| Gloster Javelin | |
|---|---|
| Gloster Javelin XH903 | |
| Role | All-weather fighter/interceptor |
| Manufacturer | Gloster Aircraft Company |
| Designer | George Carter |
| First flight | 26 November 1951 |
| Introduction | 29 February 1956 |
| Retired | April 1968 |
| Primary user | Royal Air Force |
| Number built | 436 |
The Gloster Javelin was an "all-weather" interceptor aircraft that served with Britain's Royal Air Force in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s. It was a T-tailed delta-wing aircraft designed for night and all-weather operations and was the last aircraft to bear the Gloster name.
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The Javelin began with a 1947 Air Ministry requirement for a high-performance night fighter that led to orders for prototypes under specification F.44/46 of two of the competing designs, the Gloster GA.5 and the de Havilland DH.110 which was also under consideration for the Royal Navy. When it appeared that the Gloster design would be ready sooner and would be simpler and cheaper to build, the de Havilland submission was rejected; though the company was to continue development of the DH.110 as a private venture that eventually resulted in the naval Sea Vixen. The Gloster design had a distinctive appearance, its broad delta wings surmounted by a large-finned T-tail. The F.44/46 specification subsequently became F.4/48 related to the "Operational Requirement" OR.227.
The GA.5 first flew on 26 November 1951 flown by test pilot Bill Waterton[1] (two months after the prototype DH 110 took to the air), with protracted flight testing taking place until 1956, when the first 14 production machines were delivered, designated F(AW) Mk 1. On one test flight, the elevator surfaces detached. Rather than abandon the aircraft, Bill Waterton landed it despite the lack of control surfaces. He was awarded the George Medal for his action in retrieving flight data from the burning aircraft.[2] The second prototype (WD808) received a modified wing in 1953. After initial testing by Waterton, it was passed to another Gloster test pilot Peter Lawrence[N 1] for his opinion. On 11 June 1953, the aircraft crashed. Lawrence had ejected, but too late (at about 400 ft (120 m)), and was killed. The Javelin had experienced a "deep stall", the wing acting like an airbrake had killed forward motion and at the same time stopped airflow over the elevators, leaving them useless. Without elevator control, Lawrence would not have been able to regain control and the aircraft dropped from the sky.[3] The third prototype (WT827), and the first to be fitted with radar flew on 7 March 1953. The fourth WT827 was passed to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) for trials and the fifth prototype, WT836, made its first flight in July 1954.
On 14 October 1954, a pilot attached to Gloster from RAE Farnborough was killed in a Mk I Javelin XA546 after entering a spin. On 8 December 1955, a service test pilot S/L Dick was testing XA561 for the A&AEE. During manoeuvres, it entered a flat spin which the anti-spin parachute could not stop, and he ejected. Following this, a stall-warning device was developed for the Javelin.
During the course of testing development and improvements continued, leading to small production runs of different models of the aircraft throughout the years.
By the end of 1956, the Javelin was up to a FAW 7 variant, which was the first to actually meet the specifications of the original Air Ministry requirement, and which was to become the definitive version of the aircraft (most of which were later altered to the FAW 9 standard). Indeed, the Javelin was evolving so quickly that deliveries of the FAW 8 began before FAW 7 production had ended. As a result, the final 80 FAW 7 aircraft went straight from the factory into storage, eventually flying after being re-manufactured as FAW 9s. A total of 427 Javelins were produced in all variants, plus seven prototypes.
The Javelin entered service with the RAF in 1956 with 46 Squadron based at RAF Odiham, England[4] Even when entering service, there were strict limitations as to the extent of manoeuvres that should be attempted.
At its peak (in the years 1959 to 1962), the Javelin equipped 14 squadrons. After 1962, numbers dropped rapidly and, by 1964, only four squadrons were flying the type.
The closest that the RAF's Javelins came to combat was during the Malaysian Confrontation with Indonesia from September 1963 until August 1966. Javelins of 60 Squadron, later joined by 64 Squadron operated out of RAF Tengah, Singapore flying combat patrols over the jungles of Malaysia. In 1964, an Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashed while trying to evade interception by a Javelin FAW.9 of 60 Squadron. During June 1967, following the disbandment of 64 Squadron, 60 Squadron were deployed to Kai Tak, Hong Kong because of unrest in the colony during China's Cultural Revolution. Javelins were also deployed to Zambia during the early stages of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, to protect Zambia from any action by the Rhodesian Air Force.
The last of the type was withdrawn from service in 1968 with the disbandment of 60 Squadron at RAF Tengah at the end of April 1968.[5] One aircraft remained flying with the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down until 24 January 1975.
A total of 435 airframes were built by Gloster and Armstrong-Whitworth; both companies at that time were part of the Hawker Siddeley group. Several were converted to different marks (sometimes repeatedly).
Several variants were proposed and investigated but not produced, including reconnaissance versions, a fighter bomber version with underwing panniers for bombs, and a supersonic variant with area-ruled fuselage, thinner wings, and a new tail. The "thin wing Javelin" would have been capable of about Mach 1.6 and with a higher ceiling than contemporary US designs. Initial work started with fitting a thinner section wing to a Javelin fuselage but as the project developed the changes became so great that it would effectively have been a different aircraft albeit having an outward resemblance to the Javelin. The final incarnation of the thin wing Javelin just before cancellation was a large aircraft carrying two Red Dean all aspect missiles as a possible contender for Operational Requirement F.155.
Data from Thunder and Lightnings[18]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Avionics
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