3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as WP308 '572' in the Royal Navy silver, red and white trainer scheme with the code ‘CU’ (Culdrose) that it wears, as displayed at Gatwick Aviation Museum. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)
History
The Sea Prince
Percival’s P.50 Prince was a small twin-engined feeder airliner, a high-wing monoplane with two Leonides radials, that first flew in 1948. The Royal Navy wanted a similar aircraft to carry passengers and to train its observers and air signallers, and the Sea Prince was the result: the Prince’s fuselage, tail and undercarriage with naval equipment fitted inside.
The Sea Prince C.1 was a communications aircraft. The T.1, which followed from 1953, was a flying classroom with radar and navigation stations in the cabin, and the Navy flew it from Culdrose and other air stations. The RAF’s Pembroke, a larger-winged development with a span of 64 ft 6 in, shared the same fuselage and tail, and was flown as a light transport.
Hunting Percival’s successor, the Jetstream, replaced the Sea Prince in Navy service, and the last were withdrawn in 1979. Several survive in UK museums, along with a number of Pembrokes.
This airframe
T.1 WP308
WP308 is a Sea Prince T.1 that served with the Royal Navy and is now kept at Gatwick Aviation Museum in Charlwood, Surrey, where it wears the number “572” and the code “CU” for Culdrose. The model shows it in the Navy’s silver finish with a red nose, outer wings and tail, a white nose cone, black-and-white banded propeller blades and a roundel with the words “ROYAL NAVY” on the rear fuselage.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Sea Prince in 6 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.