Nimrod over Liverpool late 1960s.

[magpienja]

Bit of a long shot but today I was near Liverpool and a nimrod flew over quite low, I believe it was doing a fly past at a military funeral, anyway it reminded me of a time when I lived in Liverpool late 60s from what I can remember, and a nimrod flew over heading east, the aircraft was under development at the time at woodford, the unusual thing about this flight was that the aircraft was trailing a very large parashoot behind it the type fighter jets deploy on landing, did not think much about it at the time but I have thought back many times what happened to the aircraft it must have caused a very large amount of drag, I wonder if anybody has any information regarding this flight.

Nick in cheshire

[Tiger_mate]

It was XV148, the prototype Nimrod coverted from a Comet at Chester, seen on several occasions flying over Liverpool without a MAD Boom fitted in 1967. I cannot recall seeing a parachute, but it was almost certainly a spin recovery chute fitted to most if not all prototypes on initial flights.

[magpienja]

That would explain it many thanks tiger.

Nick.

[BossEyed]

More likely a "trailing static cone", used in flight test to measure static pressure outside the pressure field effects of the airframe and hence used to calibrate the air data systems.

However, that wouldn't fit the "very large" description that you give.

An anti-spin chute is fitted for emergency use, and it would remain "packed" unless deployment is required to recover. It would be jettisoned on spin recovery if ever there was cause for it to be used, so you wouldn't expect to see an aircraft flying along with it deployed - anywhere, but especially over an urban area.