The Bulldog’s maiden flight was at Shoreham Airfield (now known as Brighton City Airport) in May 1969. The first order of 78 aircraft was made by the Sweden Air Board. 328 airframes were built for twelve different countries – which also  included one civilian sale to Venezuela. One model also had hard points on the wings for machine guns. 

Beagle Aviation sadly went into receivership, before production started, so this was taken over by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick Airport on the west coast of Scotland. 

The RAF ordered 132 Bulldogs to replace the venerable and popular Chipmunk. The Bulldog was eventually itself replaced after 28 years by the Grob Tutor. 

XX624 is an ex-RAF training aircraft and is number 289 off the production line, being completed in 1974. 

XX624 is the aircraft’s RAF serial number and the markings are still proudly displayed with a special exemption allowed by the CAA. The aircraft’s civilian registration is mounted on a plate on the rear internal bulkhead. 

During her time with the RAF, she served initially with the Royal Navy Elementary Flight Training School, followed by Finningley FTS then to the Northumbrian and later Cambridge University Air Squadrons. The last posting was to Colerne for the Bristol UAS – to which the galleon logo belongs (no it is not a Blue Peter badge!). She then went off to storage at RAF Shawbury and was finally auctioned off for conversion into a civilian-registered aeroplane. 

Technical Information: 

The Bulldog is a side-by-side basic military trainer, fitted with a Lycoming IO-360, 200hp horizontally opposed air-cooled engine with variable pitch propeller. The fuel is metered by a fuel injection system and is modified to run inverted for a maximum of fifteen seconds only, she is capable of +6/-3 g – but for longer life those limits are not got close to. 

During her life, she has flown over 9,500 hours and has made over 10,000 landings.