I’ve always thought the
Scimitar was an interesting airplane, sort of a single-seat F-4 Phantom without
all of the sharp angles. The jet almost seems to be a forgotten chapter in the
FAA’s history, since there are very few books about it. |
Title: |
From the Cockpit #2: Scimitar |
|
Author: |
Michael J. Doust |
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Publisher |
? |
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Price |
£14.95 ($30.95US) |
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Reviewer: |
|
| Notes: | ISBN 0-946958-54-8 |
I’ve always thought the
Scimitar was an interesting airplane, sort of a single-seat F-4 Phantom without
all of the sharp angles. The jet almost seems to be a forgotten chapter in the
FAA’s history, since there are very few books about it.
The Scimitar was the last fighter designed and produced by Supermarine. When it was introduced in 1957, it was the largest and heaviest aircraft to operate off of a British carrier. It was the Fleet Air Arm’s primary strike fighter until being replaced by the Blackburn Buccaneer in the mid 1960s. Scimitars were phased out of service in October 1966. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon non-afterburning engines, the Scimitar could exceed Mach 1 in a dive.
Part of a new series from Ad Hoc Publications, this latest book on the Scimitar is packed full of large black and white photos, as well as two pages of color profiles, and a four-view color painting of the Scimitar flown by the author. The only color photos are on the back cover and computer-generated composite image on the front cover. This isn’t a walk around book aimed at modelers, but a history of the jet as told by the pilots and maintenance personnel. From a modeler’s perspective, the crystal clear photos in the book provide some excellent views of the jet with the speed brakes, flaps, and leading edge flaps extended. There are a lot of good views of the weapons Scimitars carried, weathering, cockpit and ejection seat, and a lot of the vents and probes found on the jet.
The book is well-written, with many “there I was” stories told with typical British understatement. One common theme from the maintenance, and some pilots, was that the jet was a maintenance nightmare. Apparently, the Scimitar was notorious for leaking fuel and hydraulic fluid while it was on the ground, something this former owner of several British sports cars can sympathize with. There was no mention in the book of it having a Lucas electrical system.
This is a very good book for the FAA history fan, but is also a good reference for the modeler. I’m inspired to dig out my Dynavector kit, now!
The first book in the From the Cockpit series was on the Westland Wyvern, and future issues will include the Sea Hawk (summer 2007), Firefly (summer 2007), Sea Hornet (spring 2007), and Buccaneer (spring 2007).
Based on about five-minutes’ online research, there have been at least five Scimitar kits in various scales: Welsh’s 1/144 vacuformed kit, Czechmaster’s and Magna Models’ resin kits in 1/72 scale, and 1/48 vacuform kits from Sanger and Dynavector. I’ve read good reviews of Czechmaster’s kit. Dynavector’s kit is very easy to build, and certainly lives up the that maker’s excellent reputation. Based on my experience with Welsh’s kits, I don’t see why their Scimitar would be too hard to build, but I haven’t seen or heard anything about Sanger’s or Magna’s kits.
Sources:
Ad Hoc Publications (UK)www.adhocpublications.com
Boomer’s Books (USA)www.boomersbooks.net
February 2007
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