Hawker Siddeley Nimrod

The British Aerospace Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft is derived 

from the Comet, the worlds first Jet airliner. It is unique in being the only jet powered Maritime patrol aircraft in service today and

benefits over it's propeller powered competitors, the American P3, French Atlantique and Russian May through it's range and speed.

Originally delivered to the RAF in the 1970s the Nimrod serves in two variants, the (R) variant in a reconnicance and intellegence gathering capacity and the (MR) version in the Maritime reconnicance version. Upgraded to MR(2) standard in the early 1980s the maritime Nimrods are due a further full airframe upgrade to MRA(4) standard, to be completed around 2004.

The Nimrod MR(2) is based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland and flown by 210, 120, 206 and 42(R) Sqns, The Nimrod R is based at RAF Waddington in England and flown by 51 Sqn.

Another development of the Nimrod is the ill-fated AEW version, which was developed in the 80s to replace the aged Shakleton AEW aircraft of the RAF. The lost out to the already established Boeing E3 platform.