Supermarine Scimitar

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This refers to the aircraft, for other uses see Scimitar (disambiguation)

Supermarine Scimitar

Supermarine Scimitar on board USS Intrepid
Type	Carrier-Fighter
Manufacturer	Supermarine
Maiden flight	January 1956
Introduced	1957
Primary user	Fleet Air Arm
Number built	76

The Supermarine Scimitar was a fighter aircraft in the British Fleet Air Arm. The prototype for the eventual production version flew in January 1956 and production aircraft were delivered in 1957. It was the Royal Navy's first operational jet strike aircraft and saw service from 1958 until 1969. However, it was beset by design faults and was a poor aircraft compared to many of its contemporaries.

1 Design
2 Variants
3 Operators
4 Units Using the Scimitar
- 4.1 Fleet Air Arm
5 Specifications (Supermarine Scimitar)
6 Related content
7 External links

[edit] Design

The Scimitar started out as one of a number of designs from Supermarine for a naval jet aircraft. The Type 525 first flew on 27 April 1954. It later crashed but the design as the N113 was used for an order of 100. More work on the 525 gave the new Type 544 by which point the Navy had changed the specification and wanted a low level strike aircraft with nuclear capability. The first of the N113 flew on 19 January 1956; but the aircraft evolved more and the 3rd N113 was different with aerodynamic changes and a stronger airframe. The first true Scimitar flew in January 1957.

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. The Scimitar suffered from a high loss rate; over all types of accidents 39 were lost.

Although the Scimitar could be equipped 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 compensate for the early Buccaneer's low engine power. A Buccaneer would take off with minimum fuel then top up from a Scimitar.