1960's Aircraft Photos
OLD RED DAMASK
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Although they might have ended up at Coltishall on 226 OCU, as most of the F1As that were servicable ended up there. Cant read the XM numbers, or I could tell you.
Brilliant photos but what on earth is this (the aircraft on the left)?
New Stuff - as December 2012
New Stuff - as December 2012
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The tail fin is akin to many an Armstrong Whitworth aircraft, who also trialled several tail-less aircraft to an advanced stage. It is almost certainly unique and probably a rare photograph. It has the stance of Javelin with similar undercarriage and knowing that AW and Gloster shared the Meteor, one wonders if this oddity is also the result of some colaberation.
The airfield looks like Arbroath, which would also explain the Seahawk in the distance.
If so, maybe it was something cooked up by Navy apprentices, though there was no sign of anything resembling that when I spent a week there on a gliding course in 69.
If so, maybe it was something cooked up by Navy apprentices, though there was no sign of anything resembling that when I spent a week there on a gliding course in 69.
I was close, although the airfield is in fact RNAS Abbotsinch (HMS Sanderling - now Glasgow Airport).
It's the "Vennet" - a concoction of Sea Venom and Gannet components - put together as a spoof and exhibited at various Navy Days, where it was capable of a fast taxy though obviously it didn't fly.
Here's the same "aircraft" in a slightly later (or earlier) configuration with a squared-off rudder and nose "intake":
Does it ever stop raining in that part of the world.
A few months we were in drought with very low reservoir levels and many hosepipe bans in force.
Then we got flooding because the ground couldn't absorb water after the drought!!
PPRuNe Bashaholic
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Thanks Dave. The site owner also confirms the story.
That would make the photos you show a later version of the Vennet 
Abbotsinch (apprentices? engineers?) cobbled it up as a spoof for the 1961 Open Day. It was announced as a new secret type on its first public display. It lined up, ran up to some speed along the runway then disappeared back to a hangar on the pretext that it had a technical problem. The Gannet tail is recognisable, and there are probably bits of Venom, Sea Vixen, etc in there. It was never going to fly. No idea of its fate.
Colin
Colin
