A Cold War icon furnished the RAF with a reliable workhorse in an age of increasingly complex aircraft Peter R Foster profiles the Jaguar in its 50th anniversary of entering British service
The Jaguar was an aircraft of humble origins. Beginning as a design for a two-seat supersonic trainer conceived as a replacement for the Folland Gnat, it was also born out of the procurement shambles involving the BAC TSR.2, General Dynamics F-111K, the redesign of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, and the last gasp measure of re-rolling the Blackburn Buccaneer. The late Jeffrey Quill, then with the British Aerospace Corporation (BAC) – best remembered for his testing days with Vickers – recalled: “The need for a replacement for the Gnat was brewing up. The idea of international
