During WWII the Admiralty was studying the advantage of a carrier based aircraft without landing gear which would be a considerable saving in weght for better performance and load capacity.

In 1945, Supermarine started design work for a jet powered plane type 505 based on the Admiralty's requirements.
The prototype production started in 1946 but the idea soon cancelled as not being practicable.
Supermarine re-designed its design by adding an undercarriage and it was known as type 508.

Type 508 was submitted to the Admiralty in 1947 as a replacement for the Supermarine Attacker, the Royal Navy's first jet fighter.
Type 508 had conventional unswept taper wings and unusual butterfly tailplanes.
Its first flight took place on 31 August 1951.
After various modifications such as swept wings, flap-blowing system, and area ruling fuselage, it became a production prototype N-113, then later named Scimitar.

The Scimitar went into service from June 1958. They were armed with 4 x 30 mm cannons and carrried 4 x 1,000 lb bombs, 4 x Bullpup or Sidewinder missiles, or a nuclear bomb.
The Scimitar was the first Royal Navy's aircraft capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.

100 Scimitar were ordered, but later, this was reduced to 76 aircraft because of a succeful development of the Blackburn Buccaneer project which enabled the first flight test to take place just 2 month before the delivery of the first Scimitar.
There was also a project which modified the Scimitar to double seat all-weather fighter bomber, but this was canncelled due to the delivery of the De Hvilland Sea Vixen.

Although with its small volume production of only 76 aircraft, short life of 8 years, and no active service apart from the Kuwait crisis in 1961, the Scimitar catches many air enthusiasts' hearts with its beautiful flowing design and is remembered as the last aircraft of the great Supermarine.

Specifications :
Span : 11.33m (37ft 2in)
Length : 17.55m (57ft 7in)
Max. weight : 18.144kg (40.000lb)
Engine : 2 x Rolls Royce Avon Mk.202
Static thrust : 5,100kg (11,250lb) each
Max Speed : 1,142kmph (710mph)
Operational Range : 965km (600miles)

The Scimitar is the easiest kit among the Dynavector range with its simple parts arrangement.
The fuselage is separated with front halves and tail halves. The front splits horizontally, the tail vertically, they fit snap tight and give the fuselage a great rigidity. This parts design was praised by many customers and magazines.

The Scimitar kit was awarded the Best Vac-kit by Scale Aviation Modeller magazine 1996.

Please note:
The sample images are the Royal Aircraft Establishment's high speed test aircraft.
Its distinguish pale blue colour seemes to be paler than this sample model.
After we displayed this at model shows, an ex-pilot of the very aircraft told us the real colour was much paler.

(6/10/2009)

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