I recollect seeing a rudimentary chaff dispenser made out of what looked like a broomstick and some other bits and bobs. I’m not sure when that was but probably during my time as DI Staff @ Laarbruch 81-85 and would have been when Tiger Tim was Boss. Anyone else remember that?

I was on II when TT was OC. I can't remember much about the chaff dispenser except that it was the shape of brake chute canister and I think had about 6 chaff cartridges fitted. It was operated by the pilot using the brake chute handle. As I said earlier, they were only fitted for a couple of hours at the start of each excerise.

I can attest to the fragility of the "Noddy Cap". As a young buck LAC rigger on 226OCU it often fell to me to spend a shift in the riggery repairing split Noddy Caps. The caps were stitched back together by drilling holes either side of the split and then threading locking wire through them to pull the split closed. The finished repair was then slavvered in mastic. Niiiiiice :ok:

Liberally pour a circle of fullers earth on the floor, place a chair in the middle and bodge tape yourself to it, you will be ok.


..

Is there any chance to get it airworthy and flying again?

Not in this country without manufacturers support.

That "fast taxi" looked like it was plenty fast enough!

I had been thinking about the legal side of things.

The driver took the aircraft out of burner at 100kts and was doing 125kts when he pulled the chute.

The Chute was a bitch to get back into the can after we first took it out to check it and proved just as difficult to get the shackle to engage on the aircraft when we refitted the cone after fitting the can (there is a sensor rod that automatically initiates a parachute jettison if the noddy cap comes off without the parachute deployment handle being pulled). As oldmansquipper has correctly stated, the build quality tolerances on the Cat are somewhat random.

No OEM support for the Airframe or Engines. Jaguar almost across the board is a Complex airframe as regards a CAA PtF so that issue kills any chance of 741 flying right off the bat.

If there was support, there are a still a shed load of other issues that would stop this aircraft from flying.

No documentation of component histories , No Live Escape system (Election seat is missing the main gun and rocket pack, plus everything else that goes bang as regards cartridges) , Non Aerospace complainant materials used, Life-ex Wing and Engines fitted (former use of the engines was for blade blending training at Cosford). No Nav Attack avionics fitted which means no HUD, which is the primary flight information display system.

Thanks. Still super impressive to get it going again.