Supermarine Scimitar

what is it?

The Supermarine Scimitar was a British single-seat naval strike aircraft. Operated exclusively by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, it was the final aircraft to be entirely designed and manufactured by Supermarine. The Scimitar was developed out of an earlier effort, internally designated Type 505, an undercarriage-less fighter aircraft intended to be flown from rubber decks.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 11.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,185 km/htop speed
• range 2,291 kmwithout refuelling
• size 15.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 76made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 70 years ago, in 1956.
• 🏎️Top speed is 9.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 11.3 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,291 km: 13× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.6× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1956-01-19

introduced

1957

retired

1969

status

retired

number built

76

role

naval strike fighter

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Supermarine

engines

2× Rolls-Royce Avon 202

crew

1

length

16.8 m

wingspan

11.3 m

height

5.3 m

max take-off weight

15.5 t

top speed

1,185 km/h

range

2,291 km

ceiling

14,021 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.