Originally Posted by
Art Smass
and she was built as one.... the D3 conversion came later
I can remember several Sea Vixens being converted at Farnborough in the late '70s (under contract to Flight Refuelling) for target drone work at Llanbedr, was that the D3? I thought drones had a 'U' prefix.
Tarrant Rushton was still open then and the Flight Refuelling test pilot used to fly into Farnborough to test fly them.
On one occasion, a Vixen was pulled out of the hangar, the test pilot arrived and got togged up; next thing we knew the Vixen was being put back into the hangar along with the TPs Aztec.
Apparently he had been a bit enthusiastic leaping into the Vixen and had struck his head on the forward part of the canopy nearly knocking himself out!
Was this a common occurence with the type I wonder?