The Percival Prentice was a basic trainer of the Royal Air Force in the early postwar period. It was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. Front seating was in a side-by-side configuration with a rear seat provided.
Designed to meet Air Ministry Specification T.23/43, the Prentice was the first all-metal aircraft to be produced by the Percival Aircraft Company. The first (of 5) prototypes, Prentice TV163[1] was first flown by Leonard Carruthers from Percival's factory at Luton Airport, Bedfordshire, on 31 March 1946. Early trials revealed lateral instability with inadequate rudder control and poor spin recovery, which required extensive tests with revised tail configurations. These resulted in modifications to the fin, rudder, elevators and upturned wingtips.[2]
An unusual design feature was the provision for three seats. While the instructor and pupil were equipped with dual controls in a side-by-side arrangement in the front, a second pupil sat in the rear seat without controls to receive "air experience". Both pupils could communicate with the instructor. Night flying training was to be carried out in daylight by means of amber screens incorporated into the canopy and the use of special goggles. The amber screens were folded back when not in use.[3]
The RAF ordered a total of 455 Prentices (95 were subsequently cancelled) and there were also a limited number of export sales. When the Percival factory was concentrating on production of the Percival Proctor and development of the Merganser as the Prince light transport aircraft, production of 125 aircraft was sub-contracted to the Blackburn Aircraft works at Brough.[4]
After the above modifications, the Prentice was passed into RAF service, initially with the regular Flying Training Schools (FTS) including the RAF College, Cranwell, where they replaced the remaining de Havilland Tiger Moths. Later deliveries went to the Reserve Flying Schools (RFS). The type was used as a pilot trainer until 1952 at the RAF College where it was replaced by the de Havilland (Canada) Chipmunk and in late 1953 at the other schools, when it was replaced by the Percival Provost.[5] Two Air Signals Schools also operated the type to train air signallers, until the last were withdrawn from No.1 ASS at RAF Swanton Morley, Norfolk, in mid 1956.[6]
In 1956 252 redundant RAF Prentices were bought by Aviation Traders Ltd, a company owned by Freddie Laker.[7] [8] and were stored at Stansted and Southend. Most were eventually scrapped but 28 were converted for civil use with two seats and two jumpseats behind the two pilots' seats, separated by a structure which housed the original 4-channel radio. This version had quite poor performance with four passengers. One aircraft (G-AOKL) was based at Stansted Aerodrome near London around 1963 and used by the resident parachute club for parachuting with at least three jumpers. One aircraft was converted to a seven-seat layout for pleasure flights operated by Jock Maitland at Ramsgate Airport. A nine-seater was under development at Southend to have been fitted with Gipsy Queen 70-2 but the project was abandoned before flight. One (G-AOPL) was acquired from Shackleton Aviation at Sywell by Captain Jon Cousens, a Desert Intelligence Officer in the Trucial Oman Scouts and flown to Sharjah in 1967; later being flown on to South Africa where it remained until it ceased flying.
Forty-two aircraft were built under licence by Hindustan Aircraft for the Indian Air Force.
Three fictional civilian Percival Prentice are featured in The Black Island (French: L'Île noire), the 7th volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The planes are used by money forgers, flying over Sussex and Scotland.
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