PAC CT/4 Airtrainer

Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation

Aerospace Airtrainer CT4 (New Zealand)

In 1974 Aero Engine Services Ltd purchased the Aircruiser lightplane from Victa Ltd of Australia. It was then decided to produce a military trainer version of the aircraft. Consequently it was redesigned and restressed to make it suitable for aerobatic flying with limits of +6 and - 3g and renamed the Airtrainer GT4. Other changes from the original Victa Airtourer included a hinged clear perspex cockpit canopy, side-by-side seating for two persons with an optional third seat at rear and stick-type control columns. A prototype CT4 flew for the first time on 23 February 1972. On 1 April 1973 AESL and Air Parts amalgamated to form New Zealand Aerospace Industries Ltd. The Royal Thai Air Force ordered 24 Airtrainers, The Royal Australian Air Force 37 and the RNZAF 13, plus one later (designated CT4B).
Data: Engine one 157 kW (210 hp) Rolls-Royce Continental IO-360-H flat-six Wing span 7.92 m (26 ft 0 in) Length 7.06 m (2.3 ft 2 in) Max T-O weight 1,088 kg (2,400 lb) Max level speed 286 km/h (178 mph) Max range 1,422 km (884 miles)

Seen in the old house colours, VH-YCF was one of the original batch of aircraft purchased new by BAE Systems in 1991.

The Pacific Aerospace CT-4B Airtrainer is not a new aircraft, but it is perfectly suited to the flight training task and is fully aerobatic.

Students and instructors taxi their CT-4Bs out to Tamworth's purpose-built parallel runways for a morning training flight.

The Australian Defence Force Basic Flying Training School celebration of 250,000 flying hours in the CT-4B Airtrainer included a flypast at RAAF Base Tamworth by 16 CT-4Bs in formation.

A quartet of RAAF NZAI CT-4A-8 Airtrainers from the now disbanded 1 FTS maintain close formation over the sea near their base at Point Cook. An initial 37 Airtrainers were delivered from 1975 with a further 14 following from late-1981, the aircraft serving with 1 FTS at Point Cook and the CFS at East Sale. Following disbandment of 1 FTS, 36 of the type were auctioned off to private buyers in May 1993.

The Historic Flight’s Harvard and Tiger Moth join two Central Flying School CT4 Airtrainers and a Bell Sioux helicopter in a flypast over Wigram. The Historic Flight is under CFS supervision, and its aircraft share a hangar with the New Zealand-built Airtrainers, the design of which is based on the Australian Victa Airtourer.

Painted in the new simplified colour scheme, CT-4B VH-YCV undergoes maintenance at Tamworth. BAE Systems is almost completely self-sufficient with regard to maintenance.

First PAC CT4E Airtrainer for the RNZAF overflying its base at Ohakea (1999)

Whilst not the fastest aircraft on the display circuit, the Royal New Zealand Air Force Red Checkers' CT-4Es trade speed for manoeuvrability and a routine that stays well within airfield boundaries.

The AESL CT/4 Airtrainer has been developed from the company's well-known Airtourer as a military trainer. Among its new features are the hinged canopy, shown open in this illustration, and a new, streightened wing provision for carrying rockets, bombs and fuel tanks.

Airtrainer CT/4 prototype (210 hp Continental IO-360-D engine)

Aerospace Airtrainer CT/4 prototype (210 hp Continental IO-360-D six-cylinder engine)

Aerospace Airtrainer CT/4, fitted with rocket pods for evaluation in forward air control role

Aerospace Airtrainer CT/4 in Royal Australian Air Force insignia

Aerospace Airtrainer CT4, used by No 1 Flying Training School, RAAF.

BAE Systems has acquired CT-4Bs from a number of sources and has brought them all up to an identical, if somewhat basic, cockpit configuration.

A student from the Royal Brunei Air Force is pictured with his BAE Systems Australian instructor before a training flight.

With the flat countryside of the Tamworth training area below and empty skies above, a BAE Systems instructor flies the CT-4B from the right seat.

Airtrainer CT/4 two/three-seat aerobatic trainer