Supermarine Scimitar - Operational History

Operational History

At the time of introduction the Royal Navy only had a couple of large carriers. Most were still quite small and the Scimitar was a comparatively large and powerful aircraft. Landing accidents were common, and the introduction of the type was marred by a fatal accident which took the life of Cdr John Russell, commanding officer of 803 Naval Air Squadron, the first squadron to operate the Scimitar. After making a perfect landing on the newly-recommissioned HMS Victorious, and in full view of the press, one of the arrestor wires broke, and Russell's Scimitar fell into the sea. With no means of ejecting through the jammed canopy, and despite the best efforts of the planeguard to perform a rescue, Russell's Scimitar sank to the bottom and Cdr Russell drowned. Overall the Scimitar suffered from a high loss rate; 39 were lost in a number of accidents, amounting to 51% of the Scimitar's total production run.

The aircraft was perceived by many as too innovative mechanically. It pioneered fuel flow proportioning and integral mainplane tanks along with "blown" flying surfaces to reduce landing speeds. At one time, it held the notorious record of 1,000 maintenance hours per flying hour.

Although the Scimitar could be configured as a fighter, the interceptor role was covered by the de Havilland Sea Vixen. In the attack role it was replaced by the Blackburn Buccaneer. The Scimitar was retained initially as a tanker to allow the underpowered Buccaneer S.1 to be launched from aircraft carriers with a useful weapons load. To save weight, the Buccaneer would take off with minimum fuel then top up from a Scimitar.

Late in the Scimitar's operational career, examples were flown between 1965 and 1970 by the Fleet Requirements Unit (FRU) based at Bournemouth Airport (Hurn). The FRU was managed by Airwork Services and provided realistic flight operations for land and sea based naval training units.