Sea Vixen at Bournemouth Air Festival 2008

[Nighthawke70]

Load her up with 2..76" rocket pods and napalm so we can go bust some pols!

[fabriciobrisola1]

super good! to be a little heavy compared a conventional fighter

[Tehinke]

That is an exceptionally beautiful aircraft!

[eaglegacb2910]

one of my fav jets to watch ever!

[gobbygoz72]

it's the same one as the vixen in the red bull colours, but sadly I hear that this year is her last flying season- a great shame

[EI8HTF]

Gah! Why do combat aircraft from the 50s and 60s still look so futuristic? Why don't modern ones? What went wrong!

[Krasnyi]

@EI8HTF Back in the day there was that additude that nothing couldnt be done. Back before all the politics when it was about getting the job done.

[FighterGuDude3214]

Gloster Javelin vs. Sea Vixen

The first debate greater than 9mm vs. 45. ACP

[pjwsnooty]

What a handsome aircraft this was. Thanks for putting this up.

[kempmt1]

That just became my favorite British fighter. Too bad it didn't have a gun or go supersonic (except in a dive). I don't recall any other plane with that tail configuration. And rumor has it that Sea Vixens outdid some of the supersonic fighters back then in mock dogfights.

[cdnzoobud]

@mrwideboy

Sorry; those are RollsRoyce Avons(axial compressor)engines

rated around 10,500# thrust each. No reheat(afterburn) provided.

I have a very detailed one on my flight simulator...great plane!

[axelusul]

A beautiful piece of British Aviation, I`m ashamed to say I did`nt know of its existance `till I walked on the deck of the aircraft carrier mock-up at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. I was blown away, such a modern looking and capable jet, amazing. Recommend a visit to the museum to anyone.

[slimquattro]

Still a very powerful and menacing looking aeroplane, and still puts on a great show. Excellent video.

[silverbird58]

how many that still fly? good lookin bird / sharp real sharp////

[PinellasPatriot]

That is one very classy aircraft.

[tpsossff]

I just read on Wikipedia that there are several Vixens that are preserved in good condition, this is the only one flying. If that is the case then we can be sure that future generations will be able to appreciate this very British aircraft that started its life in the late1940s.

BTW an uncle of mine witnessed the tragic crash at Farnborough in the early fifties when a design flaw caused one of these to break up and crash into the crowd.

[tpsossff]

I never knew that old bird was still flying. Long may she do so.

[ferahgo90]

I was there! it was so loud...unbelievable stuff! Can't wait till airfix release the kit

[killercrabman]

very cool looking jet..

[medicdeano]

I wanna fly in this!!

[irvan36mm]

Love this aircraft in the original RN colors than the Red Bull colors.

I would have loved to be in the navigator's seat while doing these maneuvers!

[mrwideboy]

Great plane, lovely noise from the centrifugal engines

[Greenhornet270]

FANTASTIC Posts!!

[Gigagannet]

WOW! Excellent quality video, and brilliant Website. Wish I had an HD Camera when I was at Tarrant Rushton 30 years ago. Well Done!

[pierstheoneandonly]

Think it was a wrecked (but not destroyed) one of these (as well as another plane) my Father took me to see in the mid-60's in the New Forest.

[squadman33]

Strange....Cockpit is off center....why??

[Ralroost]

I think a crew compartment occupied the right hand side...

[grumble53]

@squadman33 ... radar operator is next to the pilot but buried in the fuselage. Cockpit off centre to accomodate the "coal-hole" where the the radar operators position is.

[onlyonegazza]

Wow what a lovely sight! I thought the only Vixen flying in the UK was the Red Bull one in its bright colours. To see one in its authentic colour scheme is amazing. Does this belong to the RN historic flight? Ive not seen this before

[IainPlanesTV]

T'is the same aircraft gaz - operation by De Havilland Aviation out of Bournemouth.

Looks great in RN colours doesn't it?

[datzfast]

@IainPlanesTV yes the bright red was just awsome in black and white

[datzfast]

@datzfast joking the only one i ever touched was red though

[andygoth]

Red Bull sponsored the Sea Vixen in 2007 to keep it flying. It's now flying just a few shows as it has no backers at the moment.

[ForeverGranTurismo]

At a quick glance....this plane reminds me of an advanced (jet powered) version of the OV-10 Bronco. Of course, this plane is much more beautiful.

[myslmysl]

That is one beatiful aircraft.

[Andypilot333]

Nuts to Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons, this is PURE SEX !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[geoffers158]

@Andypilot333 nuts to eurofighters but a tornado in bahrain colours is also pretty hot

[kd431]

my grandfather was at farnbrough at 1952 when the prototype crashed

[Dimpyz]

Talking to a Vulcan pilot of the 60's recently, the Sea Vixen was the only plane capable of getting near them at high altitude. This probably means it could lose a MIG at high alt as it had a greater wing area to out-turn.

[exie19]

Love that plane, it's good it's not in Red Bull livery anymore, that plane makes a brilliant sound.

[WinchesterRanger]

Typical British quirkiness.

Could you imagine the outcome of actual air to air combat if that thing had gone up against its contemporaries.

I doubt it would be remembered quite so fondly.

[Solidboat123]

It did surprisingly well against the Phantom FG.1 from what I've read (the Phantom ran out of fuel and had to recover before it had a chance to shoot down the Sea Vixen).

What were it's contemporaries, btw?

[WinchesterRanger]

It had no guns, and only Firestreak or Redtop air to air missiles rendering it almost defenceless against manouvering fighters.

It's contemporaries were the Mig-21, Mirage III, and F-4 - and I wouldn't give it a chance against either one.

[Solidboat123]

I agree that its missiles let it down, but had it been equipped with the same weaponry as its contemporaries I think it would have stood a good chance against them. It's only other problem was it's thrust-to-weight ratio, but as I mentioned before this also meant that it could fight for longer (than the F-4, anyway)

[WinchesterRanger]

It is a wonderfully unique aircraft, the twin tailbooms, the offset canopy, the radar/nav sat deep in his "coal hole".

But the weapons fit rendered the aircraft essentially defenceless in the air to air role against fighters, and no one has ever claimed the Sea Vixen could turn with a Mig or a Mirage.

As with the Tornado F.3, the British were lucky that neither ever had to fight anyone, the results would not have been good.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

onto the matter of the Mk.3 Tonka, it wasn't an amazing fighter by any stretch of the imagination, it was a half arsed job (and after all it's only to shoot down archaic soviet bombers!) but that said it did acheive 2:1 against Luftwaffe Mig-29's in simulated combat and it was an improvement over the phantoms that they replaced.

[silverbird58]

Could it carry a pheonix missle sys??

[Solidboat123]

@silverbird58 No, the only aircraft that has ever carried the AIM-54 was the US Navy's F-14

[AerospaceEngineer90]

it wasn't until F-4E that the Phantom had a gun that was any use against fast air, IIRC the only missile french Mirage III's operated in the 60's were Matra 530's which where SARH (Mirage III's were cleared for AIM-9 but i think only SA took up the option) when you take into account S.Vixen's far superior maneuverability compared to it's contempories despite being subsonic S.Vixen was far harder to shoot down than it's contempories. contrary to what you might think.

[WinchesterRanger]

Nice posts, and your screen name has me intrigued too.

Your assertion that the Sea Vixen had "superior maneuverability" is interesting. Do you have anything to back that up because I had always believed that the tailess designs (Vampire, Venom, Sea Vixen) easily lost elevator control in hard turns. I just don't see the Sea Vixen doing anything but falling from the sky in flames in a turning fight.

[Solidboat123]

"The Sea Vixen was only 60% of the weight of a [Buccaneer] and with 75% more thrust to urge it along it could, with its large wing area, easily out-turn and out-climb any opposition except the RAF's new interceptor, the Lightning and, perhaps, the Navy's Scimitar."

An extract from 'Up In Harm's Way - Flying With The Fleet Air Arm' by Cdr. R.M. Crosley, who was also a qualified Empire Test Pilot

[WinchesterRanger]

Good point, but the Javelin FAW Mk.7 had even more thrust and was lighter, so by definition was that an even better performer?

I'm still not seeing it completely, anyone know a Sea Vixen pilot.

PS - Any idea what the G limits were?

[Solidboat123]

G-limit was 5.5g

Check this site - seavixen (.org)

I had to use brackets and spaces to let me post it, so don't put them in too. You should find some accounts of the Sea Vixen from (ex) pilots

[WinchesterRanger]

Funny you should mention it, I did just that, and the Sea Vixen was exactly as poor in air combat as I first thought.

"With a G limit of 5.5g and a missile that needs a minimal manoeuvring target you avoided a close quarter fight. If we had had some guns, then that would have been a different matter.

The Vixen manoeuvres best at 380Kts where you hit the 5.5g limit.  In the dogfight though, youll yo-yo and scissor at speeds between 140Kts and 620Kts."

[Solidboat123]

Fair enough. Another backs up my first comment though -

"...provided the ACM took place at lower altitudes the Vixen could keep turning until the single seaters started to run out of fuel, the Red Top caught many as they tried to break away using afterburner"

[WinchesterRanger]

Did you also see that during an Iranian assault on a small British pretectorate island in the Gulf, the Sea Vixen pilots were faced with the prospect of engaging MiG21s, and they decided that the only weapon that would have any chance of working would be the 2.75 inch RP with a timed self destruct fuse (Firestreak homed onto the sun and Redtop couldn't turn).

Now you have to admit that's insane in anyones book. The aircraft was in desperate need of cannon and a side by side cockpit.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

In that case in concede, my notes say "more maneuverable than Lightning" (which i have at 7G), i must've been reading from the wrong songsheet, i have a testemonial a so to speak from a former pilot in 892.NAS that sings praise for it... must've been looking at the wrong aircraft

you are right Sea Vixen like so many more of the Era should have come with guns (2 Aden cannons to be precise), fins and tailplane should have been strengthened too if 5.5 was the G limit...

[WinchesterRanger]

There was a lot of talk about DeHavilland lifting the observer out of the coal hole and grafting a Hunter T.7 side by side cockpit onto the aircraft. This would have allowed room for 30mm Adens and ammo cans to be fitted under the crews feet. Tandem seeting would have been even better as no one has ever heard of a side by side fighter that was worth a darn, but the Sea Vixen's short fuselage prohibited that. Pity, it could have been the UK's F-14 of the 1960s especially with Sidewinders/guns.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

could have been, a great source of problems were that it was obsolete by the time it entered service.(not the lack of M.2, SHAR in 1982 proved that speed wasn't the deciding factor)

btw the real British F-14-esque A/C that should have been was English Electric P.8 (Imagine a CATOBAR Lightning with VG wings a solid nosecone (meaning that the radar could be replaced by something better, a feature that spelt the end of RAF Lightnings career), shoulder intakes etc.

[WinchesterRanger]

I think the P.8 was the F.7 land based variant, the RN version was essentially an F.6 with VG, beautiful aircraft but a little short on legs and (decent) missiles.

Would love to have been there at Binbrook for the final show. I hear that the last F.6 did a 200 knot take-off into a full afterburner climb through the low rain clouds, lighting them up with a ghostly glow, the assembled crowd, noisey up until that point, fell completely silent.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

again i did mean to correct myself P.8 was EE's submission to F.155T (CF-105 was a contender for that project too!) while we're on the subject it was one of the only sensible submissions, all the rest were rocket powered although there was a hawker design that formed the basis of a later design which would have been a anglo F-16 of sorts P.1103 i think it was (P.1121 was the later reincarnation IIRC) another wasted oppertunity!

[AerospaceEngineer90]

as to my S/N:

it implies an interest/vocation i'm training for and my year of birth... That and it's not disimilar from AE90/Æ90 the alias my old man has been using since the late 90's (Æ72/AE72 must've been already taken!)

[WinchesterRanger]

Being an Aerospace Engineer was a dream of mine too, but it never went anywhere. Apparently they now have the EAP prototype in a classroom at Loughborough University for the aerospace students to study, I wish it was me.

Working for companies like Supermarine in the 1950s would be my pick if I ever get that time machine working, the energy they put into trying to make the Swift work was incredible, I would love to have been a part of that.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

part of the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow team would be preferable, once that project went breasts skywards those engineers could more or less pick any defence/aerospace firm in the world to work for. afterwards it has to be BAC... TSR-2!

[WinchesterRanger]

I think my heart would have been broken working on either of those projects, one the victim of we darned americans, and the second the victim of that eternally incompetent bunch - the Labour Party.

I still sign on to the remote possibility that 2 of the Arrow's development team stole the last protoype and it still sits in a remote Canadian hangar somewhere, cared for by a handful of dedicated enthusiasts - a genuine aerospace fable.

My own stillborn aircraft project would be the Tigershark

[AerospaceEngineer90]

what hurts me is the fact that TSR-2 would still be serving (not in the strike role though (especially after RAF lost nuclear capability in 1998 when the last WE.177 bombs were decommissioned) but Canberra PR.9 has left a hole in the RAF that cannot yet be filled by a unmanned aircraft (perhaps in 15 years it can, who knows!)

as for Labour it's not entirely true, in the mid 60's Britain was £4.73 away from filing for bankruptcy we couldn't really afford TSR-2 (nor F-111K)

[WinchesterRanger]

I think that the TSR-2 would have been most limited by its weapons capacity, something rarely talked about. The design spec. called for it to carry a triple of thousand pounders to Moscow, and with those stubby wings there wasn't much room to expand on that. Technology wise it was decades ahead of everyone.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

design spec was originally for a high altitude mach2 bomber with a range of in excess of 1000nm capable of dropping 2 high yield nuclear bombs in 1 sortie (think 200-250kt), TSR-2 would have replaced canberra in the bomber and photo recce roles and V-bombers in the nuclear deterrant(i dont think it could have replaced vulcans and victors in the conventional bombing role!), it wasn't ever designed to take 30,000lbs of gear and attack multiple conventional targets on 1 sortie

[WinchesterRanger]

Talking of money, what the UK ended up doing after cancelling TSR-2 and then dumping the F-111, was to buy the Phantoms that the Labour government said were not required in the first place. Plus making the incredibly wasteful move of pulling the J79s and stuffing in the Spey, an engine that actually slowed the aircraft down with increased intake drag even though it was significantly more powerful than the J79 it replaced.

Not exactly a money saver or a benefit.

[AerospaceEngineer90]

Phantoms.. when they were ordered the royal navy needed them! (mid 60's a capable carrier force was still planned), RAF needed something to replace the archaic Hawker hunters(the original true multi-role jet aircraft!!) since P.1154 was cancelled (combination of running out of cash, labour government and american pressure to adopt the Phantoms) there was little choice, Spey engined phantoms created a great low altitude mud mover and gave it the extra power to take off from RN's smaller carriers.

[Solidboat123]

It's true that the Speys reduced the Phantom's top speed, but they also increased its thrust-to-weight ratio, and I think they increased it's range too.

We may have missed out on the TSR.2, but at least we had the Buccaneer, which could also carry out the nuclear strike role from our carriers (of course, it wasn't long before Labour decided we didn't need them any more either)

[AerospaceEngineer90]

On to the matter of Tigershark i dont think it had the capabilties of rivalling the F-16 in the interantional theatre (nor the internal one!) but however an extended upgrade programme for countries such as Norway/Switzerland etc would have been worthwhile not a large market by any stretch of the imagination, but for an 50's design maintaining competetive in the 1980's is nothing less than impressive!

[WinchesterRanger]

I agree, the F-20 was limited by its growth potential. The wings couldn't carry much weight, and the internals were pretty much maxed out on space. there was a lot of talk about the Germans buying the entire program but it came to nothing. Ultimately USAF didn't want it, and then of course there was the F-16, a tough act to beat.

But with some air forces still upgrading their F-5Es, you have to wonder about how popular the F-20 would have been on the international market, I think very.

[jordyboy321]

one of the nicest planes ever designed

[minitrundle]

I WAS THERE THAT DAY!!!

[oldmanthingy]

hell it looks like a vampire

[medic8edman]

Very graceful, seems like a smooth, stable platform.

[mouselg]

What role this plane does??

[Solidboat123]

As stated in my previous comment, the Sea Vixen was an all weather fighter with a secondary ground attack capability

[iDalek]

It was the Royal Navy's 1950's equivalent of a Tomcat. (It was also the only supersonic jet to feature wood in its construction).

[kbjjustin558]

when will this aircraft be displaying again??? please let me know i would like to see it.

[Ruckerjd01283]

me to

[rgnvideo]

A very good video, which includes a "Derry Turn". I watched John Derry display the prototype DH110 four times during Farnborough Week in Sept 1952, the final time being on the day when the grey DH110 broke up. On its low fast pass, just prior to the crash, condensation flashed across the top of the aircraft, the first time that I had witnessed the phenomenon. This is briefly seen in this video. I still have the programme I purchased on the 6th Sept 1952. I have posted a video response.

[KevinMeeds]

What a wonderfully evocative sight...and a credit to the team that run and maintain her

[kbjjustin558]

another great british aircraft looks stunning

[ridedirtba]

What posistion did this type of aircraft fill in the RAF? Thanks

[vellieux]

i dont think it did,it flew off of Royal Navy carriers

[Solidboat123]

It didn't serve with the RAF - they chose the Javelin instead. The Sea Vixen was in service with the Fleet Air Arm, as an all-weather fleet defence fighter/interceptor (though I think it could be used in the strike role)

[Arbitrary242]

That great beast was carrier based! Nice :)

[pntprp]

Beautiful and elegant

[crispycritterz]

She looks alot like the Vampire. I've always loved that tail boom design.

[GustavG10]

Does anyone else think the sound is dubbed?

[IainPlanesTV]

I don't ;)

[Gruntol5]

Nice one.

[atomage2006]

Great aircraft - great display - I remember six of these over the crowd at Filton in the 1960s

[sgtgrech]

Nice to see her back in the air & in her proper colour scheme not that Red Bull monstrosity.

[Bitsforboats]

@sgtgrech I agree, but remember Red Bulls cash helped greatly in keeping this old beauty in the air!

[thenoize]

Great camera work, but how come the colour is so bad?

[IainPlanesTV]

Thanks. Its a perfect demonstration of the aircraft's camouflage I'm afraid - grey day, grey paint scheme. Feel free to check the video on our main website for a better quality version.

[Valkyriepure]

Fantastic!, Before the age of the Sea Harrier and the Falklands War there was the Sea Vixen.

[SaulNo7]

That was really close down on the beach today. Awesome plane..

[DextersWheelFilms]

Wow Awesome!

[blizzardthewatcher]

Nice to see her back in the air again :) Thanks for sharing Iain :D