The NDN Firecracker is a single-engine aircraft designed as a military trainer.

Design and development

In 1976, Nigel

Desmond Norman Nigel Desmond Norman, (13 August 1929 – 13 November 2002) was an aircraft designer and aviation pioneer. Norman co-founded Britten-Norman in 1954, was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and served as chairman a ...

, one of the founders of Britten-Norman, the manufacturers of the

Islander Islander, Islanders, or The Islanders may refer to: People * Islander, referring to Jersey people * Islander, New Zealand-English term usually meaning Pacific Islander Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''The Islander'' (Rylant novel), ...

, set up NDN Aircraft to build the Firecracker, a single piston-engined trainer designed to replicate the handling of a jet trainer.''Flight International'' 23 July 1977, pp. 275, 278. It was intended that the Firecracker would have a simple structure to allow it to be built under license by third-world countries to help start up local aviation industries.Field 1979, p.831. The first prototype, powered by a

Lycoming O-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming ...

piston engine, flew on 26 May 1977.Donald 1997, p.673. The aircraft configuration is a

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

two-seat aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear. It has a low aspect ratio wing in order to give fighter-like handling and is fitted with an airbrake. After producing a single piston-engined prototype, NDN developed the aircraft by fitting a

Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada. Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964 and has been continuously upda ...

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

engine, producing the NDN-1T Turbo-Firecracker. Three NDN-1Ts were built for a British commercial flying school, Specialist Flying Training, which used them for contract training of foreign military students,Barnett 1984, p.902. the first one flying on 1 September 1983.Parker 1983, p.738. The Firecracker was entered into the competition to replace the

BAC Jet Provost The BAC Jet Provost is a British jet trainer aircraft that was in use with the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993. It was originally developed by Hunting Percival from the earlier piston engine-powered Percival Provost basic trainer, and ...

s used by Britain's

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as a basic trainer, it being proposed to fit the aircraft for the RAF with a more powerful engine and ejection seats. Although the Firecracker, which was planned to be built by Hunting Group if successful, was one of the four shortlisting aircraft, (the others being the

Pilatus PC-9 The Pilatus PC-9 is a single-engine, low-wing tandem-seat turboprop training aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. Designed as a more powerful evolution of the Pilatus PC-7, the PC-9's first flight was made in May 1984 after ...

, Embraer Tucano and

AAC A20 Wamira The AAC Wamira was a turboprop military trainer aircraft, designed for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) by the Australian Aircraft Consortium (AAC). The project was cancelled shortly before the first prototype was completed. Design and dev ...

),''Flight International'' 24 March 1984, p.741 ultimately a much modified version of the Tucano, the

Shorts Tucano The Short Tucano is a two-seat turboprop basic trainer built by Short Brothers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a licence-built version of the Brazilian Embraer EMB 312 Tucano. On 14 February 1986, the prototype conducted its maiden flig ...

was chosen.''Flight International'' 30 March 1985, pp. 8-9. Although NDN, which renamed itself the Norman Aircraft Company (NAC) in 1985, continued to try to sell the Firecracker, no further production ensued, and NAC went into receivership in 1988.''Flight International'' 6 August 1988, p.11.

Specifications (Turbo Firecracker)

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Barnett, Cliff.
Firecracker: trainer for tomorrow?
. ''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

'', 31 March 1984. pp. 899–902. *Donald, David (editor).''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Leicester, UK:Blitz, 1997. . * Field, Hugh.
Firecracker in the air
. ''

'', 17 March 1979. pp. 831–834. * Parker, Ian
Early delivery set for Turbo-Firecracker
. ''

'', 17 September 1983. pp. 738–739. *Taylor, J.W.R.(editor) ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1988-1989''. Coulsdon, Surrey, UK: Jane's Information Group, 1988. .
Firecracker
. ''

'', 23 July 1977. pp. 275–279.
Turboprops form RAF Trainer Shortlist
. ''

'', 24 March 1984. p. 741
Shorts Awarded Trainer Contract
. ''

'', 30 March 1985, pp. 8–9.
Norman calls in receiver
. ''

'', 6 August 1988, p. 11.

External links

NTPSNAC (NDN) Firecracker et Turbo Firecracker
{{Norman aircraft 1970s British military trainer aircraft

Firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental t ...