![]() The aircraft had two Rolls-Royce Avon engines producing 33 kN of thrust each and a crew of two, with the pilot's canopy offset to the left and the radar operator's seat flush within the fuselage. The FAW.1 variant was capable of carrying 4 Firestreak AAMs for fleet defence, while the FAW.2 variant could carry the more advanced Red Top missile. The Sea Vixen was also the first British combat aircraft with no internal gun armament, relying entirely on its suspended ordnance. The Sea Vixen was built with an unconventional twin-boom design, which de Havilland had perfected through its design of the twin-boomed Vampire and Venom fighters. In February of 1955, 110 aircraft were ordered, with the name "Sea Vixen". ![]() This aircraft was offered to the Fleet Air Arm and replaced the previous Sea Venoms as the RN's primary air defence fighter. As a result, the DH 110 underwent significant design changes to improve its structural stability, resulting in its maximum speed being reduced to Mach 0.91. Tragedy soon struck when the DH 110 prototype disintegrated in midair during the Farnborough Airshow in 1952, resulting in the deaths of 31 people including the crew of two. This prototype exceeded expectations and could regularly attain supersonic speeds during test flights. In spite of this, De Havilland continued work on the DH 110 independently, finishing the first prototype in September of 1951. However, the Fleet Air Arm decided to proceed with the Sea Venom instead as it was cheaper and available sooner. De Havilland began producing an aircraft, the DH 110, to fulfill this requirement. ![]() The Royal Navy had interest in a carrier defence fighter after the Second World War, and issued a requirement for such an aircraft in 1946. The de Havilland Sea Vixen is a British twin-boom, twin-engine carrier air-defence aircraft employed by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from the 1950s to 1970s.
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