RAF Sea Vixens

R.A.E Bedford operated Sea Vixens XN650,XN653, XJ565 this one went to Salisbury Hall Museum,XJ608. Fire section had XJ572. XJ560 was in use with the Apprentice School as 8142M. Would be good for further info and any pictures.

XJ526 8145M Halton 1 SoTT .7.71 .6.82
XJ560 8142M Halton 1 SoTT .6.71 .3.77
XJ571 8140M Halton 1 SoTT .5.71 .5.79 – Cosford 2 SoTT .5.79 .4.86
XJ572 8803M Catterick Fire S 23.2.84
XJ582 8139M HAL-2 Halton 1 SoTT .4.71
XJ604 8222M Halton 1 SoTT 25.6.72 7.77 – Cranfield 11.86 4.11.87
XJ607 8171M O Cranwell Eng.Flt. .8.71 .11.80 – Cosford 2 SoTT .11.80
XJ608 8802M N.Luffenham EOD 20.3.84 .3.90
XJ609 8172M Cranwell Eng.Flt. 3.8.71 .11.80
XN658 8223M Halton 1 SoTT .11.71 .8.73
XN685 8173M Cranwell .8.71 .11.80 – Cosford 2 SoTT .11.80
XN688 8141M Halton 1 SoTT 4.7.71 .4.77
XN691 8143M Halton 1 SoTT .7.71 – Cosford 2 SoTT .6.87
XN699 8224M Halton 1 SoTT 6.3.72 .7.77
XN700 8138M Halton 1 SoTT 16.5.71 17.5.76
XN707 8144M Halton 1 SoTT 5.6.71 .3.77
XP919 8163M Halton 1 SoTT .1.72 .6.75
XP921 8226M Halton 1 SoTT .2.72 20.11.87

The above won’t formulate very well here, but hope it makes some sense!

I went through Halton ’69-72. There were 3 or 4 Sea Vixens on the airfield in’72 when we did the ‘airfields’ phase of training.We trained on them for electrical systems and engine ground running-the latter being very enjoyable knowing how much noise we were making! Interestingly,the Instructor would stand up in the Navigator’s seat and lean over to keep an eye on us.
Nice to think of the stuff we trained on and ran engines on; Piston Provost,Twin Pin, JP, Canberra, Comet [Cepheus?] and the Sea Vixen.The Beaufighter training rig was still there as well.
Happy days!

I went through Weapons Technicion training at Halton in 1977.

The Sea Vixens were used for bang-seat removal and fitting training, in the main workshop area, and for practice in locating and finding “loose articles”. Fumbling around in the Observers cockpit, even with the hatch off was quite an experience.

There was also at least one example, outdoors, on the airfield, that we used to practice loading bombs and rocket pods.

My abiding memories of RAF Halton, are of regular screenings of two warning information films, “The Man From LOX”, and “Dr Fod and Miss Wayward Body”. Never had crawling up the intake of a Lightning seemed so attractive.

Cabbage

When I went through as an airframe tech in the mid 80’s they had three in ‘new’ workshops, but really didn’t know what to do with them.

The only time we went near one was when in systems someone showed us a LOX pot, and I asked them to show how it fitted.

I had heard they were there for hyd systems training, but that was done mainly on the bench as it’s easier to understand a dummy system in front of you than a real one burried in an airframe.

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=31615

From the Swiss Hunters website…they ended up with some of the ex Halton instructional airframes…
Some details from one of the refurbishment contracts…

http://www.swisshunters.info/#contract3

Edit…

The date purchased by HSA should be treated with a little caution,the majority of the halton Hunters had departed by early 1972

re;

The FAW2s must have had loads of life left in them

Vixens with lowish hours and in good condition were available in abundance, and with no further use apart from the few RAE/FRA examples.
The type also represented structures and engineering technology then in use with the service.
I think Halton was originally allocated quite a few, but many were moved to 2 SoTT at Cosford. As mentioned above, Cranwell had XN685 and the apprentices at Farnborough had use of one, the RN dummy deck at Culdrose also used ‘A’ numbered examples.
Somewhere I have a list of which Vixens received what ‘M’ numbers and where they served, will try and post it up.

Probably the closest the Vixen looked in RAF service was XJ524 which wore the standard RAF (with fin flashes) target tug scheme, and XN653 with fin flashes at RAE Bedford.

re;

I got a lovely painting of XP924 on the ramp for £2.50!

The reason was actually very simple…I was an apprentice at Halton 1970-72,during that time the export market for Hunters was very healthy.
Ergo Hawker Squiddely aquired all the available Hunter airframes and refurbished them for overseas customers.
Therefore we ended up with Vixens and Sea Hawks instead,the timeframe would have been circa 1971/72.

rgds baz

There was also at least one at Cranwell during the same period, ’73-77, for student engineer training. Occasionally one of us from the BFT squadrons would go across to drive it for marshaling training.

exmpa

Available at the time for not much expenditure?…..

Plus, they are large aircraft with complex hydraulic systems, two seats, and can be stored in a small space if the wing fold works. Sounds like a good combination to make them rather attractive to a training school.