the fairing in question is a warm air bleed from the compressor section of the port engine for the purpose of rain dispersal, de-icing and canopy demisting. other aircraft have this arrangement but it is normally buried in the fuselage and is not visible from the outside except for a small pipe underneath the windscreen. It is only really fitted to highspeed jet aircraft as windscreen wipers tend to be ineffective above certain speeds .

looks remarkably similar to a Harvard seat

Just wondering if there is a chance we could see this and the one at Gander flying together sometime in the future?

Or how about a proper RN Formation , Sea Vixen, Gannet & Bucc

Can anyone please clarifyconfirm this? My understanding from speaking with former Sea Vixen pilots is that due to the transonic characteristics of the Vixen, they were never able to exceed Mach 1.0 in level flight. However, Mach 1.2 was normally achievable in a dive of approx 30 degrees.

That would be true of a normal Vixen. Foxy is far from normal. To be wholey accurate she is a demilitarised D.3. She doesn’t have the near 1 ton of radar in her nose nor the very heavy and cumbersome radio fit of her service career. During her conversion to D.3 status FRa also added afew modifications to her systems, effectively ‘tweaking’ airframe and engine performance.
All this adds up to her being supersonic (Mach 1.23 as I remember) in level flight at her optimum cruise altitude and lighter on her feet.

I have to admit the Red Bull colour scheme grew on me after a while.

God don’t say that too loudly will you, you might end up as someone’s pin cushion:D

yep super sonic is right. She’s europe’s only supersonic civilian aircraft.

I am very familiar with those rear bearing oil charges! 1/5th of a pint each I belive, which is 5 strokes of our little priming unit each.

Good man some people either don’t know or simply don’t bother

We are also very “temperature aware” and watch the EGT like hawks on every start. To be honest, I don’t belive you can ever considder running any old engine, of any type as totaly safe, there will always be an element of “calculated risk” involved. The main thing is to keep those risks as low as is absolutly possible.

I couldn’t agree more too many people get hold of an engine and go wild.

I keep a very detailed log of all our running time, including timing the rundown of the engine from H.P. **** closure on each run. This gives a good indication of the bearing states and any friction appearing in the engine.
Our group also consists of a good cross section of very expirienced and qualified engineers, as well as the usual weekend amatures, and we all talk and listen to each other, remember, no one knows it all, and you never stop learning.

A fantastic lesson in how to ground run a living breathing engine:)

The viper engine was designed as a ‘throw away’ E.C.U. if you friend has the engine log cards i suggest you check them throughly and find out how much if any life the engine has left. If it hasn’t any life left i wouldn’t even think about turning it over, catastrophic blade failure at high speed…not pleasant. if there is still life in the old girl a through inspection will normally suffice, just remember to prime the rear bearings before a run if the engine has been idle for more than 14days or you’ll trash the unit.