3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XF708 ‘C’, the last Shackleton MR.3 built, a Phase 3 aircraft with Viper turbojets in its outer nacelles that flew with Nos 201, 206 and 203 Squadrons and was flown into Duxford in August 1972: overall Dark Sea Grey with a black anti-glare panel on the nose, a dull red ‘C’ on the nose and ‘203’ on the forward fuselage, white ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles with the serial XF708 in dull red beneath, Type D roundels, fin flashes on the outer faces of the twin fins, black contra-rotating propellers with white tips and a red band, and the ASV radome retracted under the rear fuselage, as it is displayed in the AirSpace hangar at IWM Duxford. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.8 MB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight9 March 1949
- Built185
- Top speed302 mph
- Engine4 × Rolls-Royce Griffon 57A V-12s, 2,455 hp each, with contra-rotating propellers; Phase 3 aircraft add 2 × Bristol Siddeley Viper 203 turbojets, 2,500 lbf each
- Crew10: two pilots, a flight engineer, navigators, signallers and radar and sonics operators
- Wingspan36.53 m
- Length28.19 m
- Height7.11 m
- In service1951–1991
- RoleMaritime patrol aircraft
- MakerAvro, Britain
- UK collections4
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (MR.2/MR.3/AEW.2); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Shackleton MR.3 modelled here.
History
The Shackleton MR.3
The Shackleton was the last of the line that began with the Manchester and the Lancaster. Coastal Command needed a long-range aircraft to replace its Liberators and Lancasters, and Avro’s answer, the Type 696, married the Lincoln’s wing and undercarriage to a deeper, wider fuselage and four Rolls-Royce Griffons driving contra-rotating propellers. The prototype flew at Woodford on 9 March 1949. The name, chosen by Roy Chadwick before his death in 1947, honoured the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
The MR.1 reached No. 120 Squadron at Kinloss in April 1951. The MR.2 of 1952 moved the radar from the chin to a retractable “dustbin” under the rear fuselage and gave the aircraft a longer glazed nose with two 20 mm cannon and a clear tail cone. The MR.3 of 1957 added a tricycle undercarriage, wing-tip tanks, a proper galley and sound-proofed rest bunks for patrols that could last eighteen hours. As equipment and weight grew, the MR.3s were rebuilt through three “phases”, and from 1966 each outer nacelle carried a Viper turbojet to help the heaviest aircraft off the runway.
Shackletons patrolled the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, hunted submarines, flew troops to Cyprus in 1956, dropped supplies in Aden and blockaded Beira in 1966, and eight MR.3s served South Africa until 1984. Nimrods replaced the RAF’s maritime Shackletons by 1972, but twelve MR.2s were rebuilt as AEW.2 airborne early-warning aircraft with a wartime radar in a chin radome, and No. 8 Squadron flew those from Lossiemouth until July 1991, forty years after the first Shackleton entered service.
This airframe
MR.3 XF708
XF708 was the last of 34 Shackleton MR.3s built for the RAF and was delivered in 1959. It served with Nos 201 and 206 Squadrons at St Mawgan and Kinloss, was brought up to Phase 3 standard with the Viper turbojets in its outer nacelles, and finished with No. 203 Squadron at Luqa in Malta, whose nose letter “C” it still carries. It was flown into Duxford on 23 August 1972 and is displayed in the AirSpace hangar. The model shows it as it stands there: overall Dark Sea Grey with a black anti-glare panel on the nose, dull red “C” and “203”, white “ROYAL AIR FORCE” titles with the serial beneath, Type D roundels, fin flashes on the outer faces of the twin fins, black contra-rotating propellers with white tips and a red band, and the ASV radome retracted under the rear fuselage.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Shackleton MR.3 in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.