Hawker Siddeley now British Aerospace in Broughton on my doorstep

HAWKER SIDDELEY NIMROD PROTOTYPE XV148 BEING PREPARED FOR ITS MAIDEN FLIGHT AT BROUGHTON ON 23RD MAY 1967 - 53 YEARS AGO TODAY.

XV148 was flown from Broughton to Woodford by Hawker Siddeley chief test pilot John Cunningham, with Avro's chief test pilot Jimmy Harrison as co-pilot, one navigator, two flight engineers and two observers.

The British government announced the conception of the Nimrod - 'The Mighty Hunter' from various religious mythology - in 1965 as the world's first land-based, pure jet, long range maritime reconaissance, anti-submarine and search and resuce aircraft.

The aircraft was originally a civil de Havilland Comet 4C airframe (c/n 06477), the final Comet airframe on the production line.

The decision was taken to use the well proven Comet airframe to replace the Avro Shackleton and convert the last two unsold Comets into the main Nimrod development prototypes.

XV148 was the aerodynamic prototype, having what would become Nimrod's customary 'bath-tub bubble' skirt structure of the unpressurised weapons bay and large nose radome, along with modified wing centre section and enlarged air intakes to accomodate the Nimrod's Rolls-Royce Spey 250 engines. It was also fitted with the Nimrod's navigation and attack systems. Nimrod fuselages are 6 feet shorter than a Comet 4C and this alteration reduces the aircraft's directional stability, therefore the dorsal fin was enlarged in June 1967.

The aircraft undertook extensive flight trials at Woodford, along with airframe and engine development work. It was used by the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment for assessment trials at RAF Boscombe Down during 1968 until being returned to Woodford for futher development work by HS. 1969-70 it was prepared for missile testing work and then from 1970-72 it conducted AS12 & SSII trials from Woodford and Boscombe Down. In 1972 XV148 participated in Searchwater development work and was then allocated to the Radar Research Establishment at RAF Pershore in 1975 for avionics and weapons sytems research. It was moved to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Bedford in 1977 and was finally retired in 1982, with its final flight being to Woodford for structural stress and fatigue testing. As part of this testing the nose and tail sections were removed and the remainder of the fuselage and wings were used as a ground fatigue test specimen to determine the fatigue consumption of the type, allowing any problems to be discovered quickly before they became widespread.

In 1999 the airframe was scrapped. Most of it including the bare nose section was acquired privately from BAE systems and moved to Guildford for long term restoration.

As of 2015 the nose section was basically complete barring some cosmetic elements.

It's sister XV147 was 75 percent complete as a Comet 4C when Nimrod development began and was consequently still fitted with the Comet's Rolls-Royce Avon engines. XV147 was flown to Woodford as a Comet 4C in 1965 for conversion and was used for sytems development but was not aerodynamically representative of the production Nimrod. It took its maiden flight as a Nimrod prototype two months later on 31 July 1967.

Production of the Nimrod continued at Broughton, with wing centre sections, fuselage sections and outer wings being built until 1970 & transported to Woodford for final assembly.