| Jet Provost T.3 XN589 was built by Hunting-Percival at Luton and was delivered initially to 27MU (Maintenance Unit) at RAF Shawbury on 30th June 1961, for preparation for RAF service.
It was issued to the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell exactly a month later and was coded '56'. It remained on charge until 1st October 1974 when it was flown to BAe Warton for conversion to T.3A status. It was issued Plane Set number PS3032, designating it as the 32nd Jet Provost T.3 to be upgraded. Re-flown on December 20th 1974 after the conversion work was completed, it left the Warton airfield on January 7th 1975 and
was back on training duties a few weeks later, this time with 1FTS at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Now aircraft number '46' XN589 remained in service until its last flight on March 18th 1992, having logged a total of 8,878 flying hours.
It was subsequently placed in store pending a decision on its future.
Late in 1992 XN589 was selected at random from the 1FTS fleet to be the new Station gate guardian.
It remains on guard today at the North Yorkshire base as a reminder of Linton's 30 years of JP operations, although it may soon by usurped by a Shorts Tucano! One hopes if the aeroplane is declared redundant, it will find a good home.
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