The Sea Vixen: The Strangest Fighter Jet in British History

Humanity's introduction of the de age was the start of a sprinting foot race one in which everybody from Olympic athletes to the reasonably fit to the clumsy uncoordinated Couch Potato were represented all at once the Americans and the Soviets took off with the Mad desperation of bitter enemies desperate to ensure that they and not the other would see their hand raised by the day's end the French and the swedes set out at a Brisk Marathon as jog knowing that with care and practice they'd be leading the pack by the day's end a handful of Other Nations started to walk started to chant and started trading around snacks from their fanny packs all just happy to be outside in the sunshine and Britain well Britain fell flat on its face the aircraft responsible was the aaland SE Vixen a twin engined twin tailed air defense fighter that's been panned alternately as the weirdest looking jet fighter in British history and just the outright worst with a design so goofy that it could only be from the early jet years and a crash record so appallingly long that it could be its own book The sexen was more of a wake up call than anything else a clear message to the UK that if it was going to have a future in military Aviation then that future would have to involve an aircraft that simply wasn't this one but hey at least he's winking at [Music] you just before we continue with today's video I want to say that it's brought to you by keeps now I know what you're probably thinking Simon you are a bald man but that doesn't mean that I can't help look out for my fellow folically challenged friends keeps is all about keeping your hair where it belongs unless it's too late for someone like me with keeps you can kiss those awkward doctors office visits goodbye say hello to Professional Care from the comfort of your own home just hop online complete a consultation and boom you matched with a personalized treeman plan delivered discreetly to your door and the best part you can adjust pause or 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same era of Aviation as iconic aircrafts like the American f86 and and the Soviet mig5 both intended to be their country's first truly valuable long-term fighter jit aircraft the early introduction of jet turbine and Rocket aircraft particularly by Nazi Germany in the waning months of World War II had kicked off a sort of cier ass arms race as Nation scrambled to put even rather rudimentary War Birds into the sky that could compete with these much faster much higher powerered aircraft but in the years after the war as aeronautical engineers and Military aviators began to realize just how fast this technology was developing and how much potential it had the Victorious nations of the world Britain among them endeavored to lay claim to a jet fighter that could really be something in the UK the davand aircraft company was among those who got the call coming off a productive and lucrative few years of war where its mosquito multiroll aircraft had taken Center Stage to havland had already proven itself competent at manufacturing jet fighters specifically the vampire which was introduced to the Royal Air Force in 1946 with a total of nearly 3,300 constructed but the vampire was still among those early stop Gap aircrafts numerous as it might have been the crown was clear about what it wanted an all weather fighter aircraft powered by jet engines and equipped with onboard radar to fill a roll with the Royal Navy as its piston aircraft were phased out and to take over for part of the royal Air Force's Fleet as well in order to fill the role that the British government was looking for to havland knew from the outset that a few other requirements would also have to be implicitly understood in order for the planes to fun function it would require a second seat on board adding a navigator and radar operator to assist the pilot it would need onboard redundancies particularly a second engine because of how risky it was to have a fighter like that suffer an engine failure in the middle of the ocean it was envisioned to include a swept-wing design and in keeping with the twin boom tail design that had distinguished to haval Land's priet aircraft their new plane would incorporate a twin boom Tail as well the new plane was designated the dh1 te although it wouldn't receive its proper name until almost a decade after its Inception davalan would design their fighter with dual intentions in mind to populate the raf's fleet of night Fighters and to perform both night fighter and strike roles with the British royal Navy despite early setbacks from the Royal Navy changing its mind about what sort of aircraft it wanted opting instead to refit an existing aircraft that was drifting towards obsolescence to havan persevered nonetheless anticipating correctly that the jet aircraft of the late 1940s wouldn't be good for much at least not for very long by 1951 to havland had tightened the screws on its initial prototype which took its Maiden flight in September of that year in the early days the aircraft performed well past expectations and it earns another distinction as the first British two- seater jet to ever pass the sound barrier while his engines weren't quite powerful enough to push it past Mac 1 in level flight it could push cleanly past the sound barrier in a short dive which it did with regularity by early 1952 during test flights zavalin was proud of its new aircraft and rightfully so although it wasn't time for a Victory lap just yet yet the company had produced a plane that seemed quite clearly as if it had put London into the second generation of the jet age and identified an aircraft with the potential to become as iconic for Britain as the Spitfire and the swordfish had been during World War II but on the 6th of September 1952 just under a year after the SE vixen's First Flight tragedy struck for the whole world to see to havland and the British government had decided to debut the dh110 to the public fber air show in international and very very famous banal air show where some of the world's most Innovative aircraft have been unveiled behind the stick was one John Derry aged 33 who'd been a squadron commander flying Haw of typhoons against the Nazis over the Netherlands and probably become the first brick to break the sound barrier in an uncontrolled dive while testing the experimental to havan swallow aircraft a few years earlier alongside him was 25-year-old Anthony Richards a new member to the test flight program who had only barely become a man by the time the war ended during the air show the two took their dh110 into a supersonic dive from 40,000 ft pulled up near the ground and banked left to fly over the crowd when they did tragedy struck both engines and the cockpit were jolted out of the airframe in a disintegration of the entire aircraft the cockpit impacted the runway killing both Derry and Richards one of the engines was catapulted directly into the crowd 29 Spectators would be killed in the incident the worst in farra air show history although to havins wouldn't be found liable for the accident it's still still required an urgent redesign of the aircraft without which the program itself might not have survived later investigation identified the Leading Edge of the DH 110s Wing as the culprit buckling under the high stress of rolling Maneuvers in a way that caused the co bit and tail to break away from the wings it was after this catastrophe that the havan realized that a rethink of the SE Vixen was in order and when they undertook that challenge the plane ended up better for it the modifications including reinforced Wings would prevent the dh110 from hitting the speed of sound again but it was a worthy trade-off in the end after the accident the Royal Air Force decided to go a different route for its new jet pursuing the Gloucester Javelin instead the Royal Navy's air fleet arm though it stayed true to its desire to pick up at least a few of the planes they eventually placed an order for 110 navalized versions naming them the SE Vixen in early 1955 in all it would be nearly eight full years from the SE vixen's first flight to its introduction to service during that time the plane would undergo a wide range of tweaks and changes most of which were net positives to the aircraft design it would feature integrated weapon systems more advanced radar a fire control system and the requisite equipment to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers and land with an arresting tail Hook by early 1957 it was ready to enter production and in 1959 the first Squadron of SE Vixens went operational for the first time two versions of the SE Vixen would ultimately be delivered to the Royal Navy the faw 1 and the faw2 because the faw2 was the objectively better plane and most C Vixens would be either built or converted to the faw2 model by the time it was all said and done it's those specs that we're going to rely on to get a clear picture of exactly what this fighter aircraft was capable of measuring a total of 55 1/2 ft 17 M from tip to tail with a wingspan of exactly 51 ft or 15 1/2 M the SE Vixen weighed in at just a hair under 28,000 empty that's about 12,700 kg or 14 tons when fully loaded with fuel weapons and Pilots it was close to £47,000 the plane was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon 208 turbojet engines and flown by a crew of two including a pilot and radar operator unlike just about every other fighter jets before and since the C vixen's cockpit wasn't sat in the center of the fuselage and it actually wasn't even one cockpit at all the Pilot's cockpit was offset to the left hand side of the aircraft poking out of the body of the aircraft enough to see while the radar operator was to sit completely inside the fuselage with a top hatch over his head that was referred to as the coal hole inside the radar operator's hatch was kept dark and insulated from the world around it which on the one hand must feel rather safe and secure if your plan's in the middle of a dog fight but on the other it seems like a near guarantee of some pretty gnly motion sickness the reason for the co hole well that was the C vixen's rudimentary radar screens which could only really be read in the dark each crew member flew with a flight suit and was granted ejector seats that were designed to be able to function even when the aircraft was fully underwater the SE Vixen flew at a maximum speed of 690 mph or 1,110 km per hour or mac. 91 again it was not able to achieve supersonic flight even in Dives something that was no longer possible after the Post Farm bre disaster refits the aircraft had a range of 790 Mi or 1,270 km without the use of external fuel tanks giving it a total flight time of just above an hour if it flew fully loaded the plane hit a surface ceiling of 48,000 ft or 15 km which you could hit in just over 5 minutes or 320 seconds if we're being precise about it in terms of armament the C vixm was equipped with a total of six hard points which were able to accommodate rocket pods with a total of up to 128 Rockets depending on the configuration or up to four air to Air and two air to ground missiles or bombs in a configuration of 2x 1,000 4X £500 or a single £ 1,750 red B freeall nuclear bomb it was the first British Naval fighter aircraft to ever fly without on board guns and among the first to be equipped to receive inflight refueling from tanker aircraft it could also carry a tanker of its own to refill other aircraft if need be however it was also one of a long list of airplanes that fell victim to an overconfidence in the power of air-to-air missiles which in the SE Vixen day had to be guided by the aircrafts on board radar to get close to an enemy aircraft before its infrared homing system could take over and finish the job overall the plane offered a marked improvement on the capabilities and potential of the aircraft that had come before it was unique in both good and bad ways cumbersome to fly at times but packed a whole lot of power under the hood the faw2 redesign would give it sophisticated weapon the fitting an aircraft of the 1960s and its flying controls while demanding were a convenient opportunity for Airmen to greatly Advance the flying capability of the British royal Navy generally planes onboard redundancies its autopilot and its safe control were designed to remain useful even if both engines failed and electrical power was cut to the rest of the aircraft making it a plane that at least on paper Pilots could really [Music] trust when we take a look at the C Vixen service life it's not the plan's involvement in any particular war that we've got to think about it's not the plan's record-breaking performance and it's not the plan's reputation among its Pilots it's the crashes the so so so many crashes 145 SE Vixens would be constructed over the course of the plane's time on the production line by the time that it left service for good in 1972 just past a decade after its initial introduction only 90 of those aircraft survived with a staggering 38% loss rate across the entire SE Vixen fleet's lifespan of 55th lost airf frames 30 would take their operators with them including 21 in which both the pilot and the radar man were lost and these were not wartime losses the plane was difficult to land on the decks of the relatively small aircraft carriers to operated on this was especially because of its low drag design which gave Pilots only a tiny critical window to slow their plane down in after land without stalling out and dipping too low the SE Vixens also suffered a particularly High loss rate while performing ground attack missions using self-illuminating targeting flares the radar man in the coal hole was in particular danger the HSE hatched didn't jettison nearly as quickly as the radar operators would have liked and in several incidents they were unable to escape crashes that the plane's pilot survived the faw2 version of the plane would feature a much wider hatch built with material that could shatter as the radar operator and his ejector seat were launched through per c.org a commemorative website run by the plan's former operators and their families these radar men would be quote hurled and thrown around the skies under high G forces while serving inside the cix and even when the plane was flying as intended said the site quote these Naval observers had the utmost courage and were accept Ally Brave they had to completely trust their pilot at all times all true but the caveat of course is that for an operator with so little awareness of what was happening outside the bit their survival rate was completely at the whim of a hard-to-control airplane as well as pilot era unfortunately for the SE vixen's Legacy it sought no major wars during its service life and thus none of the battlefield success that might have otherwise redeemed it from its dismal safety record but it did take part in a handful of minor conflicts across the 1960s during which time it distinguished itself as a competent if perhaps not extraordinary addition to the British Arsenal over Iraq in 1961 it served as a powerful deterrent and intimidation tactic to convince president Abdul Karim cassm that an invasion of Kuwait was a bad idea in 1964 it served over modern day Tanzania then tanganica to deal with a large scale Mutiny of the national Army against British officers and commanders in response to the C viix and would provide OverWatch to British raw Marines in their successful attempt to restore order they'd conduct air strikes and territory known today as Yemen that helped deter and diffuse a confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia that helped to blockade oil from the unrecognized Republic of rodesia and they' provide cover for the Royal Navy as it got the hell out of modern day Yemen's port of Aiden the SE vixen's air service was mostly about deterence and occasional enforcement of British will as it became one of the many emblems of Britain's slow stuttering decline as a major power with Britain's attempts at Global power projection growing weaker and weaker it made some sense that the SE Vixen itself began to look more and more ineffectual but it still got to work out in some other roles nonetheless C Vixens would be part of two Roy Navy display teams during their service life and a few would be converted to drones for a program that ultimately didn't go anywhere they'd engage in mock dog fights and have good success against suponic interceptors like the do Mirage 3 from France and the English electric lightning from Britain using its tight turn radius and its invasiveness to starve the faster planes of their fuel and then hit them with a missile as they tried to get away but by 1972 the SE vixon had reached the end of its service life and most of the UK wasn't too torn up to see it go it would ultimately be replaced by the American-made Phantom Interceptor designated the F4 in the US and the fg1 in Britain these days if you're going to see a c Vixen you can do it all across the UK as well as in Australia and perhaps best of all you'll be able to rest assured that the SE Vixen won't be flying it's a plane with a complicated Legacy one with fond memories left over by those who flew behind the stick [Music] yeah

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 185,700

Keywords: jet british fast, royal navy history, british army, british bomber, british royal navy, british jet, hms british, the destroyer, history, british battleship, airplanes, sea vixen, hms battleship, royal air force, aviation, air force, royal navy battleship, uk battleship, carrier aircraft

Id: zWt-1BvmU64

Length: 17min 10sec (1030 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2024