XR396 was reportedly broken up at Bitteswell in 1981, but then the nose and/or rear fuselage (reports vary) were transported to Kinloss for BDRT, surviving until around 1998.

what year was that?

cheers

Must have been around '77 or '78; Ian Strachan was the OC Flying I referred to.
Once they had developed the basic sensors in the Varsity, development was transferred to Hunter then Jaguar.

Blackbox H
 

I was at Aberporth for a while in Summer 1975 and an interesting visitor was Seaking XV651 from RRE Pershore (pilot was "Blackbox H" but I can't rememebr his name - memory fades !). I am trying to ascertain the exact mark, I thought it was a modified HU5 but others think not.

Any help gratefully received.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....69790c79bb.jpg
XV651 Aberporth JULY75

I'm not really "new" - but lost my log in details which were, in anycase, aligned with a now non-existant email :8

HAS.1 with a Lynx radar nose.

Later converted to a HAS.5, though some sources identify it as an HU.5.

When Comet/Nimrod XV147 arrived at Farnborough (I was tower controller at the time) it was said to be used for trials work to supplement XV814 however it never flew again. It did a lot of movement on the aifield at weekends when we weren't on duty often being parked on one side of the airfield on a monday after being left on the south side the previous friday; eventually it was broken up.
After landing, I recall I was told to taxy it to 'E' Shed where it was out of sight from the tower behind the SBAC terraces.

Thanks Dave !

Hi DonGilham, did a bit of tracking down on this one and the HU5 makes sense as some RN ASW Sea Kings were converted from HAS 5 to HU5 (ie ASW to SAR or Troop carrying) which was a pragmatic solution at the time to operational requirements. The usual life story of your "average" RN Sea King was HAS1 to HAS2 to HAS5 to HAS6. The Junglie HU4 for the Commando role were purpose-bult so can be ignored! The HU5 route took HAS5's out the usual HAS6 conversion route and stripped out the Sonar & Sonics to make more room back aft leaving them as the HU5, thus preserving the "5" monkier of the "donor" aircraft. So that was the normal route to HU5.

But........................ :E

XV651 seemingly is an exception due to the fact it spent quite a time in various "Trials" roles over it's life so it sort of missed out on the HAS2 step but finally went HAS1 to HAS5 and then was picked up for HU5 conversion - it seems to have by-passed the HAS2 conversion as it was probably off busy doing Trials stuff. Once it was released from it's Trials work, it seems to have gone direct HAS1 to HAS5. Now, I suspect, given the times it spend as a Trials aircraft, it's airframe hours were below average making it a promising candidate for conversion from HAS5 to HU5, the SAR cabs outlasting the ASW fleet so the younger the better. There is the odd photo of it claiming to be a HAS6 but I suspect the photographers assumed it had followed the standard HAS5 to HAS6 upgrade as there is not much difference externally. There was also quite an overlap in time as the aircraft flowed through the conversion system in a steady stream so there was quite a period with both HAS5's and HAS6's flying. I was on 810 NAS for a while which acted as a "clearing house" where we received old HAS5's from various Sqdns and prepped them before they went from us to Fleetlands for conversion to HAS6.

Now, I'm normally a tad skeptical of "geek-type" sites but aircraft modelers often are quite good at digging out oddities to make and the following makes sense from someone called Head in the clouds so I'll had over to them here. They have quite a good summary of the airframes' history which is repeated below:-

"Westland Sea King XV651, wa639 was delivered on October 1969 as part of the first batch of HAS1's ordered for the Royal Navy, it was quickly put to work but not looking for Russian subs but working in the heat of Edwards AFB on hot and high trials during 1970. After this it was sent to Westlands for conversion to carry out tests for the upcoming naval Lynx programme, in particular the Seasprey radar. After conversion it spent two periods at RRE Defford during 1972 and 1974 respectively, working on the Seasprey system as well as other locations. After this work was completed it the Seasprey was removed. It arrived at Fleetlands in 1980 for conversion to HAS5 and then later in it's life to HU5 standard. It was while as a search and rescue HU5 serving with 771SQ that it took part in the Boscastle floods rescues on 16 Aug 2004. After this period it then went to A&AEE serving with QinetiQ carrying out further trials and research work but keeping its overall Grey colour scheme. After being withdrawn from service it was stored at Honeypot Lane near Colsterworth (just down the road from me) for onward sale, eventually ending up at a farm and caravan park in County Durham, still giving sterling service in one form or another."

Another link here seems accurate for it's early life but doesn't capture the actual HAS5 to HU5 conversion ...... but ties in nicely with Head in the clouds elsewhere so it all seems to link in OK and here is their finished model too!

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3fa4f937fb.jpg

Anyway, hope this helps a bit. Many happy days working on them back in the day..............................! :ok:

Excellent info, thanks Hot etc :)

Seaking XV651
 

This was a Sea King Mk 1 with a modified Lynx nose used for trials of the radar for the Sea Skua anti-ship missile. The aircraft moved to RAE Bedford Radar Research Squadron in the autumn of 1976 when Pershore closed. The radar trials were conducted at RAE Aberporth

Aaahhhh – Pershore. What a wonderful place!
 

Only just seen this thread but had to add as I ‘grew up’ there whilst Dad spent 2 extended tours (3 if you include Defford)

'Blackbox Hotel' might have been Mike Butt. He’s the only rotary name I remember. When I can find the old man's log books, I’m sure there’ll be other names.

Dad was 'Blackbox Victor' and on one occasion, whilst on a navex going through basic training, I called up as 'Blackbox Victor Junior' and had great chat with the ATCO - Tom Biltcliffe. He even insisted on giving us various tips for whatever horse racing meeting was on at the time – much to my instructors amusement.

As I grew up I would see Dad go off to fly all different types of aircraft which confirmed that I wanted to follow in his footsteps. He wasn’t a test pilot or anything special just an ordinary Flt Lt who was a really good bloke and, from all accounts, a really good pilot. Unfortunately, Pershore closed, and that sort of posting seemed to disappear as the RAF changed/reduced. Still, I look back with many fond memories of Pershore, and the surrounding area.

Any other Pershore memories out there?