Gnats is a jet fighter produced by the British company Frantt in the 60s of the last century, although the aircraft was not purchased by the United Kingdom, but it shined in India and participated in actual combat, known as the "Sabre Killer".
Gnats is the smallest mass-produced jet fighter, weighing only more than 4 tons, if there is really no concept, the maximum take-off weight of the Su-27 is more than 30 tons, and the bomb load has exceeded 4 tons, which shows the smallness of the Gnats fighter. Such a small fighter also creates a very high thrust-to-weight ratio, has very good maneuverability and handling, and the climb rate is much higher than that of its contemporaries.
The structure of the gnat
The Gnats F1 features a 40° up-wing sweep wing with a 3.575 aspect ratio and a RAE102 wing with a thicker wing (8% relative thickness) with a 5° lower reverse angle. The wing area is 12.69㎡. The flaperons on the trailing edge of the inner wing will sag 20° for flaps when the landing gear is lowered, the full-motion flat tail trailing edge has a very useful elevator surface, and the rear root of the vertical tail has a parachute cabin.
Structural diagram of "gnat"
The aircraft is equipped with a Frantsapo 2G ejection seat, which can be used at a speed of 240.8 km/h and an altitude of more than 91.5 meters.
The "Gnat" T.1 trainer, selected by the RAF in 1957
The nose landing gear adopts a two-wheel structure, which is towed under the cockpit, and the rear landing gear adopts a single-wheel structure, which is tucked away on both sides of the fuselage. In flight, the front wheel hatch cover can be opened 50°, and the main wheel hatch cover can be opened 20° to double as a speed brake. Inside the fuselage, there are a total of 7 fuel tanks with a total capacity of 795 liters, and the outer wing pylons can hold 300 liters of auxiliary fuel tanks.
The Mosquito F.1 is armed with two 30mm Ardennes MK.4 cannons, mounted on the air intake lips on both sides, with a payload of 115 rounds each, the number of Indian-produced models has been reduced to 90 rounds, and each pylons under the wing can carry one 227kg bomb. The fire control equipment was a ranging radar and a Ferradin GGSMK.8 sight, and the nose was equipped with a Baden G90 camera gun.
Three views of "gnats"
Due to the high thrust-to-weight ratio and low wing loading, plus the "Mosquito" of the power-assisted control device has quite good maneuverability and maneuverability, the climb to 13500 meters takes less than 4 minutes.
By comparing the size of the fuel truck with the "gnat", the size of the "gnat" is really very small
India is the largest user
After the end of the Korean War, the United States promoted its remaining F-84 "Mine-Sprayer" and F-86 "Sabre" fighters with various preferential policies, which greatly affected the export of light fighters such as "Mosquito". Only Yugoslavia, Finland and India have procurement intentions.
Yugoslavia purchased only two F.1s for evaluation. Finland bought 13 to form the 11th Fighter Squadron, with only India becoming the largest buyer.
The cockpit of the "Gnat"
Lieutenant Colonel Dece, an Indian Air Force test pilot, participated in the British Air Force's evaluation of the "Mosquito Na" test flight, and the low cost of operation was considered to meet India's requirements.
In September 1956, the Indian government signed a contract with Flant for the purchase of 25 finished F.1 aircraft, and another 20 were assembled in India, the parts of which were partly supplied by Flant and partly copied by Hindustan Aircraft Company (HAL). At the same time, the Indian government also purchased the manufacturing rights of the Orpheus engine from Bristol.
At the end of 1957, India received the first Gnat, and on November 18, 1959, the No. 1 aircraft assembled from HAL components began test flights, while the fully domestic Gnats first flew on May 21, 1962, and India built a total of 193 aircraft.
"Sabre killer" over South Asia
The high mobility, ease of maintenance and low cost of the Mosquito F.1 masked its shortcomings and made it reused in the Indian Air Force.
| Models | Gnats | F-86F |
| wingspan | 6.67m | 11.91m |
| captain | 9.07m | 11.27m |
| weight | 4.03 tons | 7.5 tons |
| thrust | 20.9 kN | 26.5 kN |
| Maximum speed | Mach 0.98 | Mach 0.94 |
| Use an elevation limit | 15240m | 14630m |
| Rate of climb | 6100m/min | 2835m/min |
| voyage | 1600km | 2120km |
| weapons | 30mm cannon ×2 227kg×2 bombs | 12.7mm×6 AAM×2 907kg bomb |
"Gnat" and "Concorde" supersonic airliners
In 1965, the first Indo-Pakistani war broke out, and on September 3, "Mosquito" fighters escorted the "Hunter" fighter-bomber, and encountered the Pakistan Air Force F-86 "Sabre" fighter over the Chamo Bangjaham area. The next day, the Mosquito crew encountered four Sabre fighters in the Ghacham area and shot down two of them. Throughout the war, Gnats shot down a total of 7 F-86s and became known as the Sabre Killer
Illustration showing "gnats" killing "Saber"
In fact, because it is equipped with leading edge slits and wings, the F-86F has very good air combat performance, six 12.7mm machine guns, each machine gun carries 300 rounds of ammunition, a total of 1800 rounds, far exceeding the 180 shells of the "Mosquito", resulting in the "Mosquito" also lost a lot in battle. The Indian Air Force decided to add four more squadrons of "Mosquito Na". HAL usually produced 2 Mosquito Na per month, but 16 were produced in 22 days of the war.
In the Second Indo-Pakistani War in 1971, the main fighter of the Indian Air Force became the MiG-21, and the "Mosquito" only served as point air defense and ground attack missions, but this did not prevent its "Sabre Killer" name. On November 22, before the official start of the war, "Mosquito" shot down two "Sabres" in West Bengal. In the Kashmir-Strynakar air battle on December 14, the "Mosquito" single-handedly fought against six "Sabre" aircraft, and was shot down after shooting down two Sabre, which shows that the combat effectiveness of the "Mosquito Gnat" is still strong.
"Invincible" ———— Indian modification of "Mosquito Na"
By early 1972, HAL's production of "mosquito na" was nearing its end. To replenish the losses of the Gnats in the war, the Indian Air Force decided to continue producing improved versions.
The Indian Air Force believes that the "mosquito" has excellent air combat performance such as acceleration, climbing power, maneuverability and hovering rate, and the price and use fee are also low. On the basis of the "mosquito na", HAL updated the flat tail system, increased the capacity of the fuel tank, and developed a new fighter. In November, the new fighter was named Ajeet.
"Invincible" increased the overall fuel tank in the main wing, and redesigned the fuselage fuel tank, the total fuel capacity in the aircraft reached 1350 liters, the 4 pylons under the main wing can fully hang bombs to enhance ground attack power, fire control and other equipment have also been updated.
The life span of the organism has also increased from 5,000 hours to 8,350 hours. Although the shape of the "Invincible" is the same as that of the "Mosquito", the parts are 40% different, and the weight of the aircraft has increased by 136 kg, which can be called a new fighter.
Invincible production No. 1 flew on 10 September 1976 and by March 1982 a total of 80 were produced, with 10 Mosquito F.1s converted into Invincible for the 9th, 15th, 18th, 22nd and 23rd Squadrons of the Indian Air Force.
Test flights of the Invincible Trainer began on September 20, 1982, 1.4 meters longer than the Invincible fuselage, and by 1986 a total of 30 aircraft (18 for the Air Force and 12 for the Navy) were produced.
The most obvious difference between the "Invincible" trainer aircraft and the "Gnat" used in the UK is that there are compartments between the front and rear seats of the cockpit.