Yugoslav Gnats

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The Gnat features often in the what if parts of this site and the Indian Gnat story has also been covered so I was pleased to find this page about the Yugoslav Gnats
Sadly the plane was not adopted and Yugoslavia developed its own succesful family of trainers and light attack aircraft.
 
Finland had a similarly difficult time with the Gnat
It is a shame that two potentially lucrative, and useful to Western interests, deals were stymied by a frankly poor product. Those who wish various paper designs from British companies had proceeded might bemefit from a look at two actual case studies.
 
Not sure how problematic they could have been, they served for a long time and India used them extensively. How many were lost in Finnish service?
 
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The Gnat was able to satisfy the needs of the Indians quite happily. The RAF modified theirs early on with improved elevator controls. I wonder if the Indians did similar and that Finland/Yugoslavia didn't?
 
FYI, the last 'operational' UK Gnats, were at RAF Cosford, and were used to train groundcrew on flighline operations.

They were operated by NCO groundcrew, with a mechanical throttle limiter, to prevent any adventures.....

I would imagine a few are still hanging around somewhere, at Cosford.
 
I think your comments dont alter my initial reference that two customers were dissatisfied and didnt order any more.
 
Who operated the Gnats that were used in the Hot Shot films from the early nineties, and what was their ancestry.
 
I think your comments dont alter my initial reference that two customers were dissatisfied and didnt order any more.
I think they are hardly the worst aircraft of the time and this has to be taken in context, similarly the Harrier has a high loss rate with the USMC but they apparently have little regard for updates and regularly done at that etc. Context is everything.
 
The loss rate with the USMC and Harriers was because the USMC refused two seat trainers for Harriers. The result was a lot of dead Marine pilots.
 
FYI, the last 'operational' UK Gnats, were at RAF Cosford, and were used to train groundcrew on flighline operations.

They were operated by NCO groundcrew, with a mechanical throttle limiter, to prevent any adventures.....

I would imagine a few are still hanging around somewhere, at Cosford.
Here's a list of survivors, with two at Cosford: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Folland_Gnats
Nice, there are lots!

I guess, as intended by the designer, they are easy to maintain, and repair, and cheap to run.
 

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