Percival Provost

what is it?

The Percival P.56 Provost is a basic trainer aircraft that was designed and manufactured by British aviation company Percival. During the 1950s, the Provost was developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a replacement for the Percival Prentice. Designed by Henry Millicer, it was a single-engined low-wing monoplane, furnished with a fixed, tailwheel undercarriage and, like the preceding Prentice, had a side-by-side seating arrangement.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · low wing · 10.7 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 322 km/htop speed
• size 1,995 kgmax take-off weight
• built 461made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 76 years ago, in 1950.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 10.7 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1950-02-24

introduced

1953

retired

1969

status

retired

number built

461

role

military trainer aircraft

makers

Hunting Aircraft

engines

1× Alvis Leonides 126 / Leonides

crew

2

length

8.7 m

wingspan

10.7 m

height

3.7 m

max take-off weight

1,995 kg

top speed

322 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,620 m

wings

low wing

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.