Facts about the Folland Gnat

GN-111 of the HävLv 21

Gnat F.1's of the Finnish Air Force.

A Gnat F.1 of the Indian Air Force in 1966

A HAL Ajeet of the Indian Air Force

The Gnat F.1 is a British all-metal swept-wing interceptor, that was originally designed by Folland as Fo141. The prototype was made in 1954 and the first production version flew 18. July 1955.

The era of the fast and powerful jets had emerged, in 1950 a famous designer a W.E.W. Petter left English Electric to join Follands.

The team decided to scale down these big heavy fuel drinking aircraft that needed big airfields with long runways to operate from..

In 1954 the first Folland jet fighter Design emerged the “Folland Midge”, this was a single seat jet aircraft which was delayed for a few years due to the original engine to which the aircraft had been designed around was abandoned.

The Folland Gnat F.1 / F.B.1 was born, this little jet aeroplane powered by a single Bristol Siddeley Orpheus 701 Turbojet engine of 4,520lbs static thrust with a total weight (engine & Aircraft) of 6,250lbs including two 30mm Aden Cannon machine guns which were located in the leading edge outer side wall of the engine air intakes.

The Gnat first made its first flight on the 18^th of May 1955, six aircraft of this type were ordered by the Air Ministry for evaluation, sadly this aircraft was dropped due to the robust and universal role of the Hawker Hunter.

All was not lost, the Gnat being small economical a top speed of mach 0.98 at 40,000 ft a very fast rate of climb and a take off run of 300 yards, the Indian Airforce ordered a number of Gnats including a contract to construct under license by Hindustan Aeronautics in India.

The developer of the Gnat, W.E.W. Petter was concerned about the ever-increasing weight and size of high-performance fighters and he wanted to build a light jet fighter. He aimed at the smallest possible size, low price and good performance.

The Air Ministry of Britain ordered 6 Gnat F.1 aircraft for trial use. The type was not accepted into service with the Royal Air Force, but later the RAF selected the tandem seated version Gnat T as its advanced trainer.

The single-seat fighter variant F.1 was sold to Finland (13 aircraft), Yugoslavia (2), and lndia (40) where 215 more Gnat aircraft were built under licence between 1962 and 1974.

Gnats were found effective combat aircraft in the September 1965 war between lndia and Pakistan. Their production continued in India as HAL Ajeet. The Ajeets were made with internal wing fuel tanks ('wet wings') and there were other modifications made as well: e.g. updated avionics and uprated engines. 80 HAL Ajeets were built from 1975 to 1982. Also a two-seat version of the aircraft was developed, production beginning in 1987.
The Indian Airforce used the Ajeets until 1991.

| TOP |

The Wonderful World of Vehicles

Facts about the Folland Gnat