HISTORIC TRAINERS PERCIVAL PROVOSTPERCIVAL PROVOST
86 FLYPAST April 2018
There was a need for a more complex
aircraft, one that would challenge
students from the outset.
Its characteristics were said to
replicate those of the fighters of the
time with a fast roll rate. Percival was
rewarded with an initial order for
200 units in early 1951. The RAF
eventually took 388 and export orders
swelled total production to 464 in
1960.
The first Provosts joined the Central
Flying School at South Cerney, Glos,
in 1953. The type’s retirement from
tuition was due to it being a victim
of its own success: on January 26,
1954, the prototype Jet Provost – a
radical rethink of the airframe – took
its maiden flight and began an entirely
new way of teaching pilots for the RAF.
Including the Strikemaster ground-
attack version, 741 Jet Provosts were
manufactured up to the mid-1980s.
Piston-powered Provosts carried on
serving with the RAF in other duties.
The last retired from the Central Air
Traffic Control School (CATCS) at
Shawbury, Shropshire, in November
1969.Above right
A quartet of Provost
T.1s of the Central
Flying School, Little
Rissington, 1957. KEY
COLLECTIONRight
Provost T.1 XF603
alongside 1972-built
Jet Provost T.5A
XW433 (G-JPRO) at Old
Warden in July 2013.“It was designed to replace
the sedate Percival Prentice.
There was a need for a more
complex aircraft, one that
would challenge students from
the outset”