I like the Scottish Aviation Bulldog. My son first saw the SA Bulldog and he told me about this neat sliding bubble canopied agile plane that had landed at the local airport for a short visit. He wasn’t sure what that plane was but he was sure he liked the looks of it. Later that year we were at Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland, Florida and we saw this plane. The rest of the story is simple. It is the same for many of you who appreciate the SA Bulldog.

The Bulldog is a great warbird because of it’s simplicity. The Lycoming IO-360 is an asset along with the Hartzell constant speed prop, robust fixed gear and the sliding bubble canopy. This plane renders itself to various paint themes as it was utilized by many countries on at least three continents. The British Royal Air Force had the T MK1 and the Swedish military designated the SA Bulldog as the SK-61. The Royal Jordanian Air Force and several other countries had their own versions and unique paint themes. The RAF version is probably the most popular and well known. Originally designed and produced in the U.K. by Scottish Aviation, it was used as both a trainer and in military operations beginning in 1971. There were 328 SA Bulldogs produced between 1971-1982. BAe acquired Scottish Aviation in 1977 and in 2002 Scottish Aviation was transferred to DHSL (de Havilland) . The SA Bulldog was produced in different variants depending on the mission. Many were fitted with inverted oil systems for aerobatics training and some had skis for off airport operation in winter climates. Hard points for munitions and varied avionics for instrument navigational training were installed in a number of Bulldogs. It has an instructor friendly cockpit with side by side seating, twin control sticks and throttles and on some variants a third seat for observers. All service and flight manuals are written in English. Conventional parts for the Bulldog are available in the marketplace.
Unique parts for the SA Bulldog are available from SA BulldogsUSA.

Sherrill Greene