- Yes
- No
Hello, I’m suggesting a licensed built jet trainer that was armed. The Canadian CT-133 and its AT variant, once used by the RCAF.
History:
Despite liking the performance of the British vampire, the RCAF realized it would need better aircraft, which would lead to acquiring the license to build the F-86 Saber along with the CF-100 which was in development at the time. Despite these aircraft, Canada still needed a trainer due to the lack of a two-seat train in the Saber. This would lead Canadair to sign a contract with the Department of Defence Production to produce the Lockheed T-33. This production line, known as Silver Star Mk 3 as Mk 1 was the small number of Lockheed-built T-33 and Mk 2 was used for the first prototype of the CT-133, which would receive a few changes. The biggest of them would be the engines which would use the Royal-Royce Nene. This occurred due to a number of reasons, two of the biggest reasons would be that General Motors wouldn’t have been able to deliver the required turbojet engines in time and the second would be the fact they would have to have been paid in American dollars, which would have hurt Canada’s balance of payments, well the Nene, on the other hand, could have been paid in pounds well also being cheaper than the J33, which lead to a win-win situation for both nations as it help the British aircraft industry, well also not hurting Canada’s balance of payments. In the fall of 1951, the Department of Defence Production negotiated for Rolls-Royce to build its Nene engines in Canada, which would open a factory under its Canadian subsidiary. This production would be supported by a handful of other companies. In order to support and lessen the burden on Canadair, a number of other companies would be contracted to manufacture a number of parts of the Silver Star. These companies would include but not limited to, Industries Roy Limitée and Ford Motor Company of Canada.
The T-33 was a development of the P-80 to make a training aircraft. The P-80 would begin development in 1943 and would have its first flight in 1944, well the T-33, which was originally called TF-80C would have its first flight on the 22 of March 1948. All in all, a total of 6,557 T-33s were built by Lockheed, Kawasaki and Canadair.
When the CT-133 entered service its primary role was training for fighters/interceptors. But this wouldn’t be its only role during its service life. It would also be an aerobatic demonstrator for the Red Knight. Well, the aircraft would be retired from the trainer role in 1976 the aircraft wouldn’t be fully retired from the Canadian forces until 2005. As the final one would be retired from the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment at CFB Cold Lake, where it had served as an ejection seat testbed. Canada would use 149 Silver Stars of the 3AT variant. The 3AT was extremely easy to add/remove its guns making the AT and PT variants the same plane. The CT-133 also had RATO provisions.
Specs:
Crew: one–two
Length: 11.48 m (37 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 12.93 m (42 ft 5 in)
Height: 3.55 m (11 ft 8 in)
Empty weight: 3,830 kg (8,444 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 7,630 kg (16,800 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbojet, 22 kN (5,000 lbf) thrust
Maximum speed: 920 km/h (570 mph, 500 kn)
Service ceiling: 14,000 m (46,000 ft)
Armament:
2 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) Browning M3 machine guns
Ordnance:
Rockets: HVARs
Bombs: 1000 lb
Sources
https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/articles/it-really-kept-going-and-going-and-going-a-brief-look-at-the-canadian-career-of
Canadian Warplanes 6: Canadair CT-133A Silver Star
Canadair CT-133 Silver Star - Wikipedia
https://caspir.warplane.com/asrc/acn/200000458/
https://albertaaviationmuseum.com/collection/aircraft-collection/t-33-mk-3/
