Splendid! You are still awake out there after all. My cunning ruse with the throwaway "Scimitar" caption certainly got a few of you going (Straight & Level, 20-26 May). Thanks to Nephews "Mad" Dan Eccles, Gething, Jackson, Munro, Skaillicorn, Smith and Williamson et al for spotting the fact that it wasÉerÉin fact, a Supermarine Attacker. The test pilot in the photograph, incidentally, is the famous Mike Lithgow who went on to set several world air speed records in a prototype Swift - a descendent of the Attacker. Lithgow's record breaking Swift flights culminated on 25 September 1953 at Tripoli in Libya, when he flew the aircraft at 737.3 mph. Sadly Lithgow lost his life 10 years later when testing the BAC One-Eleven prototype in 1963.
Now, where are those reading glasses of mine?
Source: Flight International
