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Gloster Javelin
The Gloster GA.5 project began in the late 1940s and was intended to incorporate recent advancements in radar, aerodynamics, and jet engines into a modern all-weather day-night interceptor. The design that ultimately emerged, known as the Javelin, featured a large-area delta wing with low wing-loading to provide good performance at high altitude. Unlike most other delta-winged aircraft of the period, the Javelin also incorporated a T-tail with conventional elevator control surfaces to reduce the high angle-of-attack such aircraft typically experience during landing. The cylindrical fuselage gave space for the two crew in a tandem seat cockpit, two turbojet engines with a large interception radar in the nose.
Some 436 Javelin interceptors and trainers were eventually built before the aircraft was withdrawn from service in 1967.
The crew of two were the pilot and a radar operator. It was powered by 2 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 7 and 7R turbojets among others in earlier production, and had a top-end speed of 1,140km/h (710 mph), and a range of 1,530 km (954 miles) for the FAW.9, and an indefinite range with the in-flight refueling capabilities of the FAW.9R. It could cruise at altitudes up to nearly 53,000 feet, and carried 2 X 30mm ADEN cannons and up to four Fairey Firestreak AAMs.
Throughout its life span the Gloster Javelin never saw much in the way of combat, but it did serve as an effective deterrent from September of 1963 through August of 1966 in the Malaysian conflict with Indonesia, and it also ran combat patrols in 1967 based out of Kai Tak, Hong Kong in 1967 during the unease of China’s Cultural Revolution.
Initial flight of the first GA.5 prototype, WD804, was on 26 November 1951 with Gloster chief test pilot Squadron Leader W.A. "Bill" Waterton at the controls. The prototype was unarmed and otherwise not fitted with combat kit. It tended to buffet and flutter badly at high speeds, with the final result that it shook off both elevators on 29 June 1952. Waterton managed to get it back down on the ground without injury to himself, though the aircraft was totalled.
The second prototype, WD808, made its initial flight on 20 August 1952, but it spent most of the rest of the year on the ground while Gloster engineers worked on the buffet and flutter problems. It returned to the air in early 1953, but was unfortunately lost in a stall on 11 June 1953, killing the pilot, Peter Lawrence.
He had delayed his ejection too long in order to ensure that the aircraft would land on open ground, sadly his parachute was unable to open in time. Because of this accident a stall warning system was developed using a sensor on top of the wing, which activated a buzzer in the pilot’s headphones if pressure at the leading edge started to drop.
Although the trials demonstrated a number of handling problems that were proving difficult to work out, a production order for the GA.5 had been placed in 1952, with the type to be formally designated "Javelin Fighter All Weather Mark 1 (FAW.1)". There were still enough difficulties with the type to force the RAF to specify an unusual level of limits on the maneuvers that could be performed with it. 40 FAW.1s were built in all.
No Javelin ever fired a shot in anger. By the early 1960s, British home defence units were converting to the English Electric Lightning , with the last Javelin in front-line service in Britain phased out in 1964. Javelins continued to serve in Germany until 1966, in Cyprus to 1967, and Singapore until 1968. No Javelins ever flew in foreign service.
Pilots were generally fond of the Javelin, since it was sturdy and reliable, with a roomy cockpit, good field of view for the aircrew, and generally pleasant handling. Engine-out handing was regarded as very good, and it was one of the first RAF aircraft that could break Mach 1 (if only in a dive). Even in maturity, however, with the all-moving tailplane, control-surface stabilization systems, and stall-warning system, it couldn't be thrown around in any serious fashion, though pilots never seemed to express much concern about that issue, seeing it as a matter of simple pilot training and competence. Nicknames that have been recorded include "Flying Triangle", "Flying Flat Iron", "Ace Of Spades" (for its profile as seen from below), "Harmonious Drag Master" (for its distinct sound), and "Grovelin" (for reasons unknown, but it sounds unflattering).
The unusual spin recovery technique is in the Hall of Fame section in the Members area
Posted : Wednesday 3rd Mar 2010, 3:41pm
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