www.navynews.co.uk
NAVY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 2001
Sea Vixen was
jet-age pioneer that arrived a little too late 4kb
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" 'Simon's Sircus 892 Squadron's Sea Vixen display team, go through their paces at the 1968 Farnborough Air Show. Sixteen yea, before, the DuO prototype crashed disastrously at the show, an event which was to have a serious effect on the Vixen's entry into service. J. Petric. It reformed on July 1 the following year as 892 Naval Air Squadron. the first front-line unit to he equipped with the Sea Vixen. Four of the squadrons aircraft formed 892 B Flight in October 1959 to act as an IFTU for the Firestreak missile, a task it completed in 1960. Training for aircrew began in October 1959 when B Flight of 766 Squadron re-equipped with the type. In the following February. 890 Squadron formed under Lt Cdr W. R. Hart, and 893 Squadron in September under Lt Cdr F D. Stanley. Last to form was 899 Squadron under Lt Cdr W. J. Carer in February 1961. All the squadrons were based at Ycovilton and deployed to sea in the carriers tIM ships Ark Royal. Eagle, Victorious. Hermes and Centaur. With their parent carriers. Sea Vixens saw peace-keeping service
all over the world, including the Kuwait crisis of 1961, the East African mutinies in 1964. the Indonesian Confrontation in 196566, the withdrawal from Aden in 1967. and the Beira patrol to enforce oil sanctions on the rogue state of Rhodesia. They were all examples of operations made possible by the presence of a carrier and its potent fighter squadron. Several interceptions were carried out. hut no hostile aircraft were brought down by the Sea Vixen's missiles. Despite the aircraft's size, two Naval Air Squadrons mounted displays with the type. The first was 766 in 1963 which formed a fiveaircraft team called Freds Five. They put on a series of first-class displays throughout the summer Season. Five years later. 892 Squadron 1)111 tip an acrobatic team of six air-
precau-tionary
craft known as Simon's Sircus after their Commanding Officer. Lt Cdr Simon Idiens. Their displays included the 1968 Farnborough Air Show, An improved FAW2 version was developed to deploy the more capable Red 'Fop IR homing missile, capable of making eul'usioncourse interception. I)isti nctively. these aircraft had pinion tanks running forward over the upper wing from the tail booms. They conained extra fuel and avionics that formed part of the missile system. After de Havilland's decision to close their Christchurch factory, Vixen production moved to their plant at Hawarden near Chester. ..\ single FAWI was built there, followed by 14 which were converted to FAW2s on the production line. Fifteen more Vixens were built from the outset as FAW2s. The service life of the Sea Vixen was relatively short. The first Lacirt, . )it to disband in 1968 was 892 in preparation for re-equipment with Phantoms, and 899 was the last in 1972 when Eagle retired. its withdrawal ollowing from Naval service, a handful of Sea Vixens were converted to 1)3 standard to act as pilotless targets. One of these. XP924, is still flying today. delighting air show crowds around the country. The DH) Ill proposed by the Admiralty in 1946 was potentially one of the outstanding aircraft of its generation. Had it gone into production in 1951 after the first flight of the prototype. it would still have been good. It simply took too long to develop and by 958 it had already been outclassed. Supersonic fighters with better weapons and sensors were in service with the US Navy, and the superb Phantom F4 had already flown. The Sea Vixen gave good service, but was difficult to maintain and lacked longterm development potential that later designs, like the Phantom, possessed. However, the Vixen formed the basis of the fleet air defence system that the Royal Navy desperately needed in the 1950s to he effective, and is remembered with affection by many who flew or maintained it. " Cdr David Hobbs is Curator of the Fleet Air Arm Museum. On September 29. to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sea Vixen's first the museum is staging a flight, series of events and a special display including appearance of the only flying example. For details contact the museum on 4)1935 842614 or 842(119 (c-mail tl('(OllI(ti'i,,.(( 'OI I !tf(
"flum Type: Two-seat, carrier-borne all-weather fighter.
Propulsion: Two Rolls-Royce Avon 208 turbojets each producing 11,2301b static thrust. Primary sensor: Al18 radar. Armament: Four Firestreak infra-red, homing, air-to-air missiles (four Red Top IR missiles in FAW2), or 500lb bombs, or Bullpup air-to-ground missiles, or a single nucear bomb. Extra fuel could be carried in drop tanks and other aircraft could be re-fuelled in flight from a Mk 20 Buddy' re-fuelling pod carried underwing. There were six hardpoints for underwing stores. Maximum loaded weight: In excess of 45,00db. Maximum speed: Mach 0.95 at altitude, supersonic in shallow dive,
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Dimensions: Wingspan Sift length 55tt 71n, height loft gin,
Top pilot's view of twin-boom fighter
THE JOYS and difficulties of flying the Sea Vixen are recounted here by a former Naval Air Squadron CO, Capt Bob Mc Queen. CAN
remember just thinking 'This is a big j beast!" The Sea Vixen had a wingspan of over 50ft and weighed 19 tons
fully loaded.
I had a front-line tour in Sea Venoms behind me, with a total of 725 hours and 174 deck But the landings. biggest and most powerful aircraft I'd flown to date had been a Hunter on my sweptwing conversion course. I had just joined 890 NAS, the second Vixen squadron in January 1960, with Cdr Bill Hart in command and Peter Reynolds as Senior Pilot. The Sea Vixen had a complicated fuel system which, it you had left the flight refuelling switch to receive, would use the port-wing fuel to the exclusion of the remainder. Booster pumps for the eight tanks were unreliable, and hydraulic failure of any of the four coloured systems green, red, yellow and blue was quite a frequent occurrence. My observer was 'Cuddles' Cooper and we embarked in Hermes. Our Captain was David Tibbits and Cdr (Air) Peter Perrett. On one occasion I was ashore at Yeovilton when the ship invited me to fly a Daily Express reporter, Mr Pugh, back on board in the Irish Sea. I pointed out that it would be dark when I arrived, and I was not 'night-qualified'. The sun will stay up until McQueen gets back on board," said Cdr (Air), thereby suggesting that he was God. It didn't, he wasn't - but I did! My second Vixen squadron was 899. I was Senior Pilot and my CO was Rip Kirby, so much a gentleman that I decided that I had to change my character and become the tough second-in-command. This met with some success and the squadron aircrew presented me with the Iron Cross at the end of the commission. By now we were flying the Sea Vixen FAW2, a heavier machine with pinion tanks. To begin with, this meant that even in HMS Eagle we had only one or two passes at the deck between being overweight and bingo (diversion) fuel. Luckily the introduction of ADD Director (Alrstream Indicator or Angle of Attack Indicator) and the persuasiveness of test pilots Rip and Cdr Pridham Price (Air) allowed a five-knot reduction in our landing speed which also had the advantage of greater speed stability, even if one pilot - Cohn Morris found it difficult to see over the nose! My final squadron was 893 which I commanded in HMS Hermes, FAW2s. flying Hermes was small for Vixens; I think that 2ff either side of the centreline was over the
" Bob Mc Queen prepares to mount up in his early days Sea Vixen pilot. edge of the landing area. By then we were becoming more accurate at deckland!rig . The Landing Signals Officer with his marking system and the the 'donkey's tail' contributed to this. In spite of them, Dai the Divert thoroughly earned his nickname. Just a word about the observers in the 'coalhole'. This was not a pleasant expe-
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as a
rience for then,, and they showed remarkable courage. They were able to sharpen us up by pressing the test button on the centralised warning panel or by switching off a fuel pump, or even by taxiing the aircraft by the nose wheel with their hatch raised. McQueen is now (Capt General Secretary of the Royal Naval Association).
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0 An aircraft of 893 Squadron ready for launch.
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