Entered RAF Service In '75; Company Purchased XX833 In
2001
Thursday was a historic day for aviation enthusiasts as XX833,
which for the past six months was the only flying UK
military-registered Jaguar left in service, took its last flight,
marking the end of an era for Jaguar flying in UK. The last of the
RAF’s Jaguars were themselves retired this summer.
The QinetiQ-owned Jaguar T Mk 2A, (XX833), which is operated in
conjunction with the MOD as part of the Aircraft Test and
Evaluation Centre (ATEC) operation, was undertaking trials flights
after which the airframe went out of hours. It was piloted by Sqn
Ldr Andy Blythe, and accompanied by Wg Cdr Paul Shakespeare, both
from the Fast Jet Test Squadron (FJTS), based at MOD Boscombe
Down.
At around 11:30 the aircraft took off from its home base for a
medium level flight, routed via RAF Coltishall, RAF Coningsby and
BAE Systems Warton locations each with a long Jaguar heritage,
(doing a slow and fast fly past at each) plus it overflew RAF
Marham where a number of the engineers that worked on the Jaguar
are now based, before returning to MOD Boscombe Down. Then at
around 15:00, XX833 took to the air for the final time with a low
level flight around Wales prior to an overflight of St Athan,
eventually returning to MOD Boscombe Down for a final flypast
before landing at around 15:45. The Jaguar was also accompanied by
one of QinetiQ’s Alpha Jets on these flights to obtain
air-to-air photographs.
Jaguar T Mk 2A, XX833, was manufactured by BAe at Warton as a
two-seat operational advanced trainer and delivered to the MOD in
February 1975. It was transferred to RAE Farnborough in February
1989, transferring to MOD Boscombe Down in April 1994 and finally
became a QinetiQ asset in July 2001.
On retirement, XX833 will have flown around 4700 sorties,
clocked up over 5,335 flying hours with more than 7690 landings. In
the 12 years of service at MOD Boscombe Down, the aircraft has
flown 1070 hours, suffered five bird-strikes, one lightning strike,
consumed nine engines (with an average life of 122.33 hours each),
and carried out over 864 sorties.
XX833 was powered by two Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour Mk 104
engines with afterburners, producing a max speed (at straight and
level) of Mach 1.1 (729kt, 1,350km/h) and a service ceiling height
of 14,023m (46,000ft). Its internal fuel capacity of 4,200 litres
(924 Imp gallons) plus the fitment of additional external fuel
tanks gave an approximate operational radius of 408km
(760nmiles).
Since manufacture it had a comprehensive instrumentation,
recording and telemetry system fitted; this required the removal of
the Aden Gun facility and modification of the ammunition tanks to
accommodate its experimental fits. The aircraft was used as a
development test vehicle for the Jaguar 96/97 updates and had a
number of systems broadly comparable with those fitted to T Mk 4
aircraft.
A Head Tracker System (HTS) was provided to give steering and
target information to the Head Tracker System and NAVWASS
(Navigation and Weapon Aiming Sub-System). The HTS was used in
conjunction with HMD (Helmet Mounted Display), Display NVG (Night
Vision Goggles), or Integrated Panoramic NVG (IPNVG) to provide a
Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS) facility.
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