In 1976, Nigel Desmond Norman, one of the founders of Britten-Norman, the manufacturers of the Islander, set up NDN Aircraft to build the Firecracker, a single piston-engined trainer designed to replicate the handling of a jet trainer.

[1] It was intended that the Firecracker would have a simple structure to allow it to be built under license by third-world countries to help start up local aviation industries.

It has a low aspect ratio wing in order to give fighter-like handling and is fitted with an airbrake.

[5] The Firecracker was entered into the competition to replace the BAC Jet Provosts used by Britain's Royal Air Force as a basic trainer, it being proposed to fit the aircraft for the RAF with a more powerful engine and ejection seats.

[8] Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1988-1989 [9]General characteristics Performance Armament