Hunting Aircraft

Order of Battle · Aircraft manufacturers · United Kingdom

Hunting Aircraft

Hunting Percival Aircraft Ltd · Hunting Aircraft Ltd

In six short years the renamed Percival company gave the RAF the world’s first standard all-through jet trainer and sketched the airliner that became the BAC One-Eleven.

1954Founded
Merged into British Aircraft Corporation in 1960Status
4Aircraft on record
5Air forces flying its types
Photo: RuthAS / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
CountryUnited KingdomFounded1954HeadquartersLuton Airport, BedfordshireOwnerHunting GroupStatusMerged into British Aircraft Corporation in 1960
The story

Hunting Aircraft: the company and the aircraft that made its name

The first jet a cadet ever flew

For almost four decades, from 1955 to 1993, a young RAF pilot’s first jet was very likely a Jet Provost. According to Flight International, it was the first ab initio jet trainer standardised by any air force: the idea was to put cadets straight into a jet instead of a propeller trainer. It was developed at Luton by Hunting Percival from the piston-engined Provost, and first flew on 26 June 1954. With later production under BAC, 734 were built.

From Percival to Hunting

Hunting was not a new company so much as a new name. Edgar Percival’s firm had joined the Hunting Group in 1944, and from 1947 it even designed and made internal components for Britain’s first atomic bomb, Blue Danube, with the High Explosive Research project at Fort Halstead. In 1954 it was renamed Hunting Percival Aircraft, and in 1957 simply Hunting Aircraft. Its Luton line also turned out the Pembroke military transport and its civil twin, the President.

Secrets and blown flaps

The Jet Provost sold abroad as well. Armed T51s went to Ceylon, Kuwait and Sudan, and two ex-Sudanese aircraft flew ground-attack missions for Nigeria against Biafra in the civil war of 1967. Hunting also won a 1959 Ministry of Aviation contract for a research aircraft to test jet flaps, in which engine exhaust was blown over the wing. The single H.126 flew on 26 March 1963 and made about a hundred test flights at RAE Bedford.

The airliner it never built

Hunting’s most important design was one it never built. The H.107 was a project for a 30-seat jet airliner. In 1960 the company was taken over by the new British Aircraft Corporation, itself formed that year from Bristol, English Electric and Vickers-Armstrongs, and BAC enlarged the H.107 into the One-Eleven. The Jet Provost became the BAC Jet Provost, and Hunting’s name left the aircraft industry.

In six short years the renamed Percival company gave the RAF the world’s first standard all-through jet trainer and sketched the airliner that became the BAC One-Eleven.Hunting Aircraft · verified 2026-10-03
At a glance

Hunting Aircraft in numbers

The company

In short
Hunting name from 1954

  • Percival Aircraft joined the Hunting Group in 1944
  • Renamed Hunting Percival Aircraft in 1954
  • Renamed Hunting Aircraft in 1957
  • Taken over by BAC in 1960

Production

Best known for
Jet Provost

  • Jet Provost: 734 built including BAC production
  • Pembroke and President transports: 128 built 1953–1958
  • H.126 jet flap research aircraft: 1 built
  • H.107 airliner project grew into the BAC One-Eleven

Today

Now
Part of BAE Systems lineage

  • BAC became part of British Aerospace, now BAE Systems
  • Jet Provosts still flown privately

The numbers

Jet Provost built
734
Jet Provost RAF service
1955–1993
Pembroke built
128
H.126 test flights at RAE Bedford
about 100
The aircraft

Every notable Hunting Aircraft aircraft

Hunting Jet ProvostJet trainer and light attack · first flight 1954 · 734 built

Photos: Richard Smith / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Aircraft Role First flight Built Status Note
Percival Pembroke / President Light transport 1952 128 Retired
Hunting Jet Provost Jet trainer and light attack 1954 734 Retired Production continued by BAC
Hunting H.126 Jet flap research aircraft 1963 1 Retired
Hunting H.107 Airliner project Retired Not built; became the BAC One-Eleven
Who flies them

Hunting Aircraft aircraft in the world’s air forces

5 air forces in the Order of Battle fly or flew Hunting Aircraft types. 0 of them still have one in service.

Air force In service Formerly flown
Irish Air Corps Hunting Percival Provost T.51 and T.53
Kuwait Air Force Hunting (BAC) Jet Provost T.51
Sri Lanka Air Force Hunting Jet Provost T.51
Sudanese Air Force Hunting President and Percival Pembroke
Zambian Air Force Hunting Percival Pembroke
Places, people, records

Where Hunting Aircraft built, who led it, what it achieved

Factories

  • Luton works · Luton Airport, Bedfordshire

Records and firsts

  • Jet Provost: first ab initio jet trainer standardised by an air force, per Flight International
Timeline

Hunting Aircraft, year by year

1944

Percival Aircraft joins the Hunting Group

1947

Begins work on components for the Blue Danube atomic bomb

1954

Renamed Hunting Percival Aircraft

1954

Jet Provost first flight

1955

Jet Provost service trials with the Central Flying School

1957

Renamed Hunting Aircraft; RAF orders the Jet Provost T3

1959

Contract for the H.126 jet flap research aircraft

1960

Taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation

1963

H.126 first flight

1993

Jet Provost retired by the RAF

The family tree

Before and after Hunting Aircraft

Came beforePercivalSame company, renamed Hunting Percival in 1954Read the Percival pageCame afterBritish Aircraft CorporationTook over Hunting in 1960Read the British Aircraft Corporation page
Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about Hunting Aircraft

What was Hunting Aircraft?
The renamed Percival Aircraft company at Luton, called Hunting Percival from 1954 and Hunting Aircraft from 1957, until BAC took it over in 1960.
What is the Jet Provost?
A side-by-side jet trainer developed by Hunting Percival from the Provost, used by the RAF from 1955 to 1993.
Did Hunting design the BAC One-Eleven?
It began as Hunting’s H.107 30-seat airliner project, which BAC enlarged after the 1960 takeover.
What was the Hunting H.126?
A one-off research aircraft built to test jet flaps, first flown in 1963.

Continue the tour

Around Hunting Aircraft

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Sources & Further Reading

Every fact, checked

Verified 2026-10-03.