BAC Strikemaster

The BAC 167 Strikemaster is a jet-powered training and light attack aircraft designed and produced by the British Aircraft Corporation. It was a development of the Hunting Jet Provost trainer, itself a jet engined version of the Percival Provost, which originally flew in 1950 with a radial engine. The Strikemaster is essentially an armed version of the Jet Provost T Mk 5. Various improvements and alterations were made to the aircraft, including an uprated Armstrong Siddeley Viper turbojet engine, wing hardpoints capable of carrying a wide variety of munitions, a pair of machine guns under the intakes, uprated flap system with two jacks, enlarged airbrake jacks, new communication and navigation gear, different electrical system, canopy breakers on the ejection seats, and a revised fuel system including tip tanks on the wing tips. First flown in 1967, the aircraft was typically marketed as a light attack or counter-insurgency aircraft, however, the majority of customers were air forces seeking an advanced trainer. The Strikemaster did see combat on multiple occasions in the service of Ecuador, Oman and Yemen. A total of 146 aircraft were produced prior to the end of production in 1983. The type remains flying into the 2020s, albeit with increasing difficulty due to a decreasing supply of spare parts over time.