XD220, our first survivor, isn't even in the UK. Incredibly, she's located at the USS Intrepid museum in New York! 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... Scimitars being so rare and all! 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. For several years XD220 was looking in a really poor state in its current home, but the last five years or so have seen a dramatic improvement in at least her external appearance, with a repaint and good cleaning having been carried out. Sadly there are no squadron markings of any kind applied though
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