AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 189 / 241

Plate 189 of 241 · Cold War · Carrier strike fighter

Supermarine Scimitar

Scimitar F.1, painted as XD317 '112', a Scimitar F.1 in the 800 Naval Air Squadron markings it wore aboard HMS Ark Royal in 1963, in the Fleet Air Arm Museum’s collection at Yeovilton: Supermarine's last fighter, a big single-seat naval strike fighter with two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets fed by cheek intakes, a thin swept wing that folds outboard of the main undercarriage, a swept tailplane mounted part-way up the fin and a long-stroke tricycle undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with its wings spread, canopy closed, arrester hook lowered and drop tanks on the outer pylons, in the scheme it wears in the museum: Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces over gloss white undersides, a black radome, a red band along the top of the fin leading edge with a white deck letter 'R', black '112' on the nose straddling the colour line, Type D roundels on the forward fuselage and under the outer wings, black 'XD317' under the wings and white 'ROYAL NAVY' and serial on the rear fuselage (shape from a published three-view, checked against photographs of XD317, which the museum displays with its outer wings folded).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XD317 '112', a Scimitar F.1 in the 800 Naval Air Squadron markings it wore aboard HMS Ark Royal in 1963, in the Fleet Air Arm Museum’s collection at Yeovilton: Supermarine's last fighter, a big single-seat naval strike fighter with two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets fed by cheek intakes, a thin swept wing that folds outboard of the main undercarriage, a swept tailplane mounted part-way up the fin and a long-stroke tricycle undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with its wings spread, canopy closed, arrester hook lowered and drop tanks on the outer pylons, in the scheme it wears in the museum: Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces over gloss white undersides, a black radome, a red band along the top of the fin leading edge with a white deck letter 'R', black '112' on the nose straddling the colour line, Type D roundels on the forward fuselage and under the outer wings, black 'XD317' under the wings and white 'ROYAL NAVY' and serial on the rear fuselage (shape from a published three-view, checked against photographs of XD317, which the museum displays with its outer wings folded). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (858 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (F.1); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Scimitar F.1 modelled here.

History

The Scimitar F.1

The Scimitar grew out of a long line of Supermarine naval jet prototypes. The Type 508 of 1951 had a straight wing and a butterfly tail, the Type 525 of 1954 brought in the swept wing, a conventional tail and flaps blown with air bled from the engines to lower the landing speed, and the Type 544, which first flew on 19 January 1956, was the production design: an area-ruled fuselage, two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets side by side fed from intakes on either side of the cockpit, and a thin swept wing that folded outboard of the main undercarriage so that it would fit the carriers’ lifts. The first production Scimitar F.1 flew on 11 January 1957.

At about 15 tonnes laden the Scimitar was by far the heaviest and most powerful aircraft the Fleet Air Arm had yet flown from its carriers. It went into service with 803 Naval Air Squadron in 1958 and later equipped 800, 804 and 807 Squadrons, flying from Victorious, Ark Royal, Hermes, Centaur and Eagle. It carried four 30 mm Aden cannon and could be armed with bombs, rockets, Bullpup air-to-surface missiles, Sidewinders or a nuclear bomb, which made it the Navy’s first carrier aircraft with a nuclear strike role. It was also fitted to refuel other aircraft in flight from a tank under its wing.

The Scimitar was hard on its pilots and on its maintainers. Only 76 were built, and about half of them were lost in accidents. The Buccaneer took over its strike work from 1962, and the last front-line Scimitars, latterly used as flying tankers for the Buccaneers, left HMS Eagle in 1966. A handful flew on with the Fleet Requirements Unit at Hurn and with the Royal Aircraft Establishment until 1970. It was the last aircraft to carry the Supermarine name into service.

This airframe

F.1 XD317 (112/R)

XD317The airframe modelled

XD317 was delivered to Lossiemouth in November 1959 and joined 807 Naval Air Squadron in February 1960. After spells in storage and with 736 Squadron, the Lossiemouth training unit, it joined 800 Squadron aboard HMS Ark Royal in January 1963 and flew in that squadron’s markings until February 1964. It then served with the Royal Aircraft Establishment and with the Fleet Requirements Unit at Hurn, and it was retired to Yeovilton and handed to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in September 1969. The museum has displayed it in its Carrier exhibition with its wings folded. The model shows it with its wings spread, in its 1963 800 Squadron markings: Extra Dark Sea Grey over white, a black radome, “112” on the nose and Ark Royal’s deck letter “R” in white on a red fin band.

See it at Fleet Air Arm Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Scimitar F.1 in 3 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 241 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.