Folland Fo 141 Gnat
Military Trainer Aircraft

The Folland Gnat was designed by W. E. W. Petter who had already designed the Lysander, Whirlwind, Canberra and a lagge part of the English Electric Lightning. The Folland Gnat first flew in 1955 and was a very small swept-wing subsonic jet fighter, it was considered as a replacement for the RAF's DH Venom fighter in 1958 but the excellent Hawker Hunter fighter was chosen instead. In 1957 Gnat fighter was re-designed to meet advanced trainer specification T.185D for the RAF as a "stepping stone" between the DH Vampire T 11 trainers and the latest supersonic fighters being introduced into RAF service like the English Electric Lightening. The Folland Gnat entered RAF service and was introduced in November 1962 to No 4 Flying Training School based at Royal Air Force Valley in Anglesey as an advanced Jet Trainer.

In mid 1963 an informal aerobatic display team was formed by Flight Lieutenant Lee Jones at RAF Valley, the team's two seater Folland Fo.144 Gnat trainers were all painted bright yellow and flown by flight instructors who called their new aerobatic team ‘The Yellow Jacks’.

The Yellow Jacks proved to be a good idea but RAF "high ups" believed the teams name and yellow painted aircraft to be inappropriate, the informality of the team was also frowned apron, in consequence an officially sanctioned team was formed to replace the Yellow Jacks in 1964 - the team still flew the Gnat trainer but the aircraft were now painted red and the team re-named the "Red Arrows".

The Red Arrows aerobatic team flew the Gnat from 1964 to 1979 when they were retired in favour of the British Aerospace Hawk T.1A. It is of note that the RAF's Gnat trainers were originally designated the Folland Fo.144 Gnat Trainer, but were later re-classified as the Folland Gnat T.Mk.1.

It is of note that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited built 176 Gnats under licence for the Indian Air Force as the Ajeet ("Unconquerable"). Some of these Ajeets were destined to see combat during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 where they proved to be superior in combat to the F86 Sabre and gained the nickname "Sabre Killer" with their pilots and ground-crew. In the first engagement in East Pakistan, known as the Battle of Boyra, four Ajeets (Folland Gnats) quickly downed three supposabley superior F-86 Sabre fighters.

Folland Gnat T.Mk.1 Specifications:

• Wing span: 24 ft
• Length: 31 ft 9 in
• Max weight: 8,630 lbs
• Service ceiling: 40,000 ft
• Max speed: 636 mph
• Engine: lb thrust BS Orpheus 101 turbojet