Hawker Siddeley NIMROD MR.1

The Nimrod MR.1 ASW aircraft began its career in 1964 when two Comet 4C passenger aircrafts were transformed and became the “Hawker Siddeley 801“. With these prototypes, it wanted to cover the need to replace their old maritime patrol Avro Shackeltons of the RAF Coastal Command with a completely new model. A magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) and a search radar were located under the nose, an electronic warfare equipment (ESM) was put on the tail, and also a big internal weapons bay under the cockpit was installed. The RAF ordered 46 aircraft to be operated by five squadrons that progresively entered service from 1969 onwards. After RAF’s retirement from Malta, 11 aircraft were left as surplus, and it was planned that 5 will remain with the RAF and the rest will return to the manufacturer for testing. Finally 10 of the surplus aircrafts were discarded, leaving only one for instructional tasks. In 1975 all Nimrod MR.1 were modified to the Nimrod MR.2 version of better performances.

NIMROD MR.1 gallery and more info