Hawker Siddeley Nimrod
Hawker Siddeley · United Kingdom · first flew 1967 · bomber
The RAF's jet maritime patrol aircraft, developed from the de Havilland Comet airliner — the first jet-powered MPA in the world.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Low-mounted, swept |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 4 × turbofan, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Distinctive double-bubble fuselage with a ventral weapons bay bulge |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Four turbofans buried in pairs in the wing roots, jet-airliner style
- Distinctive double-bubble fuselage with a ventral weapons bay bulge
- Tail-mounted MAD boom projecting aft of the fin
The Comet ancestry shows in the four buried wing-root engines and slim airliner wings, but the bulged lower fuselage and tail MAD boom mark it as the Nimrod. Nothing else pairs a 1950s jet-airliner layout with a maritime weapons bay.
Specifications
- The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod has a length of 38.6 m (127 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 35 m (115 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 926 km/h (575 mph).
- Typical crew: 12.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Hawker Siddeley adapted the Comet 4 airframe with buried turbofans and a unique double-bubble lower fuselage housing a weapons bay, the modified prototype flying in 1967 and the Nimrod MR.1 entering RAF service in 1969. It hunted Soviet submarines throughout the Cold War and served in the Falklands and Gulf conflicts.
Variants
The MR.1 was upgraded to the much-improved MR.2, while the R.1 served as a dedicated electronic-intelligence platform. The disastrous MRA4 rebuild was cancelled and scrapped in 2010 after enormous overspend.
Where you'll see it
A frontline RAF maritime patrol aircraft for over forty years, the Nimrod flew anti-submarine, search-and-rescue and reconnaissance missions until the fleet was controversially withdrawn in 2011, leaving the UK without a dedicated MPA until the Poseidon arrived.
Related aircraft
- Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2
- Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1
- Hawker Siddeley Andover C.1
- Hawker Siddeley HS 780 Andover
- HAL (SEPECAT) Jaguar International
- Harbin H-5
- Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire
- BAC TSR-2
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