’All-through’ jet training was an ambitious plan, but the Jet Provost T1 proved it could work
A quartet of No 2 Flying Training School’s Jet Provost T1s (XD675, XD693, XD677 and XD678) airborne out of Hullavington during 1957.
ALL PHOTOS AEROPLANE
Progress? What progress? Today’s newly fledged RAF combat jet pilot will have started out on the pistonengined Grob Tutor elementary trainer, stayed with propellerdriven aircraft but moved on to the turboprop Shorts Tucano for basic fast jet training, and only got their hands on an actual jet at the advanced stage with the BAE Systems Hawk T2, prior to reaching the operational conversion unit for their designated front-line type. But it wasn’t always that way. Back in the mid-1950s, RAF trainees were being sent for their very first solo on a jet.
