Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 93
T
HE AUDIENCE OF Britain’s annual Royal
Tournament in July 1962 was treated to a
spectacular sight; a remarkably accurate re-
enactment of HMS Hermes launching a squadron
of the Fleet Air Arm’s most modern all-weather
interceptor, the de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.1. The thrilled
spectators would have seen armourers fitting de Havilland
Firestreak missiles to the wing-mounted weapon pylons,
fuel hoses connected, the engines started using a turbine
starter and the crew climbing aboard, all while maintainers
and armourers swarmed around the aircraft. The attention to
detail was astonishing. As the crew fastened their harnesses,
a maintainer pulled the locking pin from the ejection seat
and handed it to the pilot. The aircraft taxied to the catapult
bridle at the gestures of the batsman, their wings unfolding
as they did so.
Fortunately for those who weren’t able to be at Earl’s
Court on that day, the Rank Organisation filmed a special
demonstration of that year’s setpieces at RNAS Lee-on-
Solent for its Look at Life series. The results are undoubtedly
impressive, and show a great deal of effort to get things
right. In fact, there was only one thing giving away the fact
that this was not the real thing. The usually imposing Sea
Vixens had apparently shrunk in the wash to around half
their normal size. These all-weather fighters were in fact
another type entirely, ingeniously disguised.Pocket Vixens
The exhibition centre at Earl’s Court (the locality and its
Underground station have an apostrophe but the exhibition
centre, curiously, did not) could not accommodate aircraft
of the size and weight of the Sea Vixen, and even if it
could it would been highly challenging to use them in
a demonstration. There were older and smaller aircraft
available in abundance, but naturally the Royal Navy
wanted to show its cutting-edge hardware at the British
Forces’ showcase event.
The Aircraft Holding Unit at Abbotsinch in Scotland was at
the time host to a large number of de Havilland Sea Venoms
awaiting disposal. A few of these had been borrowed
by the engineers of No 12 Hangar to create weird and
wonderful spoof aircraft for the station’s air days, briefly
fooling audiences into thinking they were seeing new navalTOP RIGHT Either the world’s
smallest Sea Vixen or the world’s
biggest deck crew — the Royal
Tournament “Vixette” display was
filmed at Lee-on-Solent for the Rank
Organisation’s Look at Life series.
ABOVE The Royal Tournament was
the largest annual military tattoo
and service competition in the world
during 1880–1999, and evolved into
the British Military Tournaments
held during 2010–2013.PROGRAMME: COLIN HIGGS COLLECTION