Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Last

Today saw the last flight of the Nimrod R1 which has been on static display at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire since being taken out of service in 2009.  It was flown the short distance from Waddington to East Midlands Airport at about 10.15 this morning.  It's last resting place will be the Aeropark museum at the airport.  Luckily for us, it's flight path took it straight over our house and I just managed to snap a shot of it as it passed a gap i the clouds.
Not a very good shot unfortunately.  The Nimrods was based on the de Havilland Comet, a passenger jet aircraft designed in the late 1940's and brought into service in 1952 with BOAC.
The MOD redesigned the plane and Hawker Siddeley (now part of BAE Systems) started to turn them out as Nimrods for anti submarine warfare and, later, as airborne early warning.  After 60 years' service, the Nimrod was retired completely in June this year.

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