Supermarine Scimitar - Survivor XD220

XD220, our first survivor, isn't even in the UK. Incredibly, she's located in the state of New York in the USA! This is because of a deal between the Fleet Air Arm museum and the Intrepid museum - in 1986 she was swapped for an F-4S Phantom which the FAAM initially painted in RN colours but which has since moved to East Fortune. Seems that the Intrepid boys got the better side of that particular deal. XD220's last flight was from Brawdy to Lee-on-Solent on July 22nd 1970 with Lt Cdr Peter Banfield at the controls. For a long time this was thought to have been the last Scimitar flight but it turned out there was one further flight; one went from Hurn to Southend around six months later. XD220's fortunes have been somewhat mixed in New York and her appearance fades year on year, with occasional repaints or cleaning sessions improving matters temporarily. Sadly despite the Intrepid's $120 million refit during 2007/08 it seems none of that cash went on improving XD220's appearance - she is now looking faded again, and to make room for the arrival of a Space Shuttle, the Intrepid museum have now transferred XD220 to another museum located 150 miles north of the city of New York. Time will tell if she's given more attention there but the new home at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum appears to be another establishment that keeps their airframes on external display rather than within a building. At the time of this update XD220 was actually still enroute to ESAM onboard a barge.

Information on this page current as of 21/04/2012, last updated by Damien

Find other photos of XD220 on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net