Sea Eagle
Sorry this isn't directly related to Fred, but I can understand the confusion over dates.
The 1st live Sea Eagle firing was mid 1980's, by BAe TP Mike Snelling; again XZ440, ( with the same 6-camera cine pod made at Boscombe, which was my task to set up ) - took off from Hatfield, 1 missile 1 x 190, refuelled at Valley ( or possibly Llanbedr, memory fades ) then off to Aberporth range - where he nearly gave a wandering fishing boat a bad day, picking it up at first as the target - despite the dry run.
It took a lot of instrumentation wiring to set up for Sea Eagle trials; the 1st FRS1 to fly, John Farley August 1978 XZ450, had taken 13 months work to wire up for this, then when the Falklands happened that aircraft, like everything else suitable in Dunsfold Experimental Hangar, was grabbed by the Navy.
Rather short-sightedly, they used 450 on a standard iron bomb raid on Goose Green; it was the first Harrier shot down, by AAA, killing Lt. Nick Taylor. His widow has since made a thing about the a/c not having RWR, which sounds quite possible being a development jet, as to whether it might have made any difference is another matter.
John Farley made a comment*, probably trying to be kind, and of course underlining the significance of the Sea Harrier / Sea Eagle package, when the world thought the S.Etendard / Exocet must be the last word - ( Sea Eagle was / is a very intelligent bit of kit, and remind me why the 25 de Mayo couldn't even launch aircraft ?! ).
- *JF commented that one of the reasons the Argentine Navy stayed put was that the Argentinians found the missile control panel in the wreckage of XZ450, and thought " Christ, they've got Sea Eagle operational ! " - Obviously our subs were a factor too...
So, it was a fair bit later that XZ440 was used for the Sea Eagle trials firing - and a fair bit after then that the FRS1 fleet was rewired along with the other kit, and Freds' 1st Military firing carried out.
Last edited by Double Zero; 8th October 2009 at 19:29.