-Oman, Mk 84), South Yemen (Mk 81) and Sudan (Mk 90). Those aircraft from the airforces of Ecuador and Oman both saw action in regional conflicts (Dhofar, with the SOAF’s ‘Strike Squadron’ of Mk 82s; War of the Condor, 1975, against Peru, for the Mk 89/89As of Esc. de Combate 2313 of the Ecuadorian Air Force – ‘Fuerza Aérea Ecuatoriana’)

The Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Strikemasters (where they were affectionately known as ‘Blunty’s’), and those of the Royal Saudi Air Force suffered progressive fatigue problems,  particularly with cracking of the lower spar boom of the wing. Repair schemes, using boron fibre compounds, were only partially successful, and despite British Aerospace reducing the fatigue life of the wing, and modifying flight profiles, the end was in sight. The RSAF replaced their ‘Strikies’ with the Pilatus PC-9, and the RNZAF chose the Aermacchi MB-339CB instead (subsequently placed in storage when the NZ Labour Government disbanded ALL fighter/attack squadrons!)

Strikemasters are nothing if not survivors. You will find them scattered across the world, either providing Forward Air Controller training in the United States, or giving ‘fast jet’ experience flights, or appearing in air shows. BAC made an attempt to sell the Strikemaster to Sudan, but the order -in part – fell foul of an embargo. The Sultan of Oman’s Air Force had been using the Strikie in action against rebel forces, and three aircraft had been lost, to groundfire and a ground-launched missile. Consequently, a final attrition replacement was produced by assembling spares set aside for the Sudanese order, and delivered to Oman in 1984. This Mk 82A served until 1999, when it was sold to a UK owner, as G-SOAF. It changed hands, and was acquired by the Strikemaster Flying Club, based on Hawarden Airport, Flintshire, North Wales.

Here you can see G-SOAF moving down a taxiway during the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.

The Strikemaster – a much loved survivor.

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