The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod was developed as a British maritime patrol aircraft using engineering experience of the Havilland Comet, the world's first operational jet airliner. The Royal Air Force (RAF) wanted to replace its fleet of ageing Avro Shackletons. The first flight of the Nimrod was May 1967 and some 50 were eventually manufactured.
The Nimrod MR1/MR2s is primarily an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform but it is also used for maritime surveillance and anti-surface warfare. It served from the early 1970s until March 2010 with the RAF.
A few small Nimrod R1 aircraft were used for electronic intelligence gathering (ELINT). An AEW version was developed and flew as prototype but never entered service.
Nimrod R1
This Nimrod R1 coded XV249 is the ELINT version. It was photographed at the RAF museum in Cosford (U.K.).
Photographed November 2023 by Meindert de Vreeze (c) Copyright IPMS Nederland
Plastic scale model kits of the Nimrod are in 1/72 a nice one by Airfix and there was a vacuform kit from Formaplane. In 1/144 Anigrand has a resin kit and Welsh models a mixed media kit.
This walk around page was created December 2, 2024