The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) Jet Provost was a training aircraft used by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993. Developed in the early 1950’s by the Hunting Aircraft company from the Percival Provost, a piston engine trainer, the Jet Provost proved to be a highly capable and effective trainer, having a side-by-side seating configuration with duplicate flight controls. First flown in June 1954, the Jet provost went through a number of trials before being formally accepted in 1957. The first production version was the T3, powered by the Rolls Royce Viper 102. The T3 entered service at RAF Syerston in England in June 1959, having been delivered by the Hunting Aircraft factory at the Luton, England airport. Several more versions of the Jet Provost would subsequently be built and utilized not just as a basic trainer, but also as an air warfare and tactical weapons trainer, advanced trainer, and aerobatic aircraft.
The Museum’s Jet Provost is a Mk. 3A model that was built at Hunting Aircraft’s Luton, England factory in 1958, entering service on August 31, 1959 following a short period at Kemble Royal Air Force (RAF) Airfield in England where it was prepared for military service. Between 1962 and 1964 the aircraft was used by numerous RAF Training Schools, being based at RAF Syerston, RAF Linton-on-Ouse, and finally, at RAF Leeming, England. In June 1968 the aircraft was flown to RAF Shawbury, England for storage. On June 14, 1973 the Jet Provost was ferried to Warton, England for conversion to a T.3A model and would subsequently serve at numerous RAF bases in a variety of roles, including as a training aircraft, before being officially retired in 1993. In 1994 the aircraft was exported to the United States and sold to the Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum in Hillsboro, Oregon in 2002. In Mid-2015, the Jet Provost was moved to the Tillamook Air Museum where it is on loan from the Classic Aircraft Aviation Museum.