AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 185 / 188

Plate 185 of 188 · Cold War · Basic trainer

Short Tucano T.1

Tucano T.1, painted as ZF448, the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Short Tucano T.1, built by Shorts in Belfast for the RAF, flown by No. 1 Flying Training School and No. 72 (Reserve) Squadron and as the RAF Tucano Display Team aircraft, and on display at Elvington since December 2024: the RAF’s basic jet-pilot trainer of 1989 to 2019, a Belfast-built development of the Embraer EMB-312, 37 ft in span, with one Garrett TPE331 turboprop driving a four-bladed Hartzell propeller, a low straight wing, tandem seats under a one-piece stepped canopy with the instructor raised behind the student, a ventral airbrake and thin strakes along the rear fuselage running into the tailplane roots, shown standing on its tricycle undercarriage at its slight nose-up ground attitude: gloss black overall with a white spinner, black propeller blades with white bands and tips, a white ‘448’ on the nose and fin, roundels and ‘ZF448’ on the rear fuselage, a fin flash, yellow wedges at the upper wing roots, red ejection-seat triangles under the canopy and ‘Royal Air Force Tucano Display Team’ on the starboard side, as displayed (the upper-wing markings follow a single overhead photograph, the undersides are left plain black because no photograph shows them, and the pitot under the port wing tip is assumed).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZF448, the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Short Tucano T.1, built by Shorts in Belfast for the RAF, flown by No. 1 Flying Training School and No. 72 (Reserve) Squadron and as the RAF Tucano Display Team aircraft, and on display at Elvington since December 2024: the RAF’s basic jet-pilot trainer of 1989 to 2019, a Belfast-built development of the Embraer EMB-312, 37 ft in span, with one Garrett TPE331 turboprop driving a four-bladed Hartzell propeller, a low straight wing, tandem seats under a one-piece stepped canopy with the instructor raised behind the student, a ventral airbrake and thin strakes along the rear fuselage running into the tailplane roots, shown standing on its tricycle undercarriage at its slight nose-up ground attitude: gloss black overall with a white spinner, black propeller blades with white bands and tips, a white ‘448’ on the nose and fin, roundels and ‘ZF448’ on the rear fuselage, a fin flash, yellow wedges at the upper wing roots, red ejection-seat triangles under the canopy and ‘Royal Air Force Tucano Display Team’ on the starboard side, as displayed (the upper-wing markings follow a single overhead photograph, the undersides are left plain black because no photograph shows them, and the pitot under the port wing tip is assumed). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (925 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Tucano T.1 modelled here.

History

The Tucano T.1

By the early 1980s the RAF’s Jet Provosts were old and thirsty, and the Air Staff asked for a turboprop trainer that could teach new pilots the basics more cheaply while still handling like a jet. Several designs were offered, among them the Pilatus PC-9 with British Aerospace and a Hunting design, but in March 1985 the Ministry of Defence chose the Embraer EMB-312 Tucano from Brazil, to be built under licence by Short Brothers in Belfast. The RAF did not take the Brazilian aircraft as it stood. It wanted a more powerful Garrett TPE331 engine in place of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6, a stronger airframe with a longer fatigue life, a ventral airbrake, a new canopy and British equipment. A Brazilian-built prototype with the Garrett engine first flew on 14 February 1986, and the first Shorts-built aircraft flew at Belfast on 30 December 1986.

The changes made it a different aeroplane from the Embraer original, with a longer nose, a four-bladed propeller and a top speed of about 315 mph. Student and instructor sat in tandem, with the rear seat raised so the instructor could see over the student’s head, and both had Martin-Baker ejection seats. An engine governor made the throttle behave like a jet’s, so the habits learned in it carried over to the Hawk. Deliveries to the Central Flying School began in June 1988, and the Tucano T.1 took over basic flying training from the Jet Provost from 1989, at RAF Church Fenton, Cranwell, Topcliffe and Linton-on-Ouse. In its black or red-and-white trainer colours it became a familiar sight over North Yorkshire, and for many years a single Tucano flew solo displays at air shows around the country.

Shorts built 130 Tucanos for the RAF and the rest of the 160 built in Belfast for Kenya and Kuwait, and production ended in 1995. As the RAF’s training fleet shrank, the Tucanos were concentrated at Linton-on-Ouse, where No. 1 Flying Training School and No. 72 (Reserve) Squadron flew them. The last students graduated in October 2019, the type was withdrawn from RAF service on 25 October 2019, and basic training moved to RAF Valley on the Beechcraft Texan T.1. Most of the fleet was sold, but several went to museums: in the gazetteer the Tucano can be seen at the Yorkshire Air Museum, the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum, Newark Air Museum and the Ulster Aviation Society at Maze Long Kesh, whose example is painted to look like a Spitfire.

This airframe

Tucano T.1 ZF448

ZF448The airframe modelled

ZF448 was built by Shorts in Belfast and spent its RAF career at Linton-on-Ouse, flying with No. 1 Flying Training School and later No. 72 (Reserve) Squadron, and it was the display aircraft of the RAF Tucano Display Team. When basic training moved to RAF Valley in 2019 it went into store at RAF Shawbury. The RAF Heritage team released it to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, and it arrived by road in sections in December 2024 to be reassembled in a hangar there. The model shows it as photographed at the museum in 2025: gloss black overall with a white spinner, black propeller blades with white bands and tips, a white ‘448’ on both sides of the nose and on the fin above the fin flash, a red and white rescue square on the port side of the nose, red ejection-seat warning triangles under the canopy, roundels and ‘ZF448’ on the rear fuselage, and ‘Royal Air Force Tucano Display Team’ on the starboard side only. On the upper surfaces it has roundels near the wing tips and yellow wedges at the wing and tailplane roots, which follow a single overhead photograph taken a few years before it retired. No photograph shows the undersides, so they are left plain black, and the pitot under the port wing tip is assumed.

See it at Yorkshire Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Tucano T.1 in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 188 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.