Percival P.40 Prentice
VR741
The Prentice was a rather
innocuous post war ab initio trainer with three seats. Pupil and
instructor
occupied the front
side by side and a jump seat was provided behind for a pilot observer.
(Actually
not a bad idea). Over
300 were built, 66 of those by Hindustani in India.
Aviation Traders (Engin-
eering) Ltd of
Southend, UK, purchased most of the ex-RAF machines after their useful
service life
was done, but, oddly,
very few of them actually made it to the civilian registers of the
world. One,
registered N1041P, (ex
VS385, civilianized as G-AOLP) used to reside at Camarillo Airport when
I lived in Southern
California in the early 2000s prior to retiring to North
Carolina. It was owned by
the American
Aeronautical Foundation Inc, and all dolled up in fake camouflaged RAF
livery and as
the prototype (I have
no idea why the Foundation decided to do that, since it certainly
wasn't one of
the
prototypes). Even in those days it was in pretty bad shape, as my
shot below attests. Whether it
is still there
or not I am not sure.
.