Gloster Javelin – Harder, Faster, Higher, Forgotten – Britain's Steel Walls – (Full Story – Part 1)

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The Gloster Javelin has always held a special place in my heart. Maybe because I have a soft spot for underdogs, maybe because she is not as well-loved as her more famous contemporaries like the mighty Avro Vulcan, sleek Hawker Hunter the sublime de Havilland Sea Vixen, or the Blackburn Buccaneer.
For me, the Gloster Javelin is a fundamental and important step forward in British military aviation in the face of the growing Soviet bomber threat when it seemed that the U.K. could have come under attack at any time and Britain needed a capable bomber destroyer that could climb up to meet the Russian Bears and knock them out of the sky.

This video is part one of a two-part series. This first part covers her development, testing, and various other aspects. The second part will cover her time in RAF service, various operations and pilot stories.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to the making of this video, especially Michael Napier, who kindly provided rare video footage of the Gloster Javelin in flight, and Robin A Walker, who I pestered and came through with some wonderful photos. Also, the great people at the Midland Air Museum allowed me to get up close to many of their wonderful machines.

Michael Napier is a distinguished author of many aviation books. I highly recommend his book “Gloster Javelin: An Operational History” which covers her time in RAF service and is richly illustrated with many previously unpublished photographs. Michael Napier blends official records with personal accounts to describe the operational history of this iconic jet fighter.
Get your copy here: https://shorturl.at/nFbGN

Note: I am not being paid to promote Michael Napier’s book, nor am i receiving any commission from any sales made of his book.

I hope you enjoy the video and please help out the channel but leaving a comment and a like. Many thanks, Joe.

Contents:
00:00 – Gloster Javelin – Intro
02:43 – Gloster Javelin – The beginning
14:38 – Gloster Javelin – Looks fast, shakes a bit
25:07- Gloster Javelin – Heroic Circumstances
27:35 – Gloster Javelin – A Dangerous Combination
29:30 – Gloster Javelin – Gun Rack
27:35 – Gloster Javelin – Wake Up London
34:02 – Gloster Javelin – Hot off the press
35:50 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W1 – Firestarter
44:50 – Gloster Javelin – Nine Different Versions
45:35 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W2
48:01 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W3
49:29 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W4
50:26 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W5
51:53 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W6
52:37 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W7
54:31 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W8
57:32 – Gloster Javelin – F.A.W9
01:00:14 – Gloster Javelin – Sudden Ejections
01:03:11 – Gloster Javelin – Exploding Engines
01:06:20 – Gloster Javelin – Pilot Notes
01:10:54 – Gloster Javelin – What’s Next?

The Awesome Vulcan XH558 at Beachy Head Cliffs, Eastbourne Airshow 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_6bZ2Kzaj8

Gloster Javelin – Delta-Wing Interceptor of the 1950’s – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1JXoUB_2Lg&t=57s

Mission 66 – Gloster Javelin mission 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL0ILSGR8MI&t=1s

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45 thoughts on “Gloster Javelin – Harder, Faster, Higher, Forgotten – Britain's Steel Walls – (Full Story – Part 1)”

  1. Hello all, thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. There is an error at 20:50; the arrows are not pointing to the elevators in the image; my mistake, far too many late nights and early mornings and having "Elevons" going round and round in my head.

    Thank you, Joe

    Reply

  5. RAF Odiham is pronounced O-de-ham not odd-i-ham. Leuchars is pronounced loo-kars – its a hard "ch". These is probably the worst of the many mispronunciation of RAF station names. Apart from that, good video.

    Reply

  12. There was a squadron of Javelins, 33 Squadron, based at RAF Middleton St George. My school was on the approach and I used to get told off for watching them fly over. A small fact, the saviour of steam locomotive 60532 Blue Peter, Geoff Drury was once a Javelin pilot and he said he was still on speaking terms with his navigator.

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  21. I'm not sure political ineptitude is to blame as we were broke after WW2 and jets were still fairly cutting edge. So we had to invest in the best as that was all our resources available, a one-and-done deal.

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  23. I remember as a boy at RAF Cottesmore's Battle of Britain display, my father and godfather ( RAF engineer and pilot respectively) were less than complimentary about the Javelin parked there. Can't remember their exact words but suffice it to say they were not impressed with the aircraft.

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  25. A well researched article, unfortunately all the books on the Javelin have serious errors so research is flawed. The number of FAW7s converted to FAW9 was 116, 76 would not give you 6 squadrons. 44 were produced with in-flight refuelling and 40 of these were converted to FAW9R. No Javelin ever flew non-stop to Singapore – 3 or 4 stops were used. The longest non-stop flight was to Khorkaksar(Aden) in 8 hours 34 minutes. Only 41 and 85 Sqns flew FAW8s. In the case of the US pilot killed looping the Javelin, the navigator survived (XA751, 41 Sqn 11/7/58).

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  31. Very interesting presentation, I have a couple of Javelin connections , I was one of a small team that dismantled the Javelin at RAF Stanmore to go the Thunder City in South Africa, sadly Ive just heard that it's been scrapped which is sad , also my dad was Fleet Air Arm he remembers them out in I think Borneo, dad said they were so unreliable the Fleet Air Arm did the bulk of the air cover this was born but an old friend who was ground crew on Valiants and the Valiant tanker he said most of his time in the far east was spent helping the Javelin ground crew to try and keep them serviceable

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  33. I think there's an error in signaling the elevators lost in WD804. The lost ones were those in tailplane over the fin. Not the ailerons which are shown in your video by blue arrows. The javelin was a delta plane but was a very unorthodox delta: it was a tailed delta; that is, it didn't need elevons. It managed the standard, usual control surfaces: ailerons, elevators and rudder… and flaps. Yes. It is not common seeing delta planes equipped with flaps. The Javelin had one under each wing to reduce landing speed and landing distance and they were very useful. These flaps were not placed at the very trailing edge but slightly ahead and it seems they did not use the wing's upper side airflow.

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  40. Some of the confusion over different marks is solved by the entry into service dates. The FAW4 followed the FAW1 into service and had the all-flying tail, vortex generators, bosom fuel tanks and stall warning. This was followed by the FAW5 with all the same features plus the new wing with extra fuel. The FAW2 was next, a few months before the FAW6 (same production line), the entry ino service was FAW2 to 46 Sqn, FAW2 + FAW6 (8 of each) to 89 Sqn (later renumbered 85 Sqn) FAW6 to 29 Sqn. FAW7 was next to enter service followed by the T3, then FAW8, FAW9 and finally FAW9R.

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  42. Got to remember, the first flight was in 1951! The infancy of jet Aviation. BUT, within a five year period immediately flowing the Javelin, the US started producing a flurry of excellent, fast, and long lived military jets. And so did many others soon after that. Jet aviation was starting to zoom.

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  44. To use the appellation once might be acceptable, but an infatuation with annointing a mechanical object with repeated 'she' references very quickly begins to sound both odd and stunted. It's an it. Try it.

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  45. Excellent documentary. Great review of material. I, myself, attempted a similar review on the Javelin and got a lot of data about this plane. Some comments: WD804 did also use an anti-spin parachute inside a large detachable fairing at the middle of the stabilizator. During some time it had to employ some kind of framed metallic tube fences on both sides of the large fairing to avoid interfering with the elevators, until they could solve the problem with a restraint inside the fairing. It wasn't an exclusive hardware for the second prototype and I guess, it was also applied on other prototypes too, specially after WD808's accident.-

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