Thanks for this. I was always fascinated by the R1 and the secretive work of 51 Sqn. I served in the RAF from 1989-2005 and in the course of my work on one occasion met some of the crew of R1 XW666 which was lost after having to ditch in the Moray Firth in 1995. Only 7 crew were on board because it was flight testing after a service at Kinloss. All survived thanks to the skill of the captain, Art Stacey. Their account of it all was very interesting. I have never seen a shot of the contents of the panniers/‘bomb bay’ so thanks for that!
Spent many years working on this a/c during the 80's. 664 was my particular favourite, and I knew every nook and cranny, cable loom, plug, receiver, transceiver, linguistics position and Elint pos'n. I'm sure the ghost of Eric still walks the ops area. Mixed emotions seeing her like this, brought back memories of those that served and worked on her. But glad they have preserved her along with the rotating scanner aerials in the base, many a story about those! H&S would have a field day today! Not many aircraft that could have taken on this specific SIGINT/ELINT role (even now!), and she, along with XE665 and 666 did it well. Thank you for this video. p.s. If you add up all of the tail numbers it equal 51, as in 51 Sqn.
Beautiful plane, and such an amazing legacy left by the Comet. They were obviously heavily modernised up until they were retired in 2011 as outside of the cockpit they don't look that dated. The comms and EWS(?) in the cabin actually look reasonably modern. Thank you for posting this!
I was fortunate enough to fly in one as a cadet at RAF Kinloss in the 80's - over 8 hours over the Orkneys and Shetland Islands checking on fishing boats and looking for Russian submarines! - I remember taking drinks on a tray to the pilots from the gally just as the pilot decided to descend with me nearly dropping them and tripping over the air refueling pipe which was laid on the floor! - I think we were flying only 500 feet about the sea at times and you could get a great view by looking out the bubble photo window as you could look straight down!
@@jetset7772 I don't know but I was told that at one point in the flight that we had to stay in the galley as someone had thought they spotted a periscope and they would be dropping sonobuoys I was told, then later was told nothing was found but they may have not told me the truth anyway?
You would have flown on a maritime MR Nimrod, rather than the R1 which flew at around 40k ft+. Bit more space on the MR, but still a great experience for you. 51Sqn was kept very secret through until the 90's, and wouldn't let any non-sqn personnel beyond the curtain at the Nav station.
@@mikecap1622 I was about 15 at the time, and flew with one other cadet and we had to sit in the kitchen most of the time but it was still an interesting experience. My father and brother-in-law were both stationed at RAF Kinloss at this time.
My experience with Nimmy's is with the MR2 version at Kinloss, had many an Air Experience flight in them as a local ATC cadet. Just watching this video, I can smell the interior already.
Thanks for this. I was always fascinated by the R1 and the secretive work of 51 Sqn. I served in the RAF from 1989-2005 and in the course of my work on one occasion met some of the crew of R1 XW666 which was lost after having to ditch in the Moray Firth in 1995. Only 7 crew were on board because it was flight testing after a service at Kinloss. All survived thanks to the skill of the captain, Art Stacey.
Their account of it all was very interesting.
I have never seen a shot of the contents of the panniers/‘bomb bay’ so thanks for that!
Thank you for your comment have seen the cockpit section of XW666 at the South Yorkshire Air Museum where it's on display
Rather unfortunate choice of numbers for the aircrafts callsign.
Spent many years working on this a/c during the 80's. 664 was my particular favourite, and I knew every nook and cranny, cable loom, plug, receiver, transceiver, linguistics position and Elint pos'n. I'm sure the ghost of Eric still walks the ops area. Mixed emotions seeing her like this, brought back memories of those that served and worked on her. But glad they have preserved her along with the rotating scanner aerials in the base, many a story about those! H&S would have a field day today! Not many aircraft that could have taken on this specific SIGINT/ELINT role (even now!), and she, along with XE665 and 666 did it well. Thank you for this video. p.s. If you add up all of the tail numbers it equal 51, as in 51 Sqn.
Beautiful plane, and such an amazing legacy left by the Comet. They were obviously heavily modernised up until they were retired in 2011 as outside of the cockpit they don't look that dated. The comms and EWS(?) in the cabin actually look reasonably modern.
Thank you for posting this!
Cheer for the insight to this aircraft I just did imagine there were so many operatives on board that is amazing to see thank you
I was fortunate enough to fly in one as a cadet at RAF Kinloss in the 80's - over 8 hours over the Orkneys and Shetland Islands checking on fishing boats and looking for Russian submarines! - I remember taking drinks on a tray to the pilots from the gally just as the pilot decided to descend with me nearly dropping them and tripping over the air refueling pipe which was laid on the floor! - I think we were flying only 500 feet about the sea at times and you could get a great view by looking out the bubble photo window as you could look straight down!
I don’t think r1 hunted subs
@@jetset7772 I don't know but I was told that at one point in the flight that we had to stay in the galley as someone had thought they spotted a periscope and they would be dropping sonobuoys I was told, then later was told nothing was found but they may have not told me the truth anyway?
You would have flown on a maritime MR Nimrod, rather than the R1 which flew at around 40k ft+. Bit more space on the MR, but still a great experience for you. 51Sqn was kept very secret through until the 90's, and wouldn't let any non-sqn personnel beyond the curtain at the Nav station.
@@mikecap1622 I was about 15 at the time, and flew with one other cadet and we had to sit in the kitchen most of the time but it was still an interesting experience. My father and brother-in-law were both stationed at RAF Kinloss at this time.
My experience with Nimmy's is with the MR2 version at Kinloss, had many an Air Experience flight in them as a local ATC cadet. Just watching this video, I can smell the interior already.
how does it smell inside? im curious
Thanks for sharing
Mark, the mr2 was the sub hunter, the r1 of which 51 sqn operated were Elint hoovering up signals traffic
Ima-Gen that one great video there who would of thought this many people were in one plane the to protect the sky’s great thx
Is this at Norwich
@@That-one-pilot23 it's the one at East Midlands Aeropark
@@gaz11h nice
An amazing aircraft, shame uk government scrapped it
Thanks for your like, its a shame we are in a mess