Gnat and Ajeet

[Marcfighter 23]

Hi My Friends !

 

Gnat and Ajeet fighters .

 

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Gnat Origins

The Gnat was the creation of W.E.W. "Teddy" Petter, a British aircraft designer who had gained wide recognition for his design of the English Electric Canberra bomber and other aircraft. Petter had grown suspicious of the trend towards bigger and more expensive combat aircraft, and he felt that a small, simple fighter would offer the advantages of low purchase and operational costs.

 

Armament

The Gnat was armed with two 30 millimeter Aden revolver-type cannon, firing from the outer edge of the air intakes. While this arrangement might have suggested that the Gnat would be prone to engine flameouts from muzzle gas ingestion, that did not prove to be the case, suggesting that the muzzle system had been carefully designed to deflect the gases out to the sides. The Gnat also had two stores pylons for drop tanks, 225 kilogram (500 pound) bombs, or unguided rocket pods.

 

Users

Britain showed very little interest in the Gnat F.1 but they were very interested in the trainer version designated as the Gnat T.1.

However the Gnat was destined for Export.

Finland:

The Finnish Air Force acquired 13 Folland Gnat F.1 aircraft in 1958-1960. They were coded GN-101 to GN-113. Two of the aircraft, GN-112 and GN-113, were photographic versions ('FR.1') equipped for reconnaissance.

 

Yugoslavia:

Two Gnat F.1s were sold to Yugoslavia for evaluation and possible license prodution in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav pilots were impressed with the Gnat buts its short range and inability to carry substantial armament made the Yugoslavs to opt for the Sabre instead.

 

India:

Indian interest in the Gnat was accidental. In the mid-1950s, Indian test pilots were sent to Europe to evaluate various fighters on offer. These were Mystere, Supermarine Swift and Saab Lansen among others. The Swift was , on paper,considered best suited for IAF requirements. An IAF pilot after a test flight on the Swift by chance saw the Midge(Gnat prototype) performing maneuvers. The Indian test pilot was impressed and wanted to meet Mr. Petter and see if the aircraft was for sale to India. The Indian pilot was told that the aircraft was not for sale to India. Mr Petter over heard a conversation about cricket between the Indian test pilot and some directors of Folland. Later Mr Petter called the Indian pilot to test fly the Gnat and soon an agreement was signed for manufacture of Gnats in India by HAL.Later during a conversation, Mr. Petter told the Indian pilot that he thought that India was a communist country and the aircraft was not for sale to Communist countries. But when he came to know of cricket in India and India being a democracy, he changed his mind.

The Gnat was described as a single seat fighter bomber about one third the size and about half the weight of a conventional jet fighter and in its time, was capable of out-turning and out-accelerating contemporary fighters"

A total of 130+ Gnats were built by HAL and went on to serve with Eight Sqdns (Nos. 2, 9, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23 & 24).

The Gnats took part in the 1965 and 1971 war. Its exploits in the 1965 war earned it the nickname "Sabre Slayer" as it downed eight PAF F-86s during the 1965 war.Squadron Leader Trevor Keelor oF No. 23 "Panthers" Squadron opened IAF's account in the 1965 war when he shot down a PAF F-86 on 3rd September 1965 over Chamb.Trevor Keelor's brother, Sqdn Ldr Denzil Keelor too was flying Gnats with No. 9 "Wolfpack" Sqdn. He too shot down a PAF F-86 on 19th September. Thereby making it a a unique acheivment of brothers flying the same type of aircraft, albeit with different squadrons, shooting down the same type of enemy aircraft.

In the 1971 war, Gnats again drew first blood when Gnats of No.22 "Swifts" Sqdn enaged PAF Sabre Mk.6s after they violated and strafed Indian positions near Boyra in the eastern theater of operations.Two Sabres were shot down and its pilots captured , while the third escaped back to East Pakistan(now Bangladesh) and its pilot ejected.

The most memorable of engagements by Gnats in the west, was that by Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon of No.18 "Flying Bullets" Squadron. Flying from Srinagar on December 14th, Sekhon took off while still the runway was being bombed and he single handedly took on six PAF F-86 Sabres. Although eventually overwhelmed and killed, he managed to take score hits on two of them. His heroic efforts saved Srinagar airfield from destruction. The Param Vir Chakra (the nation's highest gallantry award equivalent to the US Medal of Honour) was posthumously awarded to Fg. Off. N.J.S. Sekhon.

Apart from air defence operations, the aircraft perfomed multiple roles in the Bangladesh Liberation War being utilized in Anti-Shipping Operations, Ground attack, Bomber/Transport escort and Close Air Support with "devastating effects" on the PAF

 

Ajeet(Gnat Mk.2)

The IAF were impressed by Gnat's performance in the two wars, but the plane had problems like hydraulics,gun stoppages and some of its control systems were unreliable. To address these issues, the IAF issued a requirement for an improved "Gnat II" in 1972, at first specifying that the new version was to be optimized as an interceptor, but then expanding the specification to include the ground-attack role. The HAL-built licensed version was called the "Ajeet"(Sanskrit for "Invincible / Unconquered / Unbeatable").The Ajeet was difficult to tell apart from a Gnat at a casual glance, but it incorporated many changes and improvements. The most visible change was that the Ajeet had four stores pylons, with a total carriage capacity of 900 kilograms (one ton), instead of the Gnat's two pylons.The last Ajeets were phased out of IAF service in 1991.

 

Text Ghostrider883 .

SOON!!!

[gerald14 0]

No way!!!!

The skins are great!!!!!

I like the Yugo one

[+Dave 2,318]

Marcelo and Ghost

 

out damn standing work! Looking forward to this one.

[+SkippyBing 8]

Very nice, but where's the Hot Shots skins !!!

[+ghostrider883 526]

Marcelo and Ghost

 

out damn standing work! Looking forward to this one.

 

Thanks Dave. Its Marcelo & starfighter2 who did most of the work . Marcelo made these excellent models and its really beautiful Indian,Finnish & Yugoslav skins. starfighter2 made superb and accurate FMs. The aircraft's performance against its opponents is exactly as desired, specially against its good old friend, the PAF F-86

I just made a few decals .

Cockpit is by Mago & Marcelo.

Marcelo has modelled Gnat's unique speedbrake and landing gear system accurately. The Gnat's landing gear would deploy in a semi-retracted position to work as its speedbrake. Though there were some problems faced with this, thanks to RussoUk2002, USAFMTL and Sony Tuckson's help, it was resolved

 

Any mention of the Gnat would be incomplete without this. An IAF Gnat punishing a PAF F-86F

Its a real blast to see F-86s disintegrating in front of you .

I would like to thank Mr. P.V.S Jagan Mohan for his answers to my questions and his Bharat-Rakshak website, from where I found most of the information on the Gnat and Ajeet. His book "Indo- Pak Air War of 1965" is an excellent source as well.

Edited May 16, 2007 by ghostrider883

[+ghostrider883 526]

Very nice, but where's the Hot Shots skins !!!

 

The Gnats in Hot Shots were T.1s, right? I saw the movie long time back.

What a pair these two made during their hey days

Edited May 16, 2007 by ghostrider883

[JediMaster 451]

Will these have the Charlie Sheen-installed alarms, too?

[+Soulfreak 6,351]

Superb work Marcelo!

ps how goes the Su-25 on????

[Marcfighter 23]

Superb work Marcelo!

ps how goes the Su-25 on????

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SU-25 in development .

[+Crusader 2,051]

[Atreides 144]

Any status update ?

[Marcfighter 23]

Any status update ?

 

 

Hi Atreides!

 

This in final phase.

[Atreides 144]

Hi Atreides!

 

This in final phase.

 

Cool, can't wait to smoke those Sabre's.

[+ghostrider883 526]

Hi Atreides!

 

This in final phase.

 

Marcelo,

I was not able to find the Ajeet & Gnat drop tanks e-mail i had sent you earlier. Can you please look in your e-mail inbox for this particular e-mail.