In the early 1950s, the English company Hunting Percival Aircraft Ldt began working on a jet trainer to place alongside the successful HPA Provost, a piston engine driven trainer. In line with the British school view, this airplane also hosts a student and the instructor side by side.
The 588 units built were mainly made in the T-3, T-3A, T-4 and T-5 versions (the only one with a pressurized cabin).
More than 200 specimens were used by the British Royal Air Force, while the rest were employed by six overseas air forces.
In 1963 Hunting Percival joined the British Aircraft Company consortium which continued the production of the Jet Provost; in 1967 the armed version called Strikemaster made its first flight. The last Jet Provost, in the T-5 version, was delivered on 6 October 1972.
Volandia exhibits a Jet Provost T-3A (originally built as a T-3) built directly by Hunting Aicraft in 1960 for the Royal Air Force – with serial number XM478.
Between acceptance, training and storage he worked with the following units:
– 27th RAF Maintenance Unit at the RAF Shawbury base (1960);
– No. 2 Flying Training School at the RAF Syerston base with identification number 21 (1960-1962);
– RAF College in Cranwell with identification number 28 (1962-1963)
– No. 1 Flying Training School at RAF base Linton on-Ouse with identification number 17 (1963-1974);
– returned to BAC for conversion to the T.3A version (1974 – January 1975)
– No.1 Flying Training School at RAF base Linton on-Ounsec with identification number 54 (1975-1976);
– deposit at the RAF base of Kemble, today Cotswold (1976-1979);
– No. 7 Flying Training School at RAF Church Fenton base with identification number 104 (1979-1984);
– No. 1 Flying Training School at RAF base Linton on-Ouse with identification number 33 (1984-1993);
– deposit at RAF Shawbury base (1993-1994).
In September 1994, Global Aviation purchased the Jet Provost XM478 and had it transferred to the RAF base in Binbrook, where it was again sold and transferred to North Weald.
In this new location the airplane was completely restored by GoshThat’sAviation Ltd and brought back to flight conditions by McCarthy Aviation.
In the early 2000s the airplane was able to show the yellow / gray coloring during its first civil flight, with G-BXDL marks.
After being based in Swansea he began to participate in aerial demonstrations and static displays; before arriving in Italy this airplane fell into the hands of several English owners and was based in Bournemonth and North Weald.
Purchased in February 2007 by Renzo Catellani and overhauled by De-Havilland Aviation, in 2008 the Jet Provost was flown to Italy with I-PROV brands.
After finishing Italian life at Reggio Emilia airport, the aircraft was purchased by the Volandia Museum and flown to Malpensa on 28 June 2018.