2011
SU9006 : F4M (XV408) at the Tangmere Aviation Museum
taken 13 years ago, near to Tangmere, West Sussex, England
F4M (XV408) at the Tangmere Aviation Museum
This Tangmere Museum's
Link Twenty Nine Squadron F4M Phantom. Due to its arrester hook I initially thought this was a hand me down from the Royal Navy when it was forced to scrap its conventional aircraft carriers due to defence cuts (plus ça change!). However a bit of googling revealed XV408 was built for the RAF. The Phantom F4M (FGR2) was fitted with Rolls Royce Spey engines rather than the standard Pratt and Whitney units. This reduced top speed and service ceiling by significant amounts although initial climb rate and ferry range were slightly improved.
The legend as to why the 29 squadron logo is three “Xs” is said to date back to WW1 when an erk was given the job of painting the Roman numeral 29 on all the squadron’s aircraft. After painting XX on the aircraft he asked an officer “how do I write nine in Roman numerals?” to which the reply was “One X” so the erk painted a single X after the other two on all the aeroplanes! In the heat of a war there was no time to bother with the triviality of correcting the error. The mistake is proudly borne by the Squadron's Eurofighters to this day
see
TM1713 : Eurofighter Typhoon
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