Supermarine Scimitar The Supermarine Scimitar was a British naval fighter aircraft operated by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm . The prototype for the eventual production version flew in January 1956 and production aircraft were delivered in 1957 . It saw service with the Royal Navy from 1958 until 1969 . Design and development . The Scimitar stemmed from a number of designs from Supermarine for a naval jet aircraft , initially to a requirement for an undercarriage - less fighter aircraft to land on flexible " sprung " rubber deck s , which would allow for a lighter and simpler structure . Supermarine ' s design to meet this requirement was the Type 505 , featuring a thin , straight wing and a V - tail ( or " butterfly tail " ) to keep the tail surfaces away from the jet exhausts , and to be powered by two Rolls - Royce Avon turbojets , mounted side - by - side in the fuselage . In 1948 , the Admiralty had second thoughts about the undercarriage - less fighter , and Supermarine reworked their design by including a nosewheel undercarriage , becoming the Type 508 . The Vickers - Supermarine Type 508 was the first Scimitar ancestor , and shared the basic layout of the Type 505 , i . e . a twin - engined straight - winged type with V - tail . Pitch control was by moving the whole tail , with elevators for additional pitch control when working in tandem , and to replace the rudder on a conventional tail when working differentially . Ailerons were fitted to the wings for lateral control , and both leading and trailing edge flaps were also fitted to the wings . An order for three Type 508s was placed in November 1947 , to Specification N . 9 / 47 . The first Type 508 made its maiden flight from Boscombe Down airfield on 31 August 1951 , with the aircraft carrying out carrier trials aboard HMS " Eagle " in May 1952 . The second aircraft had significant differences , carrying a cannon armament , and different enough in detail to be redesignated the Type 529 , flying for the first time on 29 August 1952 . One unusual modification was the larger tailcone that was to accommodate a proposed tail - warning radar . The maximum speed of the straight - winged Type 508 and 529 was relatively modest , with the Type 529 reaching 607 mph ( 977 km / h ) , and it had already been decided when the Type 508 first flew to redesign the third prototype with swept wings to improve performance . The resulting Type 525 also featured conventional swept tail surfaces as well as blown flap s to reduce the aircraft ' s landing speed , and first flew on 27 April 1954 . It later crashed but the basic design had already proved sound enough to proceed with an outwardly fairly similar looking aircraft , the Type 544 , to specification N . 113 . A total of 100 were ordered although the Royal Navy had changed the specification to a low level strike aircraft with nuclear capability rather than a dedicated fighter . The first of the Type 544s serving as prototypes for the later production series flew on 19 January 1956 . The aircraft evolved more with the third Type 544 incorporating different aerodynamic changes and a stronger airframe strengthened for the new low level role - to quote " Flight " ; " To permit uninhibited manoeuvring in thick turbulent air at low levels while carrying heavy loads of strike weapons , the structure is extremely sturdy " . Various aerodynamic " fixes " to try and counter pitch - up effects at high speed and altitude included flared - out wingtips and wing fences . The tailplane was also changed from dihedral to anhedral . The combined modifications led to the final Type 544 being considered the " production standard " . The first production Scimitar flew on 11 January 1957 . Operational history . At the time of introduction the Royal Navy had only a couple of large carriers . Most were still quite small and the Scimitar was a comparatively large and powerful aircraft . Landing accidents were common , and the introduction of the type was marred by a fatal accident which took the life of Commander John Russell , commanding officer of 803 Naval Air Squadron , the first squadron to operate the Scimitar . After making a perfect landing on the newly - recommissioned , and in full view of the press , one of the arrestor wire s broke , and Russell ' s Scimitar ( serial XD240 ) fell into the sea . With no means of ejecting through the jammed canopy , and despite the best efforts of the crew of the Westland Whirlwind planeguard helicopter to perform a rescue , Russell ' s Scimitar sank to the bottom and Cdr Russell drowned . Overall the Scimitar suffered from a high loss rate ; 39 were lost in a number of accidents , amounting to 51 % of the Scimitar ' s total production run . The aircraft was perceived by many as too innovative mechanically . It pioneered fuel flow proportioning and integral mainplane tanks along with " blown " flying surfaces to reduce landing speeds . At one time , it held the notorious record of 1 , 000 maintenance hours per flying hour . Although the Scimitar could be configured as a fighter , the interceptor role was covered by the de Havilland Sea Vixen . In the attack role it was replaced by the Blackburn Buccaneer . The Scimitar was retained initially as a tanker to allow the underpowered Buccaneer S . 1 to be launched from aircraft carriers with a useful weapons load . To save weight , the Buccaneer would take off with minimum fuel then top up from a Scimitar . Late in the Scimitar ' s operational career , examples were flown between 1965 and 1970 by the Fleet Requirements Unit ( FRU ) based at Bournemouth Airport ( Hurn ) . The FRU was managed by Airwork Services and provided realistic flight operations for land and sea based naval training units .