Vixen: Gone but not Forgotten

It was a powerful and majestic beastie in its day, but the last one has gone, ignominiously. The Sea Vixen.  It will be remembered by anyone who has served in the Royal Navy and many more beside. Me for one.

Back in the day I (and my fellows) hosted a mob of them which off-loaded from the 'Ark' when that carrier called into Singapore. With cables rigged on the runway we took them into Tengah where they did QRA duty for a few weeks, taking over from the other impressive beastie the Javelin. 

(This is going back a bit !!  We were having a small war with a big country at the time. Indonesia)

In some respects they were a match for the Javs but took three minutes longer to launch from hooter to airborne.

But no more. I am not sure if Red Bull still flies one. At least they had the nous to try to keep one aloft.

It has a distinctive shape and a tail section which is rare these days. The cockpit off-set is also distinctive, with the nav-ops man sitting low on the right. The cockpit layout was also 'busy' as it is in most battle aircraft.

The last flying type was a great addition to any air display right up until this year.  Here is 'Foxy Lady' in its almost last appearance. Then.......

There are two sorts of pilots: those that have landed wheels up, and those that are going to one day. This was one of those days. 

The last remaining Sea Vixen aircraft, XP924 G-CVIX “Foxy Lady”, performed an emergency belly-landing at Yeovilton, UK, on May 27. A pilot had a lucky escape after the last remaining Sea Vixen plane, known as the Foxy Lady, did an emergency landing at an airfield in Somerset yesterday.The pilot was unharmed after the aircraft, which served in the Royal Navy in the 1960s, did a 'belly-landing' on return to its base in Yeovilton. The heart-stopping incident saw the pilot touchdown without landing gear after flying back from the Duxford Air Show in Cambridgeshire. The aircraft had taken off at 4.15pm and they waited an hour and 10 minutes for it to return. The aircraft returned from Duxford and flew up the runway. We then heard radio communications between the tower and the pilot asking for visual of the landing gear. The rest will be historical.

Repeat after me that famous last word.....

BUGGER.!!

Drinks for the chap in the bar.

Pax