HMS Eagle 1970: AEW Fairey Gannet, Buccaneer S2, De Havilland Sea Vixen Mk2, Wessex
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Hands to flying stations, a typical exercise involving all types of aircraft on Royal Navy HMS Eagle April 1970 in the Mediterranean including COD Gannet. Featuring AEW Gannet piloted by Lieutenant Noel Pinder, observer Tom McGhee.
Filmed by Flight Lt Al Bruyn (on a Super 8).
So love this era of the Navy, brings back my early childhood. My dad was in the RN, based in Malta and my time onboard the carrier at Navy Days around these aircraft left such a strong impression. I was obsessed with the Gannet when I got to sit in one and the Sea Vixen nowdays looks like the aerial equivalent of a cool jaguar e type :) Great footage, atmospheric, deserves to be widely seen. Shows we knew how to do it as well as anyone. Thanks for posting!!
My dad was also based in Malta at that time. He was a Chief Petty Officer in the RN, on one of the carriers. Might have been HMS Bulwark. His passion for aviation was what got me interested. He had friends aboard HMS Eagle when she visited Cape Town in the 70s.
This footage puts the Great in Great Britain. Bill
The irony is we (British) havent really had a proper naval AEW aircraft since the gannet - in the years afterwards the sea-king helicopter has had to do it!
Fantastic, great to see the Royal Navy when it was able to deliver some serious air power. Brought up next to HMS Fulmar so was all these aircraft on a regular basis. Thanks for sharing.
That Fairey Gannet was a big aircraft; and of all the planes the British were not able to take to the Falklands with their fleet, maybe it was the most sorely missed.
that's very true...and maybe the phantoms?
The all British kit we had in them days!
My father served on HMS Eagle around 1970 or 71 - Alan 'Tug' Wilson. He was Chief Petty Officer when he left the Navy in 1977, but may not have been at the time he served on the Eagle (I'd ask him but he passed away a few years ago). I still clearly remember visiting dad on HMS Eagle on a Families Day - she was moored in Plymouth Sound and we all had to get to the ship via smaller vessels then step across onto a small floating dock before ascending a staircase - can't believe no-one fell off as there would've been hundreds of civilians going onboard that day! I remember standing on that very flight deck too - what an adventure! I was only 5 years old then; I think this is my earliest childhood memory and what an asesome one!
Excellent video, thank you for posting it though it does make me feel sad seeing the days when we had a large and powerful Navy and not just the shadow of one as we have now.
Wonderful video and a rare view of one of the Royal Navy 'Big Four' carriers at the time, at work. This is a historical document too, so, it is very kind of you to share this to RUclips. I'm sharing this to Facebook so other carrier fans can share this. Thank you for the Share.
fantastic aircraft. I had never even seen a Gannet until a year or so ago, a brute of an airplane - I like it a lot.
I knew your father well. I was LAM A/E Doc Vass and 071 was my cab for two commissions. Give him my kind regards. Glad someone had some footage.
Doc.
I worked at Fairey Aviation in the 1950' & 1960's building and refurbishing the Fairey Gannets and did a lot of work on the Fairey Rotodyne
i worked at Fairy aviation in Maidenhead around 1962/3 . in the paint shop.
Fantastic stuff to see such good colour footage of the Eagle in her prime, thanks for posting!
Hi Mike, I visited Eagle while she visited Istanbul in 1958,,,she had a straight flight deck in those days...I still have a friend now from all those days gone by. cheers!
Britain made a big mistake retiring their conventional aircraft carriers. If the Royal Navy had them during the Falklands War of 1982 along with their Phantoms, I bet a lot of British ships would've been saved from air attacks especially with Gannet AEW aircraft working closely with fighters such as F-4 Phantoms. The Phantom's powerful radar would've detected Argentine aircraft from many miles away and would've been shot down by Skyflash medium range radar guided missiles. Harrier jump jets did a great job no doubt, but it would've been better if Britain still had these carriers.
I'm not so sure, mate. Any idea what the max sea state was for flying ops? American carriers won't fly in anything over six, I'm not sure the Brits were any better. As good as the Gannet/FG.1 combination was, it'd be a moot point if the aircraft couldn't get airborne in foul weather.
An Invincible can launch and recover in just about anything- I remember 801 schooling a supercarrier by launching from inside the tail end of a hurricane when J Band was driving Lusty. Eight and even nine wasn't unusual, although it needed Command approval.
Then there's the performance of Argentine aircraft against conventional jets. R.550 Magic Is had a tough time locking on to Sea Harrier jet exhausts, I'd imagine the Phantom's afterburners would be a much more attractive target. Matra R530s failed to hold their target lock after launch; the Sea Harrier was just too small for the onboard semi-active radar seeker head. Again, a Phantom would be a considerably easier target for all aspect shots.
Skyflash had a great performance against low flying targets, but our American friends were kind enough to let us use Sidewinder Ls on our SHARs, which seemed to do just fine, even against fast jets flying NOE. I'm not sure how much of an advantage Skyflash's extra range would give; the SHAR with AIM-9L combination took down pretty much everything that stood in front of it.
The main issue we faced was crap radar and radio conditions. The Phantom's Westinghouse derived AN/AWG-11 was based on 50s era technology; SHAR had the much newer and more capable Blue Fox. Given how much even Blue Fox struggled, I'm not convinced that the older set would have given us any real advantage. It's more likely that it would have performed the way surface radars of a similar upgraded 60's vintage did, getting badly attenuated by the generally poor atmospheric conditions and the plethora of small, low lying islands and hills around the British landing area. Just to give you a rough idea of the numbers I'm talking about, public sources put the max aerial range of AN/AWG-10 at about 65km vs a 5msq target, Blue Fox at 95km vs the same. Larger radar targets can be seen from much further away- a SHAR tracked a small warship (a frigate) at over 100nm during the conflict, using the Blue Fox in it's surface mode. I'm not sure if AN/AWG-11 even had a surface mode?
What might have saved British lives would have been putting another Admiral in charge. Sandy Woodward was a career submariner and absolutely ruthless, as so many former perishers are. I suspect he was chosen because he was a man who could be trusted to pull the trigger if he had to- bear in mind, hardly anyone believed there was going to be any shooting when the Task Force was dispatched. The trouble is Woodward was pretty clueless about surface and air warfare. He'd spent his whole life learning how to kill skimmers, not command them. Prior to taking command of the Task Force he'd only commanded one surface ship (ironically enough, HMS Sheffield) and had absolutely zero carrier experience. It would be uncharitable to criticise his handling of Hermes and 800sqn- he was on a steep carrier aviation learning curve. But ordering his top gun, HMS Coventry, into an area where her radars would be severly degraded and her radios silenced was blisteringly incompetent. It's worth reading his autobiography, One Hundred Days. It offers a chilling insight into his thought process.
The RN isn't short of Admirals. I can't imagine it would have been particularly hard to find one with recent carrier and amphibious experience. Under a different Flag the campaign might have been fought considerably differently.
If we hadn't decommissioned them Argentina probably wouldn't have invaded in the first place.
@madesh gandra Again, that all rather depends on what you carry and how accurate your bombing is. SHAR were bombing Stanley airport on a fairly regular basis, taking out anything of value. The famous Vulcan raids dumped a much heavier load, but didn't hit anything. The key was (again) Blue Fox, which could discern surface targets and give inputs to the fire control system. Phantoms could carry a lot of ordinance, but they weren't noted for their night attack capabilities or even being particularly accurate in daytime- that's why the RN continued to use Buccaneers.
did any of you know the FAA Pinky Jack Biggs? he was on Eagle for two tours with 800? This was what I was wanting to do , although I was at school....reckon the sailor series really got me interested......Cheers for posting this - These are days of gold where the RN was supported and respected throughout the world.
My dad was radio engineer on Eagle then. ( Doug Leal ). Lost him last month sadly 😢
@@WhoCares69 sorry for your loss, my father died 2007 RIP, he is buried in the RN Cemetery Portland.
Cool vid... HMS Eagle came to NZ once in the early 70s... I been interested ever since... thanks from NZ 👍🇳🇿
I was privileged to visit HMS Eagle as a Cub/Scout on my 8th birthday in - 1952.
Hang on, yes I've just checked my vitals I'm still breathing.
I also boarded HMS Vanguard that afternoon, what a sight, a 44,000 ton (I think) beautiful battleship. HMS Victory lost some of its glamour then.
Having sated my mind on RN warfare books, as a youth, (WWII) eg Capt. 'Johnny' Walker RN - I joined the RAF.
Regards to all of you RN Veterans and God Bless.
Magnificent film. The Buccaneer woud have been very effective. If the RN had ONE of these in service in 82...........I also love the Sea Vixon. Brits have always had the best looking naval AC.
Um, no
I was on HMS EAGLE in 1970, the last commission. I was on Flight Deck " L" and worked on Deck Landing Sights, Catapults and Arrestor Gear. Happy Days and GOOD MEMORIES.
I'm sure my late uncle was on Eagle around that time, in FAA. Rod Little, from Edinburgh....
visited HMS Eagle as a small boy when it was being gutted for bits to keep the Ark going.. was berthed in Devonport n a very sad looking sight
+Alan Gibson that was a fairy story, there weren't many parts that came out of her for any other ship, most of the stuff was cut out and ditched to leave only the shell for the scrappers in Scotland
+Domino ....Well thats ur opinion but i can only go on what we were told while on a short, guided visit... i was about 7 at the time.... however browsing the web seems to back up my account of what i remember
+Alan Gibson
it isn't just my "opinion" but based on experience aged 25 at the time. Having served 2 years of my life on Eagle I had to sit on Yarmouth a couple of hundred yards away in Portsmouth dockyard whilst the dockyard maties "removed by destruction" many viable parts before sending her back to Devonport for final internal destruction. Even those cold and heartless dockies were saying what a shame it was having to gut her, so much was useable. But little was ever passed to the Ark, so much had to be destroyed to get it out. And the two ships didn't have alot of equipment that was transferrable from what I saw when I visited Ark Royal in Subic Bay.
There is a huge difference walking round a 54,000 ton carrier with no power on when you should be feeling the throb of engines, the life flowing through her, generating enough electricity to light up a small city like Coventry. The movement of aircraft and 2,500 men.
If you ever get the opportunity to sit inside an active destroyer or frigate and feel the difference. It is like leaving the womb when born the difference between and active ship and a dead one. And I had that experience when a frigate had a total loss of power at sea.....
Regards
@Domino Nothing's changed mate. I helped decomission three 42's, the sheer waste was bordering on criminal!
If it's any consolation, I was part of the Sea Dart section on Lusty before it was deleted. We had a set of BAe plasticene tools that were bent all out of shape and practically worthless. We also had a pristine King Dick toolkit, marked 'HMS EAGLE', used every day and looking like it'd just been delivered! Makes you wonder...
The mirror landing sight was still down at Yeovil the last time I visited. Fascinating bit of kit. I don't know what the plans are/were for it. Refurb and pass on to the museum, maybe?
Great footage for our archive .
Well done. I remember Al filming on board. Nice memories - I was trying to figure out who the 849 duty officer was but it's too fleeting (just in case it was I). I'm sure you father has had words about you making him out to be an RAF officer so I'll say no more!. His most famous landing was returning on board safely with asymmetric flaps - v skillful - luckily NOT with me in the back!
Thanks for your comments, very kind. I'll be adding some more details to the description soon of others who feature in the film - (my Father needs to check his log books first!). I finally got round to digitising the footage to share.
The ungainly appearance of the Fairey Gannet is its beauty...just like the A-10 and OV-1.
I remember HMS Eagle calling into my home city Durban in 1971 on her last visit prior to her decommissioning and scraping.I had just finished my SA national service.
I was on board then. great Christmas and new year friendy south African s
What a great time capsule
Add to my last, I was a Control Electrical Mechanician, Petty Officer on HMS EAGLE in 1970, on Flight Deck "L" .
Great Footage!
Yes, Buccaneers and the earlier Scimitar went off the deck in that attitude.
Great footage ,thanks for sharing :)
This is nice, I like it just the way it is without the sound.
love the Royal Navy's CTOL aircraft carriers from the 1960s through 1990s!!! the change over to STOL aircraft carrier don't make sense for a super power as Great Britain!!!
I served on the Eagle last commission. 69 to 72 what an induction to the R.N.one I will never forget. I G Robinson. on the island
I did Ark Royal 69 to 72 working as a greenie on Gannets, seconded to Phantoms for a short while after training. Those contra-rotating props were lethal ground testing ...
God I was 1 year old ... my dad was avionics engineer on HMS Eagle then !
"Form follows function" is the theme in the overall design of the Fairey Gannet. For those who prioritize ASW, carrier launched utility, practicality, opportunities, ingenuity, the Gannet is peerless. At a time when sub-launched ICBM's suddenly changed everything overnight, the Gannet made carrier deployed Gannets as stationkeeping, far-ranging and deadly as land-based ASW aircraft twice their size FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY. (Range differential is overcome by being carried to the battlezone/patrol by carriers instead of flying from land.) The twin in-line turboprops and 3-man crew that the Swordfish pioneered and did so well with bridged the technology gaps for deterrence until faster, more and better carriers and jets could develop and credibly guarantee mutually-assured destruction deterrence.
We had it all so right. Now look at the Royal Navy! The Buccaneers if newly built could still be flying off carriers today. But we have to make do with being (small) part of the US Marine Corps these days.
Great footage thanks for posting it. Shame there's no sound. But excellent to see 👌
Thank you! 👏
I served on Eagles last commission sad day when she was scrapped
Great video.
I can't forgive the offset canopy, but, in profile, the Sea Vixen Mk 2 was a bit of a looker.
I visited Eagle in 1958 when she visited Istanbul...got my first tea with milk in it :)
What did it taste like to you?:-)
I had tea in Turkey but it was my first with milk - I liked it a lot :)
Oh the memories!
This was taken just after I left Eagle, but in my 2 years remember that the towed target (seen in the ship's wake) was rarely brought back onboard intact after having the Buccaneers take a swipe.
Shame that the Ark got all the publicity even in those days.
Does anyone have any photos of 1965 when Eagle, Ark Royal, Albion and Bulwark were all in the South China Sea together.??? Surely there would have been official photos of such an event taken from the air??
All British Phantoms had a tailhook. Even the RAF ones. In fact I'll repharse that all Phatoms had a tailhook!
Would someone (more knowledgeable) confirm that of the two, HMS Eagle and HMS Ark Royal, the Eagle was in the better shape, but the Ark had a higher public profile and was kept in service for longer??
I believe that Ark Royal was refitted to operate the Phantom first, and that was the decider, even though Eagle was in better condition. D
@@derekowens1817 There we are - many thanks, Derek!
It appears that the 1967 - 1970 refit that Ark Royal underwent to her structure to enable her to operate the Phantom (heavy grade jet blast deflectors, strop catchers, more powerful catapults etc) was, in effect the death knell for Eagle when economies had to be made, even though it would appear that Eagle was in a much better material state than Ark Royal. D
No snappy commentator here, but.... Please climb, overloaded Vixen. Looks like that big red dashed line works 2 get 'em lined up on that Narrow deck. AEW Gannets seem 2 increase throttle 2 catch up w/ the ship. The a/c R so bulgy so ad 2 properly fair in the pilots' 'nads.
I sort of get shortness of breath watching this era & identity of CV aviation, classic, unique, golden-age strange. Real Aircraft on a meaty, real ship. Eagle 💜.
What a sexy air wing!
It's a shame they didn't just mothball this ship in '78 instead of scrapping it, and Ark Royal too. They would have been useful in '82. Top brass must have forgotten about British Honduras in '72!
ianrkav It was a Tory government cost cutting exercise just like when the scrapped the last Ark Royal in 2010/11 :-(
James Culshaw I know. They always seem to cost us more in the long run don't they!:-)
ianrkav But we must never question Ministers' decisions, for they are very wise and can see the Big Picture.
And then we re-elect the same bunch of clowns as we had before!
The mind boggles!
John Benton I think the voting system is rigged so certain people always get in even with a minority of the vote. Corruption rules it seems!
Just about anything's possible, and I would not be surprised if corruption figured in some way.
What was that flew just before the Gannet ? (Barracuda ? or is that wrong era?)
I love the buccaneers, awesome plane!
skyraider
gannet had a turbo-prop, meaning carriers no longer had to use any high octane fuel
Very late correction to your original replier who misunderstood your question and gave you the wrong answer. He had clearly thought you meant “what did the RN fly before the Gannet” whereas you meant “what aircraft took off before the Gannet in the film”. The answer is it was another Gannet, but the quite different anti-submarine variant with two more glazed cockpits behind the pilot originally used for observers. It’s painted overall dark blue and would have been serving as a converted COD (carrier airborne delivery) cargo and personnel carrier by that late point in it’s career (helicopters had taken over the A-S role by then).
Served in A unit 1970-72
Never thought of that,what about yourself?
To look at it from this time it is shameful that we only had, and still have, a token army, navy, and air force. What went wrong?
lost the war to win the war
It’s the Beatles Yellow Submarine with a propeller
Such a pity the Eagle wasn't "Phantomised". She was a better ship, happier ship and more reliable ship than Ark Royal.
My late uncle served on Ark Royal in its later years & tours and said the same
It doesn't ring a bell as there was a few spider Webbs with there being 2700 ships company. Was he air engineering department and also which commission? Try looking on the condor49ers site as there are photos of 849 D flight.
Glory days.
Port cat .crew on that commission. JUMPER COLLINS{THEN AIR MECH}
I want to join that navy
Back when we had proper CATOBAR carriers with British built aircraft on them....what the hell happened? Surely this country is richer now than it was in 1970?
by what metric? the british economy was running on the fumes of a manufacturing base which is now in china
BREXIT and many other bizarre decisions. Now back to the poor man of Europe
Does anyone know if LT/CDR KEITH HARRIS,C/O of 849 D flt,is still around. The ULSTER AVIATION MUSEUM need some info,only he can give.If anyone knows where he is could you please P/M me.Thank you
No sound unfortunately ... what a pity ...
The Gannet has got to be the most awkwardly ugly aircraft of all time. And I love it.
@bluejacketbugler Thanks for getting in touch. If you message me your name, I'll run it by my father and see if he recalls.
The Gannet has "British invention" written all over it!
LOL
It was a real british ugly duck ,but was excellent at loads of different tasks .Many different versions and basically irreplacable a real tough workhorse
Mike Davies
Absolutely. It was never actually replaced, the Sea King was drafted in as AEW (not the ideal choice)
Perhaps a drone will be our next AEW?
And of course the Gannet was actually a TWIN engine design. The engines (Double Mamba) ran in unison driving the contra rotating props via a single gearbox. However, one could be shut down to conserve fuel and increase range and endurance. A clever method of saving space on the smaller British carriers.
thefrecklepuny And also eliminating the dangers of dealing with an engine failure.
+ToonandBBfan Yes but so was the Sea Vixen, nerve wracking to see one on the catapult revving up to max thrust before the catapult threw it into the air. Sure I saw bits vibrating that shouldn't do.
What's being towed behind the ship?
Men on defaulters lol. Actually it's a splash target, where the planes would offload a bit of ordnance in the hope of hitting it.
147bkhd A towed target. Ok thanks:-)
+147bkhd Eagle's Buccaneer's had very good record of hitting the splash. But then that is the same squadron that napalmed the Torrey Canyon.
No sound
Interesting but due to the subject matter it could do with a commentary
Not a particularly elegant aircraft, but effective!
@woggolly Hi Doc, thanks for getting in touch, I'll pass on your regards. If you private message me your email address I'll pass it on to Noel. He's off to a Fleet Air Arm Do this week in fact with Kim Sharman.
Mike,
Get your father on to facebook as we have three sites for 849,Eagle and waffoos..
Doc.
is that you doc vass i was officer steward on 849 d on eagle must try and catch up with people ken
Ken Hollomby Yes Ken it is but the bloke pumping up the hydraulics is Paddy Robinson. Kind regards, Doc. Get yourself onto the facebook site Ken
woggolly cheers doc what is title is it 849 or what cheers Ken
Ken Hollomby 849, HMS Eagle and Royal Navy waffoos.
woggolly Thanks chaps, I'll do my best to get him on it, but he's rather reluctant with these things...!
フェアリー ガネットですか…。世界一醜い艦上戦闘機とかいわれてますが、私は好きです。しかし、イギリスは、艦上戦闘機の種類が、多いですね。
Not a fan of the carrier option then or now. WSC was right on that one. He effectively cancelled the Maltas and the 2 extra carriers of the Eagle/ Ark Royal by the end of 1944 really planning to expand the Intermediate Centaur/ Hermes class to 4 carriers to be started immediately although the real construction of the second pair Hermes and Bulwark was to be very post war and to start building the guns for the 2 Lion battleships, finish the Vanguard and build the new guns and engines for the big Neptune carriers immediately if not the hulls. Immediately post war Churchills and the RN idea was the future Navy would be 50 /5000 ton cruiser destroyers in many way the idea size for intermediate guns and helicopter based a/s- but really that was less seriously entertained than thought as the assumption was the planned ships littel more than 3 turret Daring/ Battles with say 6 single and twin 50/calibre 3 inch and possibly or probably using the US single 5/54 with 3/4 on the centre line under the assumption that any Soviet cruiser oppositon was mor ineffectual and less brave than the ww2 Italian effort. However with the excess of intial expansion of the RN budget during the Korean war using the US 5 and 3 inch guns was rejected and it was decided the UK/RN would do its own versions and the option of a RN 5/54 would have been difficult and the fully auto single far heavier than the US mount , 90 tons for a RN 5/62 calibre and the twin 5/62 was 190 tons far heavier than the impossible Tiger turrets so there was no real development of the British cruiser desroyer other than te gradual redesign of the Daring into the County DDG and real orginal UK /RN cruisser destroyer was a mod Mitchner as the Neptune is drawn with all the plans of the late Cleveland USS Manchester and the Minotaur 1947/1951 based on close study of the Worchester which was common hulled with the NEwport News. The Soviet Sverdlow was far better than expcted a great improvement on the Prinz Eugen with a magnficent hull well sub divided, heavy armour and fully stabalised AA and sec army- and given the RN still ahd serious plans to build the Tigers and something like the Minotaur and Intemediate carriers the cruiser and destroyer was stillborn.
Wonderful video and a rare view of one of the Royal Navy 'Big Four' carriers at the time, at work. This is a historical document too, so, it is very kind of you to share this to RUclips. I'm sharing this to Facebook so other carrier fans can share this. Thank you for the Share.