December 20th 2007, MoD Boscombe Down. The sun was setting, charcoal-red as it sunk into the hazy inversion layer in today’s typical cold, winter anticyclone UK weather. A small crowd of onlookers in fluorescent jackets, mostly aircraft engineers, frozen breath gently swirling, hunched against the cold and joked around.
It appeared over the top of the Taj Mahal (the main office block at Boscombe), menacing, a trail of smoke from the engines, max chat in dry power. Jaguar 833, the last Jaguar to fly on the UK military register flew its last sortie today.
What an aircraft – truly a ridiculous thing to fly, proof-positive that the flat-plate effect works (but not very well!). Hugely underpowered, no wing to speak of, handling qualities like the stuff of nightmares.
And yet, those who flew it, loved it. And more tellingly those of us who would not call ourselves Jag mates enjoyed the challenge and the character of flying this great looking aeroplane.
It was also an aircraft that has been hugely successful for the RAF. Always ahead of it’s time in avionics, as much as it was behind its time in performance, the Jag squadrons excelled whether on operations or on exercises like Red Flag. Why? becuase of some of the best pilots in the world who loved their aircraft and love to fight it, along with a simple aircraft that quietly kept on going.
And now, it’s being replaced by its antithesis – the Typhoon with awe-inspiring aero and propulsive performance, but yet is is always a subject of controversy – and is struggling to find any good pilots who want to fly it! (just kidding 😀 ).
The Jag roared past, hair-dryer engines giving it all they had, turned down wind and landed. Job done, and well done too.
Well done the Jag, and all who flew it.
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December 20, 2007 at 9:32 pm