The BAC Jet Provost was a British jet-powered trainer aircraft that
was in use with the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993, when it was
replaced by the Tucano. It was originally developed by Hunting Percival from
the earlier piston engine-powered Percival Provost basic trainer, and later
produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). In addition to the
multiple orders that were placed for the RAF, the Jet Provost also attained
several export deals with overseas operators, resulting in the type serving
in many air forces worldwide. The design was also further developed into a
more heavily-armed variant for ground attack mission, which was marketed as
the BAC Strikemaster.
The Jet Provost T.1 was a pre-production aircraft and ten were built for
trials. Experience from these trials resulted in the T.2, of which less than
a handful were built, again being used for trials. The first real production
aircraft was the T.3. In June 1957, an production order was placed for the
first 40 of the developed Jet Provost T3, featuring a more powerful
Armstrong Siddeley Viper jet engine, ejector seats, a redesign of the
airframe, and a shortened and strengthened version of the retractable
tricycle undercarriage. Percival built a single example, which was used
purely for structural tests throughout the development stages, giving the
designers valuable research into what could be achieved with the basic
design. On 22 June 1958, the first Jet Provost T.3 conducted its first
flight. In total, 201 T3s were delivered between 1958 and 1962. The T.4 was
externally the same, but had a more powerful engine and the first of 198
examples first flew in July 1960.
Molding is what we have come to expect from a modern
Airfix kit and sure beats the original in every way. The cockpit contains the
usual control sticks with a center console. Each of the seats is made up of four
parts (three if you are installing the crew figures), and has molded on seat
harness. There is a decal for the instrument panel.
When trapping this in the fuselage halves, be sure to
add nose weight. Much of the nose gear well is molded to the bottom of the
cockpit section. Wings are a single lower piece with upper halves. Tip tanks are
molded onto the halves so modeling this one without them will require some work.
Tailplanes are a single piece that slot into the rear fuselage followed by the
jet pipe and rudder.
Intakes are nicely done with a section that slides
into the housing part way followed by the outer piece. You can build this kit
gear up if you so wish and separate gear doors are provided for this. Because
the main gear would be a bit wobbly, they are molded in with the gear doors.
Airfix provides two canopy pieces. One is for the closed position and the other
for the open. I like that Airfix and others provide this feature.
Instructions
are 3D style and as usual only provide Humbrol paint numbers during
construction. When doing the external schemes, names are also provided. Two
schemes are given. The first is in the white, red, and grey scheme as shown on
the box art with 1 FTS in 1990. The second is an early scheme of silver with
large red areas and a blue fuselage band with the RAF College in 1962. The
decals are nicely printed and as good as most aftermarket. The black
nose areas will need to be painted regardless of the scheme you choose. There
are aftermarket sheets out there if you so wish to go that route.
