Lee Leet's Short Tucano T Mk1

Lee Leet owns and operates this beautiful Short Tucano T Mk1 that is available for airshows, flybys and film.

The Short Tucano is a two-seat turboprop basic trainer used by the Royal Air Force. It was developed in order to meet a requirement to replace the Jet Provost as the basic fast-jet trainer for the RAF. The Short Tucano was selected in 1985 in preference to the Pilatus PC-9 and the British Hunting Firecracker.

The Short Tucano is a modified version of the Brazilian Embraer EMB-312 Tucano aircraft, and is built under license by Shorts Brothers of Belfast. The Short Tucano is fitted with the more powerful 1,100 shp Garrett turboprop engine in place of the Embraer's 750 shp Pratt & Whitney PT6 engine to give higher climb performance.

The first Garrett powered Short Tucano flew in Brazil on 14 February 1986, with the first Shorts built production aircraft flying on 30 December 1986. The aircraft handling is similar to that of a jet aircraft. It is fully aerobatic providing an excellent workhorse for training fast-jet pilots in all aspects of military flying. It is used to develop students in a full range of skills, including general aircraft handling, formation flying and low-level navigation. Due to its comprehensive avionics and ice-protection packages, it can be flown in all types of weather, by day and by night. The Tucano's all-weather flying capability, plus its excellent endurance, allows a great measure of flexibility in the training role.

Lee's aircraft was the second of ten aircraft built by Embraer in Ireland at the Short Brothers' factory. It is serial number 0002. Eventually 130 would be delivered to the RAF. This aircraft
was completed in 1987 and used for early flight testing. Around 1989 the flight testing ended and the aircraft became a training aircraft based at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. At some point in the early 1990s it was selected as one of two RAF Tucano Demonstration aircraft. As part of the demonstration team, it received its current paint scheme with the yellow lines on the wings and tail surface. After a year as a demonstration aircraft, the aircraft was transfered back to normal training service at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Sometime around 2002 the aircraft was taken out of service and place in long term storage as part of a larger force reduction of about 50 Tucano aircraft.

In 2007, 22 of the Tucanos in storage were sold at auction as a single lot by the British Ministry of Defense.

Photo Gallery

Contact