Vulcan trainer, the Jet Provost T6

[chrisonord]

I am really liking that Kit   I think one with some ordnance on it would look good too
Chris

[PR19_Kit]

Hmmm, I'm not sure ordnance would be appropriate on a Vulcan trainer. They'd be for training the pilot and he doesn't have much to do with actually dropping a Vulcan's weapons, he goes where the Radar/Nav tells him and they do the drop.

It's that fat nose Jim, but thank goodness it DOESN'T have the ruddy awful intake hung underneath!

Drawing up all the itty bitty decals for it now, naturally I don't have the original kit's decal sheet. 

[Gondor]

That is looking rather tastey Kit.

I should have a spare set of Airfix JP T5/Strikemaster decals if you ant them kit

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks Alastair, I've got them all sorted on a home print decal sheet now though. 

[JayBee]

It's that fat nose Jim, but thank goodness it DOESN'T have the ruddy awful intake hung underneath!

Ah, but that fake radome makes up for it. 
Mind you it still looks good. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Ah, but that fake radome makes up for it. 
Mind you it still looks good. 

Second that. The longer Strikemaster nose is a handy detail in this case, looks very good. I still have to make my stash safari for the 1:200 Vulcan and the Airfix Strikemaster, just to see if... 

[PR19_Kit]

All the decals are one now, plus the final coat of Klear.

I'm waiting till that dries and then I'll give it a coat of satin and that'll be done.

Looking at the nose I figured there was something not quite right, so I spent a while gawping at JP5 pics before the light dawned. No anti-glare panel! 

So a small masking job and some matt black and that's sorted now too.

Smart pics later hopefully.

[The Wooksta!]

I have to apologise for the lack of the Lincoln crest - it would have been with the rest of the decals but it had slipped out - found it on the floor a day ago.

[PR19_Kit]

No probs Lee, the roundels are on the JP6 now, except I had to use tiny Gnat ones for the nose, no room for anything larger and the wing is in the way to putting them on the aft fuselage.

Here's the JP6, done and dusted, assigned to 230 OCU, the Vulcan Conversion Unit at Waddington in the 60s-80s.











By the time that 230 OCU had taken delivery of its first Vulcan B1s in mid-1956 it was already becoming apparent that the 'Tin Triangle' wasn't as straightforward to fly as Roy Chadwick would have liked. The massive lift exerted by the Vulcan's wing made it very much more responsive to the controls than the other two V bombers, the Valiant and Victor. This resulted in quite a few ''moments' for the student pilots while landing the new bomber, and the Air Ministry became a little worried. Earlier Avro had designed and built a single prototype of a small 2 seat trainer, the 707C, in order to assist new pilots in handling the big jet, but initial tests by experienced RAF crews had suggested that such a trainer would not be needed and the project was dropped.

However newer pilots with fewer hours were having difficulties and steps were taken to solve the problem. Hawker Siddeley, who had absorbed Avro in the multi-mergers of the UK aviation industry of the late 50s, were less than enthusiastic about resurrecting the 707C design and BAC were approached to produce a delta version of their well proven Jet Provost. Designing a suitable wing to reproduce the handling characteristics of the Vulcan proved to be a larger task than originally envisaged, and an already proven design was sought. BAC themselves has no experience in delta designs and were most unlikely to ask assistance from their great rivals, Hawker Siddeley, but help came from an unexpected area. Fairey Aviation had recently been taken over by Westlands, who had also merged with Saunders Roe, and both these companies had produced delta designs, Fairey with the record breaking FD2 research aircraft, and Saunders Roe with the SR53 mixed power fighter project.

To complicate matters Hawker Siddeley by now had developed the much more capable Vulcan B2 design with an even larger wing and this had to be taken into account by BAC's designers. A modified version of the FD2's wing was adopted for the new trainer, together with its landing gear and control system, with cambered leading edges added to equate the B2 wing's characteristics. At the same time it was decided to adopt a pressurised cabin, not something that earlier Jet Provosts had used, and this cabin was also adopted by a conventional straight winged version of the Jet Provost, which was eventually to become the T5. The delta version, the T6, was built in very small numbers as 230 OCU was the only intended user and in the end only twelve examples left the production line.

The Jet Provost T6, or 'JP6' as the type was most commonly called, proved to be exemplary in service and every Vulcan B2 pilot learned their trade aboard the JP6. Outnumbered by the JP5s, the delta winged trainer still became a firm favourite among the airshow fans, often appearing on formation with a Vulcan from the same unit. Some JP6s were deliberately painted with a dummy 'radome' on the underside of the nose, mimicking their larger brethren, and these aircraft survived longer than others, being used as visual targets by 100 Squadron long after the Vulcans themselves had retired.

[sideshowbob9]

That really looks the part! 

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking SO good! 

And, BTW, the 1:200 Vulcan wings will work together with the Strikemaster fuselage. 

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for the Whiffie nomination Thomas  and I look forward to see your 'Strikemaster/Vulcan' kitbash. The wing shape should be much more Vulcan-like than the JP6.

[philp]

Ok, that is just friggen awesome.

[The Wooksta!]

Cool.  How about something similar but with a 144th Victor wing?

[PR19_Kit]

Cool.  How about something similar but with a 144th Victor wing?

I like that idea, it be a bit like a side by side, two seater HP.88. 

Watch out for the finished pics some time in 2031, as it took me ELEVEN years to finish this one!