De Havilland Sea Vixen

Not good news at Bournemouth today I'm afraid -

www.thisisdorset.net/news/9635534.Runway..._incident/r/?ref=rss

Shame to see, looks repairable though. I've not seen her flying for a number of years.

Some good quality pics (3) taken during the roll out/collapse...
On Fighter Control (you may have to register to view!)...

fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=55396

That'll polish out ok !
Steve

Luckily it appears the recently fitted drop tanks took some of the damage so hopefully the fuselage should not be too bad.

I see the results of the AAIB investigation into this incident have been published
www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/o..._faw_mk2__g_cvix.cfm
"During the latter stages of the landing roll, whilst completing the after landing checklist, the pilot inadvertently selected the landing gear to up which resulted in the retraction of the nose and left main landing gear. The operation of the left main landing gear microswitch on landing should have prevented retraction. However, it is thought that a combination of an increase in main landing gear oleo pressure, to allow for increased weight operations, and a low landing weight prevented the activation of the microswitch."

And here's one I took earlier.......

Song Song Range, Malaya 1962ish. Pictured from the Master Quadrant with the low-level target to his port side.

A strong airframe like it's successor the Buccaneer.

Back in the late '70s, RAE Farnborough converted some Sea Vixens to be drones fro Llandebr. I think the actual contract was with Flight Refuelling but the work was done at Farnborough. I don't know how many were converted but it wasn't many.
On one occasion, the FR test pilot flew in to test fly one of the 'Vixens. He leapt into the cockpit a bit too enthusiastically and hit his head on the front part of the canopy giving himself concussion.
But at least we were 'treated' to the sight of a 'Vixen being test flown occasionally. I suppose one reason was we had arrestor barriers whereas Tarrant Rushton didn't and its runway was much shorter than ours, certainly a factor in FR choosing Farnborough to base a couple of F100s they had on contract in the late '90s as targets.

Sea Vixen at Flixton