A PIECE of aviation history was made just a few miles down the A303 at Boscombe Down recently as the last UK military Jaguar took its final flight.

The QinetiQ owned Jaguar XX833 has for the past six months been the only flying UK military registered Jaguar left in service - the last of the RAF's Jaguars were all retired in the summer.

Boscombe's Jaguar T Mk 2A operated in conjunction with the MOD as part of the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre (ATEC) operation, had been undertaking trials flights after which the airframe went out of hours.

It was piloted by Sqn Ldr Andy Blythe and accompanied by Wing Cdr Paul Shakespeare, both from the Fast Jet Test Squadron based at MOD Boscombe Down.

At around 11.30 am the aircraft took off from its home base for a medium level flight, routed via RAF Coltis-hall and RAF Coningsby to BAE Systems at Warton in Lancashire and performed a flypast at each location then returned to Boscombe.

At around 3pm XX833 took to the air for the final time with a low level flight around Wales prior to an overflight of St Athan, eventually returning to MOD Boscombe Down for a final flypast before landing at around 15:45.

The Jaguar was accompanied by one of QinetiQ's Alpha Jets on the flights to obtain air-to-air photographs. The last aircraft was manufactured by BAe at Warton as a two-seat operational ad-vanced trainer and delivered to the MOD in February 1975.