A dozen RAF Gloster Javelin All-Weather Interceptors in flight

Posted by jacksmachiningreveng@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 9 comments

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Inner-Repair-4411@reddit

This is one of my favorite cold war jets,

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OP tagged this as "obscure" but there were 436 of these things in service from the 1950s through the 1960s; by comparison, there are only 195 F-22s -- cut from an initial USAF gimme of 750 to an order of 381 and a final 195.

(Okay, so there are plans for over a thousand F-35s worldwide in all models! But the Javelin was a single-role aircraft, with no foreign sales, so probably compares more closely to the F-22.)

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DomTheHun@reddit

But there happened to be way less quick to use cameras to take pictures

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bubliksmaz@reddit

I think it is one of the most obscure British jets though. It's overshadowed by the Meteor before it and the English Electric Lightning after, both the fastest jets of their time. Hell, the prototype Lightning had already broken the sound barrier years before the subsonic Javelin entered service.

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AP2112@reddit

Having spoken with ex-ground crew who worked on Javelins out in Singapore, the all-weather aspect of them was dubious at best.

Great looking aircraft which was a decent interceptor by the later marks, it just arrived later than it should have to be competitive and had a fair few teething problems earlier on.

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