Originally Posted by Sideshow Bob
You’re partially right, a boscombe Comet was used for Searchwater trails and was fitted with a large nose radome. Without checking I'm not sure which one it was though.
Bob, sure you're not getting your Searchwaters and your AEWs mixed up?
XW626 was fitted with a large bulbous nose (and Nimrod fin top), but that was a concept demo aircraft for the well known success story that was NimWACS.
I'm not aware of any trials aircraft pre-XV147/148, as described by cazatou and mikealder.