However this time potential targets were well camouflaged, and the air base had been put under a 24-hour full alert. The 35 mm cannons were relocated to the north and south of the small Goose Green peninsular from their original position west of the airstrip. The raid's leading aircraft, piloted by Lt Cdr Gordie Batt, was locked up by the Skyguard system while flying from the east at very low altitude. Batt became aware of this from his onboard systems and deployed Chaff whilst breaking right so the Skyguard lost lock. However, behind the lead Sea Harrier was Sea Harrier XZ450, piloted by Lt Nick Taylor, this particular aircraft lacked a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) as it had been removed before the war to fit instrumentation for a new missile, the Sea Eagle, that was undergoing trials.
Unaware of the threat ahead, Lt. Taylor's aircraft was hit by a second salvo from the 35 mm cannons, XZ450's fuselage was hit and caught fire, losing the left wing in the process, it then cartwheeled in the air and crashed at a 10 degree angle.
Nick Taylor's body was thrown through the canopy and fell 80 meters away from the crash site. The crash was caught on the gun camera film, of Flt Lt Ted Ball, which showed a large explosion in the region of the fuselage that was clearly unsurvivable
XZ450 appears to have been the first Sea Harrier to be lost in combat during the Falkalnds Conflict
Argentine forces buried Nick Taylor with military honours near to where XZ450 came down
To add to the history of this aircraft, XZ450 was the first Sea Harrier to fly..
The Kinetic kit is lovely kit to build and supplied are loads different (14ish!) airframes to build, both FAA and Indian Navy. In fact you could build any FRS.1 that was ever built!
Painted with MR Paint Extra Dark Sea Grey, which is a joy as well. I tried to get an lightly weathered finish after all the aircraft only flew one combat mission.
I also knocked up a base for her out of a cheap picture frame, a plastic placard thing, some masking and Tamiya paint. I throughly enjoyed my first go at an historic aircraft rather than just just what was in the box.
Thank you for sticking with me on this and I'll see you on the next one.
TTFN
