Охотничьи самолеты
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: 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.
Hunting Aircraft in numbers
Компания
- Суммируя
- 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
Производство
- Наиболее известен благодаря
- Джет Провост
- 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
Сегодня
- Сейчас
- Part of BAE Systems lineage
- BAC became part of British Aerospace, now BAE Systems
- Jet Provosts still flown privately
Цифры
- Jet Provost built
- 734
- Jet Provost RAF service
- 1955–1993
- Pembroke built
- 128
- H.126 test flights at RAE Bedford
- около 100
Every notable Hunting Aircraft aircraft
Photos: Richard Smith / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
| Самолёт | Роль | Первый рейс | Построен | Статус | Примечание |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percival Pembroke / President | Легкий транспорт | 1952 | 128 | Ушедший на пенсию | |
| Hunting Jet Provost | Учебно-тренировочный реактивный самолет и легкий штурмовик | 1954 | 734 | Ушедший на пенсию | Production continued by BAC |
| Hunting H.126 | Jet flap research aircraft | 1963 | 1 | Ушедший на пенсию | |
| Hunting H.107 | Airliner project | Ушедший на пенсию | Not built; became the BAC One-Eleven |
Hunting Aircraft aircraft in the world’s air forces
5 air forces in the Order of Battle fly or flew Hunting Aircraft types. Ни у одной из них до сих пор нет ни одного в эксплуатации.
| военно-воздушные силы | В эксплуатации | Ранее летал |
|---|---|---|
| Ирландский воздушный корпус | Hunting Percival Provost T.51 and T.53 | |
| ВВС Кувейта | Охотничий (BAC) Jet Provost T.51 | |
| Военно-воздушные силы Шри-Ланки | Hunting Jet Provost T.51 | |
| Суданские ВВС | Hunting President and Percival Pembroke | |
| Военно-воздушные силы Замбии | Hunting Percival Pembroke |
Where Hunting Aircraft built, who led it, what it achieved
Заводы
- Luton works · Luton Airport, Bedfordshire
Рекорды и первые достижения
- Jet Provost: first ab initio jet trainer standardised by an air force, per Flight International
Hunting Aircraft, year by year
Percival Aircraft joins the Hunting Group
Begins work on components for the Blue Danube atomic bomb
Renamed Hunting Percival Aircraft
Jet Provost first flight
Jet Provost service trials with the Central Flying School
Renamed Hunting Aircraft; RAF orders the Jet Provost T3
Contract for the H.126 jet flap research aircraft
Taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation
H.126 first flight
Jet Provost retired by the RAF
Before and after Hunting Aircraft
Everything people ask about Hunting Aircraft
What was Hunting Aircraft?
What is the Jet Provost?
Did Hunting design the BAC One-Eleven?
What was the Hunting H.126?
Around Hunting Aircraft
Все факты проверены.
- Hunting Aircraft (Wikipedia)
- BAC Jet Provost (Wikipedia)
- Hunting H.126 (Wikipedia)
- Percival Pembroke (Wikipedia)
Подтверждено 03.10.2026.