Percival Prentice

The Percival Prentice was a three-seat basic trainer built for the Royal Air Force in the years just after the Second World War. It was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage, with the instructor and one pupil sitting side by side and a second pupil behind them in a seat without controls, there to gain air experience. Designed to Air Ministry Specification T.23/43, it was the first all-metal aircraft the Percival Aircraft Company produced, and its prototype first flew from Luton on 30 March 1946. Early trials exposed lateral instability and poor spin recovery that took changes to the fin, rudder and elevators to cure. The RAF ordered 455 and Blackburn built 125 of them under subcontract, with licence production in India and sales to Argentina, Lebanon and others. The Provost replaced it in the early 1950s, and some retired airframes later flew as civil aircraft.