AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 288 / 289

Plate 288 of 289 · Modern age · Elementary flying trainer

Grob Prefect T1

Prefect T1 (G 120TP-A), ZM309, painted as ZM309, a Grob G 120TP-A Prefect T1 of No. 57 Squadron, No. 3 Flying Training School, the elementary flying training squadron at RAF College Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire, on which RAF, Royal Navy and Army pilots learn to fly: a two-seat aerobatic trainer with a carbon-composite airframe, a Rolls-Royce 250-B17F turboprop driving a five-bladed MT propeller, side-by-side seats under a one-piece canopy, a low tapered wing with dihedral and upturned winglets, a swept fin with a long dorsal fillet, a tailplane set low on the tail cone and retractable tricycle undercarriage: white overall with dark blue undersides, a dark blue belly band and wing-root glove, light blue panels on the cowling and diagonal light blue stripes on the wings and tailplanes, a red spinner and grey propeller blades, a red, white and blue roundel and black ‘ZM309’ on the rear fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash with the squadron crest above it and ‘09’ near the top of the fin, and roundels near the wingtips above and below, as photographed on static display at RAF Cosford in 2016 and at the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2022 and 2023 (side profile taken from a side-on photograph of ZM309 scaled to the published length; plan and front views from a published drawing scaled to the published span; upper-wing stripes and undersides follow sister aircraft in the same scheme, where ZM309’s photographs cannot see them; the crest is simplified and the small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZM309, a Grob G 120TP-A Prefect T1 of No. 57 Squadron, No. 3 Flying Training School, the elementary flying training squadron at RAF College Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire, on which RAF, Royal Navy and Army pilots learn to fly: a two-seat aerobatic trainer with a carbon-composite airframe, a Rolls-Royce 250-B17F turboprop driving a five-bladed MT propeller, side-by-side seats under a one-piece canopy, a low tapered wing with dihedral and upturned winglets, a swept fin with a long dorsal fillet, a tailplane set low on the tail cone and retractable tricycle undercarriage: white overall with dark blue undersides, a dark blue belly band and wing-root glove, light blue panels on the cowling and diagonal light blue stripes on the wings and tailplanes, a red spinner and grey propeller blades, a red, white and blue roundel and black ‘ZM309’ on the rear fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash with the squadron crest above it and ‘09’ near the top of the fin, and roundels near the wingtips above and below, as photographed on static display at RAF Cosford in 2016 and at the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2022 and 2023 (side profile taken from a side-on photograph of ZM309 scaled to the published length; plan and front views from a published drawing scaled to the published span; upper-wing stripes and undersides follow sister aircraft in the same scheme, where ZM309’s photographs cannot see them; the crest is simplified and the small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (764 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (G 120TP Prefect T1); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Prefect T1 (G 120TP-A), ZM309 modelled here.

History

The Prefect T1

Grob of Bavaria, a firm that began by building gliders in composite materials, made its name with the RAF through the G 115, the piston-engined trainer the service flew as the Tutor T1 from 1999. Its larger G 120A followed, and the G 120TP began as a turboprop version of it. By the time it first flew in 2010 so much had changed that it was nearly a new aircraft: a carbon-fibre airframe built for aerobatics at +6 and −4 g, a Rolls-Royce 250 turboprop of 456 shp driving a five-bladed MT propeller, retractable undercarriage, winglets and a cockpit laid out like a fast jet’s, with glass screens and hands-on-throttle-and-stick controls. It gained its European type certificate in May 2013.

The G 120TP was built to give student pilots a first aircraft with the speed and handling of a turboprop, so that they could move on to faster trainers sooner. Indonesia was the first customer, and air forces from Argentina, Jordan and Kenya to Mexico, Sweden and Canada have since bought it. Its two seats are side by side, so the instructor sits next to the student rather than behind, as in most elementary trainers.

In Britain it came through the Military Flying Training System, under which Ascent, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Babcock, provides the training aircraft for all three services. Its partner Affinity Flying Training Services ordered 23 G 120TPs in February 2016, and the first two arrived that November, nine months after the contract was signed. As the Prefect T1 it took over elementary flying training from the Tutor in 2017, beginning with five aircraft at RAF Barkston Heath on 1 August. No. 57 Squadron of No. 3 Flying Training School flies them from RAF College Cranwell and Barkston Heath, where every RAF, Royal Navy and Army pilot now learns to fly before going on to fast jets, multi-engined aircraft or helicopters.

This airframe

Prefect T1 ZM309

ZM309The airframe modelled

ZM309 is one of the 23 Prefect T1s flown by No. 57 Squadron, No. 3 Flying Training School, from RAF College Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath. No Prefect is in a museum, so the model shows a serving aircraft, and ZM309 was chosen because it is the RAF Prefect best photographed: side-on on static display at RAF Cosford in 2016, and at the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2022 and 2023, by when it carried the code ‘09’ on its fin. The model shows it as those photographs do: white overall with dark blue undersides and a dark blue band along the belly, light blue panels on the cowling, a red spinner, a red, white and blue roundel and black ‘ZM309’ on the rear fuselage, and a fin flash with the squadron crest above it. Its side profile is taken from the side-on photograph scaled to the published length, and its plan from a published drawing. The light blue stripes on the upper wings and the markings underneath, which ZM309’s photographs do not show, follow sister aircraft in the same scheme; the crest is simplified and the small stencils are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The RAF’s 23 Prefects fly with No. 3 Flying Training School at RAF Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath. None is in a museum.

All 289 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.