Fairey Gannet AEW . 3 The Fairey Gannet AEW . 3 was a variant of the Fairey Gannet anti - submarine warfare aircraft intended to be used in the airborne early warning ( AEW ) role on aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy . It was introduced to service in 1959 to replace the obsolete Douglas Skyraider , and was intended as an interim solution until the planned introduction of a new , purpose built AEW platform for use on a new type of aircraft carrier . Neither the new aircraft carriers nor the new AEW aircraft were proceeded with , and the Gannet AEW remained in service until the last aircraft carrier that could operate it was retired . Design and development . In the late 1950s , the Royal Navy operated the piston - engined Douglas Skyraider AEW aircraft off its aircraft carriers . However , the Skyraider was designed during the Second World War . It entered service with the RN in 1951 and was considered obsolete by the late 50s . As a consequence , the RN looked to its then standard anti - submarine aircraft , the Fairey Gannet , as a replacement . The intention was to use the Gannet as a stop - gap measure prior to the acquisition of a new , purpose built system intended to be used on the planned new generation of aircraft carriers . As a consequence , it was intended to undertake as little in the way of modification as possible - the AN / APS - 20 radar from the Skyraider would be mounted in a radome under the fuselage of an ordinary Gannet AS . 1 , with the associated electronics and space for two operators inside . However , the size of the radome meant that the existing airframe was too close to the ground to accommodate the radar , and so a significant modification to the fuselage was required . This involved removing the observer ' s cockpits and creating a new cabin within the fuselage ; this was accessed via a pair of hatches next to the trailing edge of the wing , which also meant that the exhausts had to be moved from this position to the leading edge ; increasing the total area of the vertical stabiliser to compensate for the instability caused by the radome ; and extending the length of the undercarriage to increase the clearance for the radome , which consequently increased the aircraft ' s overall height by , and gave the aircraft a more level stance than the anti - submarine version . The prototype Gannet AEW . 3 first flew in August 1958 , with carrier trials taking place using HMS " Centaur " in November , and the first production aircraft delivered in December . By August 1959 , 700G Naval Air Squadron was formed as the Trials Unit for the new Gannet . This unit put the aircraft through an intensive test programme to make it ready for operation service , a process that lasted until January 1960 , at which point the unit was renamed as ' A ' Flight of 849 Naval Air Squadron . 849A Flight was then declared operational and was embarked for the first time in HMS " Ark Royal " . A total of 44 Gannets were ordered for the Royal Navy to replace the Skyraider . The Gannet AEW . 3 was operated throughout its service by 849 NAS , which formed a total of four operational flights ( A - D ) , each containing four AEW aircraft with a Gannet COD . 4 for ship to shore communications . These flights were regularly deployed from the large aircraft carriers then in service with the Royal Navy . Additionally , it was intended that the Gannet would initially be deployed from the planned CVA - 01 aircraft carrier , until the entry into service of a purpose built AEW aircraft . However , in the mid 1960s the British government brought in a series of defence cuts that led to the new carriers and their AEW aircraft being cancelled , and the phased withdrawal of fixed wing aviation in the Royal Navy . 849C Flight was disbanded in 1966 following the reduction of the carrier fleet to four ships ( " Ark Royal " , " Eagle " , " Hermes " and " Victorious " ) . Subsequent carrier withdrawals led to the disbanding of ' A ' Flight in 1970 and ' D ' Flight in 1972 . The final operational Gannets were operated by ' B ' Flight aboard " Ark Royal " following that ship ' s major refit and recommissioning in 1970 . The Gannet continued in service until the final decommissioning of " Ark Royal " in 1978 - a Gannet of 849B Flight was the last aircraft to be recovered by the ship on Saturday 18 November 1978 . The withdrawal of " Ark Royal " meant that there was no longer a platform available in the Royal Navy to operate the Gannet , and hence 849 Naval Air Squadron was disbanded in December 1978 , leaving the Royal Navy without embedded airborne early warning . AEW Mk . 7 . The AN / APS - 20 radar was initially developed during the Second World War and had significant limitations to its capability , in terms of its performance at low level over water such that it had difficulty differentiating between sea clutter and actual targets , and short - range . As a consequence , there were attempts to develop an updated AEW system for use on Royal Navy carriers , one of which was a proposed version of the Gannet , which would have become the AEW Mk . 7 . The ventral radome containing the AN / APS - 20 radar would have been replaced with a dorsal rotating dome ( " rotodome " ) , similar to that used on the US Northrop Grumman E - 2 Hawkeye ( possibly to contain a version of the AN / APS - 125 pulse - doppler radar ) . The size of the rotodome , and its position would have meant the single tailfin being substituted by a twin tail arrangement . In the end , this proposal was not proceeded with . Subsequent AEW in the Royal Navy . The phased withdrawal of the Gannet AEW , as part of the draw - down of fixed wing aviation in the Fleet Air Arm , led to a need for the Royal Air Force to take over the provision of Airborne Early Warning for the UK Air Defence Region . As an interim solution until a purpose built system could be procured , the radar and electronic systems from redundant Gannets were fitted to similarly redundant Avro Shackleton s ; the Shackleton was a maritime patrol aircraft then in the process of being replaced . However , this still meant that the Royal Navy , then in the process of introducing a new type of small aircraft carrier incapable of operating conventional fixed - wing aircraft , lacked an embedded AEW platform that could be used as part of the carrier task group . This lack of organic AEW capability following the withdrawal of the Gannet was seen as misguided , particularly following the experience of the Falklands War , in which the Royal Navy lost four ships due to the Task Force being reliant on shipborne air search . As a consequence , the Westland Sea King helicopter was modified to incorporate the Searchwater radar system for use in the AEW role from the " Invincible " class . Operational history . The Royal Navy developed its tactics in regards to airborne early warning using the Skyraider , and evolved them with the increased capabilities of the Gannet , in that aircraft had observers trained to interpret the information coming in from the onboard radar , and use it to control either the combat air patrol to intercept incoming strike aircraft , or alternatively direct its own aircraft to strike and attack a target . However , due to the quality of the equipment , the Gannet had limited command and control capability , built as it was around the AN / APS - 20 S - Band search radar and AN / APX - 7 IFF set , connected to the AN / ART - 28 " Bellhop " datalink . The datalink would transmit the information received through the Gannet ' s onboard systems to the operations room on the aircraft carrier ( or whichever ship was charged with directing the Gannet ' s operations ) , which would then act accordingly to any threat presented . However , the Gannet had no on board processing equipment , which meant that the observers had to interpret the raw radar signal . The Gannet had a three person crew , consisting of the pilot , located in the cockpit at the front of the aircraft , and a pair of observers in the cabin in the fuselage , accessible via a hatch next to the trailing edge of the wing . The aircraft had a typical endurance of 5 – 6 hours and a maximum altitude of . The Gannet tended to cruise on just one engine of the Double Mamba powerplant ; alternating between the two engines every half an hour . The sole operational Gannet squadron , 849 NAS had over the course of its time operating the aircraft a total of four operational flights plus the HQ flight . The HQ flight was stationed at three Fleet Air Arm air stations over the period of Gannet operation , while the majority of the operational flights were assigned to more than one aircraft carrier over the course of the Fleet Air Arm ' s use of the aircraft , with five RN carriers operating Gannet AEW flights . Production . All 44 Gannet AEW . 3s were built at the Fairey factory at Hayes ; the prototype and first two production aircraft were then transported by road to RAF Northolt for their first flight . The remainder of the aircraft first flew at White Waltham Airfield . One prototype ( serial number " XJ440 " ) to be built at Hayes was ordered on 14 December 1954 against specification AEW . 154D and first flown at RAF Northolt on 20 August 1958 . The production aircraft were ordered as specification AEW . 154P in three separate batches : The final AEW . 3 built was delivered to the Royal Navy on 6 June 1963 . Survivors . The majority of Royal Navy Gannets were scrapped following withdrawal . The drawdown of the Gannet force in the late 1960s and early 1970s however led to a significant amount of electronic equipment being removed from the Gannet airframes for installation in Avro Shackleton aircraft of the Royal Air Force , which allowed the RAF to undertake its own AEW operations . In addition , a handful continued flying operations in the hands of civilian operators into the 1980s - one was used by Hamilton Standard in the United States for propeller vibration trials , while another was used by Dowty Rotol for propeller development purposes . In addition , a further AEW3 was used as a private display aircraft at airshows until the late 1980s . As of 2012 , one aircraft ( XL500 civil registered as " G - KAEW " ) , which was once flown by Prince Charles , was undergoing comprehensive restoration to airworthy condition by Hunter Flying . Five aircraft are on display :