Piston/Jet Provost & Strikemaster

[Mossie]

Always loved the JP since I saw them as a kid while on holiday at Llandudno (not to far from RAF Valley), my Dad made us models of them from the wrappers of breakaway biscuits!

First thoughts:

Swept wing JP/Strikemaster as a Gnat alternative.

Single seat, might look a little like the GAF Pika version of the Jindivik.

Indian Air Force, HAL license building them instead of producing the (very similar) Kiran.

P.164.  One version looked very much like a revised JP with a slightly swept high wing.  More on Secret Projects:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3803.0/highlight,strikemaster.html



Any thoughts?

Simon.

[Mossie]

I guess you could produce a single seat JP in a number of ways.  If you want to go the whole hog, build a whole new slimmer fuselage more suited to the single seat to eek a bit more performance.  That way you'd end up with something not far off the Pika I mentioned:



The more likely way would be produce a single seat aircraft using the existing fuselage like your photobash Apo.  This is probably more desireable, the performance of the JP is already adequate for strike missions (hence the Strikemaster), it's less work & you could use the additional space for fuel.  You could shift the single cockpit onto the centreline, or mount it asymetrically like the Sea Vixen.

I had a look at my Airfix kit & it'd take a fair change to add in a new canopy as the fuse is shaped to fit it.  As to which canopies to use, this might differ wether it was a JP T.3/4 or T.5 you were using.  For a T.3/4/51/52 you could maybe use one from a Mirage III?  For a T.5/55/Strikemaster, with the way the canopy slides you could maybe use one from a Harrier I?

[Mossie]

I've had a little look at swept wings too.  The Gnat is a bit too thin & seems a little too short in span.  The wings from a Gina seem to fit reasonably well in thickness & span, not sure how I'd go about the undercarriage though.

[DarrenP]

what other users would we like to see for the Strikemaster?
for me Ireland and Rhodesia for starters

[Mossie]

Good choices.  RAAF, they evaluated an early JP. T-37/A-37 customers might scratch a few heads.

[Barry Krell]

Strikemaster is too late for Rhodesia.  UDI was 1965 with Strikemaster 1966/67 and thus embargoed.  Even if there were no embargo, Wilson's Labour wouldn't have sold them to the Smith regime.  South Africa had a devil of a job getting the Buccaneers that were bought and paid for.

Ireland would have no need for Strikemasters, given their neutral stance.  Can't see the IRA kicking off against the Dublin government when their avowed enemy is London.

Libya signed a deal for Strikemasters and Lightnings but Khadaffi's revolution put a stop to that.

[Weaver]

Ireland would have no need for Strikemasters, given their neutral stance.  Can't see the IRA kicking off against the Dublin government when their avowed enemy is London.

True, but then they've always maintained a minimal light ground attack element, first with Fouga Magisters and currently with PC-9s.

[Mossie]

Just add something into the backstory.  Maybe the UDI didn't happen, or didn't happen until later, or they took the combat capable T.51 (export T.3) instead.

Ireland is quite easy to fit in.  As Weave mentions, they've always had a light strike capability, the Strikemaster is just an upgrade to the Magister.  The Strikemaster provided a dual role, many customers took it on as a combat capable advanced trainer this would suit the IAC.

[DarrenP]

And the last Strikemasters were built in the 80's so Zimbabwe possibly but in my what if world Rhodesia survived and the commonwealth came in behind them. Remember Rhodesia had operated Percival Provosts as had Ireland.
Yes to Ireland instead of the Magister. RAAF yes a good call India, Pakistan and Lebanon would be others

[Hman]

How about JP's being used by Biafria?

A few were supplied to the Nigerian AF, what if they captured them or sympathetic pilots defected...?  A bit far out I know

Interesting Article (http://www.britains-smallwars.com/RRGP/Ralph/page1.html)

[Mossie]

Didn't know about that story, nice find!  Not that far out a suggestion, seems pretty reasonable considering the JP's were in Nigeria at the time of the Biafran secession.

[ysi_maniac]

Variations on Jet Provost

[Weaver]

Fascinating story in this month's Aeroplane magazine, which gives the lie to the idea that dodgy mercenary air combat units are a thing of the past.

A pair of Strikemasters that were sold onto the civilian market in 1997 and flew on the UK airshow circuit, were acquired in 2003 by "Strikemaster Films Ltd", a brand new company founded by a Frenchman called Jean-Jacques Fuentes, who claimed that they were going to be used for film and air display work in South Africa. Needless to say, the jets new went near SA, instead ending up in the Ivory Coast Air Force (FACI), which was struggling at the time, having lost it's primary airbase and all it's non-operational Alpha Jets to rebels.

There's evidence that the Strikemasters were intended for a recce role, but according to Fuentes, before the first mission could take place in 2004, FACI Su-25s accidentally bombed French peacekeeing troops instead of the rebsls they were aiming at, and the French attacked their base in retaliation, destroying two Su-25s and several Mi-24s, and near-missing the Strikemaster that Fuentes was preparing to fly with a MILAN missile. In 2005, an arms embargo made flying effectively impossible for the FACI, and all it's aircraft were moved to Abidjan, where they were monitored by the UN, the Strikemasters being listed as operational for several years, but never flown.

In 2007, Fuentes was charged in Malta (where the aircraft had been refurbished on their way to Africa) with exporting military equipment without a licence, but he claimed that, since the aircraft were on the civilian register in both the UK and the Ivory Coast, it wasn't a military sale and thus didn't need a licence, and in 2008 he won... Following an appeal by the attorney general, he was retried in 2010 and this time got an EUR 11,600 fine.

In 2015 All the surviving FACI aircraft, including the Strikemasters (now listed as unserviceable) were moved to an open area and then disappeared, presumed scrapped.

There's more detail than this is the article, which I highly recommend, and just remember that your backstories of aircraft being shipped around the world in dodgy circumstances to dubious users are STILL not as improbable as some would have you believe.

Also, remember that those two Strikemasters are only presumed to have been scrapped...