Supermarine Scimitar

Thanks for the beautiful pic.

By chance do you remember how was the access to the 30mm ammunition? Looks there were 2 panels at the wing roots…..with ammo boxes directly underneath?

Ah the Scimitar, a machine I always thought deserved to have been a better machine than history seems to have deemed it. It certainly didn’t lack anything in the looks department.
Is it just me or is that fin and rudder the sames as was used on the Harrier? Certainly looks like it.

hi,
that’s a great photo, the Wren in the foregrounds not bad looking either…

It is probably a case of not making cutouts in the structure any bigger than you absolutely have to, quite apart from providing for wing spar carry-through.

Hi, Dragging out memory cells from over 55 years ago is a challenge.
Each engine had two large access panels which were removed for an ECU change.
Interestingly Vickers with much forethought built the engine bays slightly shorter than the ECU, so the ECU was suspended
on a tilt bar so the rear of the engine was slid in to the bay first then levelled and placed on its mountings.
Naturally the fact that when the ship was at sea, and moving, made the exercise much more difficult.

That wasn’t just Vickers.
The Lightning (3,5 and 6) and the Victor mk2 were also a tight fit.

Arbroath 1967.

Hi, Dragging out memory cells from over 55 years ago is a challenge.
Each engine had two large access panels which were removed for an ECU change.
Interestingly Vickers with much forethought built the engine bays slightly shorter than the ECU, so the ECU was suspended
on a tilt bar so the rear of the engine was slid in to the bay first then levelled and placed on its mountings.
Naturally the fact that when the ship was at sea, and moving, made the exercise much more difficult.

I seem to remember seeing a video clip of a Scimitar sinking.
The pilots surname was Russell, and he was tragically killed in the accident.

I remember seeing a bit of film showing a Bucc going over the side of a carrier, it was being shown as part of a montage in the entrance of the ‘Carrier’ exhibition at the FAAM Yeovilton. Always wondered if it was a real incident or staged.

If the thought of deliberately crashing planes offends, stop now.

I have a very vague memory of a film shown on Tomorrows World back in the late 60’s about rescuing pilots whose carrier takeoff had failed, which included at least one spectacular demise of a Scimitar. (Sea Hawk as well, I think). I can’t say 40 years later whether the crashes were in service or were deliberate tests. Does anybody else remember this or is it the product of an overactive childish imagination?

There was definitely one Buccaneer S1 which was deliberately pushed off a carrier to make a film…

E.mail me Lee. Lots of slides on file and shot two air-to-air before retirement also.

The photos came from Graham cooper.

Now why doesn’t that surprise me? The man who was selling off the Fleetlands archive wholesale, and without permission! Thankfully I managed to get whatever was left transferred to the safe custody of the Fleet Air Arm Museum before anything else could go missing and any more money could line his pockets! I’m sure there is one other person on here who could vouch for this! 😡

If the thought of deliberately crashing planes offends, stop now.

I have a very vague memory of a film shown on Tomorrows World back in the late 60’s about rescuing pilots whose carrier takeoff had failed, which included at least one spectacular demise of a Scimitar. (Sea Hawk as well, I think). I can’t say 40 years later whether the crashes were in service or were deliberate tests. Does anybody else remember this or is it the product of an overactive childish imagination?

The photos came from Graham cooper.
Here is a drawing showing the take off attitude.

If the Americans no longer want the Scimitar perhaps the FAAM could organise a swop to get it back, send them a Sea Harrier perhaps, surely the Navy has one to spare.
Then in fifty or a hundred years time they might be able to make a flyable Scimitar out of the two.

Yes the photos are taken at RNAY Fleetlands. They show an aircraft in the engine detuning pen and others in F Shop. Where did you get them from?

The other one of the two 803 Sqn aircraft is taken on Victorious and is indeed a reverse image.

And what’s with that shot anyway… did they really pull the tail down to the deck in order to generate enough angle-of-attack lift to launch?

Yup. Big heavy aircraft on small carriers with relatively low powered catapaults etc….

Did the same with the Buccaneers too.

Two more & an arrestor hook.

Hmmm… I didn’t know Vicky had a starboard-angled deck!

Methinks that photo of the two Scimitars “popping wheelies” is reversed.

And what’s with that shot anyway… did they really pull the tail down to the deck in order to generate enough angle-of-attack lift to launch?

HK A/C Engineering Co would do whatever for visiting Britcraft. I think Victorious was there and HAECO repainted one of her Scims. to Spec sent out fr RNAY. But its humid in Honkers. Simon Creasey took it for a shakedown after the repaint…and came back bare.