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My all time favourite aircraft, I have never seen one fly which is very disappointing, but I did not know there is still one airworthy.

https://youtu.be/dnoWIePrKqc

Wonder if my wife fancies an holiday in the states

Wow, one of my favourites as well,ever since I made an Airfix model one probably in the late 1960s.

It sounds amazing

There's a school in the Flint area with one as a gate guardian
it looks a bit tatty but all there, when they turned up at air
displays they would feather one prop looked odd with only one turning,
a wonderful flying machine but it would never replace the aircraft.

Amazing brute of a machine. I believe the development of the Gannet nearly broke Fairey, there were so many teething problems and it also lead to the major shakeup of the British aviation industry, with many of the firms being amalgamated.

As a patrolling sub hunter I was surprised to see it only had a 3 hour duration.


It's a job to think 90% of Fairey's effort at the time was spend on the Gannet, and in a shed behind the hanger a handful of chaps were building the Fairey Delta 1&2. The FD2 went on to take the world speed record off the Yanks in grand style, raising the record from around 850'ish mph to over 1,100 mph in one go. (Also first plane to break the 1,000 mph mark)

I used to love watching them over the Moray firth as a child, fascinating machines. Also got to clamber all over them at Lossiemouth when I was in the ATC.

I don't think Airfix did a model of one but I do believe Frog did at that time.

Think it was Peter Twiss that flew the TSR2 and the aircraft may be in Cosford,
I seem to remember that the early Gannets would flame out due to fuel starvation
when catapulted off a carrier, dam unsporting behaviour.

Ralph wrote:Think it was Peter Twiss that flew the TSR2 and the aircraft may be in Cosford,
I seem to remember that the early Gannets would flame out due to fuel starvation
when catapulted off a carrier, dam unsporting behaviour.

Peter Twiss was the test pilot for Fairey and flew the FD2 - The TSR2 tests pilot were Jimmy Dell and Roland Beaumont from English Electric.

Yep finger trouble typed TSR2 instead of FD2

There's one here:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... f=38430631

A cracking looking plane...............I think they have a power unit inside the museum as well, plus a bunch of dedicated techies who love to talk...............flying nostalgia at it's best

Pete