Hi,
I’m trying to track down the history of TFC’s Nimrod, S1581.
From the book ‘Fleet Air Arm Aircraft, Units anmd Ships 1920-1939’ by Ray Sturtivant it states that the Nimrod flew with 408 Flight and later 802 Sqn from HMS Glorious based in Med. When not on board the carrier they were based at Hal Far.
On 10 February 1938 the Nimrod stalled and crashed avoiding another aircraft while landing at Hal Far. The Nimrod crashed in a field and was declared category W (write off). The pilot Fly Off R L Smith (RAF) was injured.
Does anyone have details of the aircrafts movement from 1938 until it was bought by the Historic Aircraft Company for restoration. I understand the restoration was carried out by Aero Vintage Ltd.
If the aircraft was a write off why would it have been returned to the UK? It also begs the question is TFC’s Nimrod the actual S1581 or is it simply painted up to represent the aircraft? If so what is the true identity of the airframe?
Alex
By: Squirrel - 20th February 2006 at 13:03
If you are seriously interested in researching the history of this Nimrod, why not ask Aero Vintage Ltd direct who must have done a lot of background research?
By: Alex Crawford - 16th February 2006 at 20:13
Hi Chris,
Thanks for that. I’ll see if I can find a copy of that programme.
Alex
By: CAF-UK - 15th February 2006 at 19:09
Hi Alex
According to an article by Tony Holmes in the Flying Legends programme 2004 the remains of S1581 were recovered from Coley’s Scrapyard in the early 70’s and donated to the RAFM. They kept the wings and Viv Bellamy used the fuselage as a pattern for Fury I replica for the Hon Patrick Lindsay. Aero Vintage then purchased the remains and a rebuild commenced sometime the 1994.
At DX for the Press Day in 2004 was AVM Geoff Eveleigh (93 years young at the time) who actually flew S1581 on a few occasions in 1937. He told many tales of his time with 802 NAS aboard ‘Glorious’ and amassed around 1000 hrs in Furies and Nimrods.
Chris
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February 12, 2006 at 9:55 pm