Thunder & Lightnings

Fairey Gannet - Survivor XL482 (ex N1350X)

AEW.3 XL482 - Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Click for previous survivorSurvivor imageClick for next survivor

Gannet AEW.3 XL482 at Pima, 19th March 2018; Terry Fox

Like XL500, this Gannet had an unexpected new lease of life after retirement and was used by Hamilton Bradley in the US for propeller vibratory stress trials. When no more use could be found for the aircraft, it made what was at the time thought to be the last ever flight of a Gannet, landing at Bradley Airport to be displayed at the New England Air Museum. Since then of course two other Gannets have flown once more. Unfortunately, XL482 looked like it had been badly neglected since arriving at the museum; badly faded, canopy clouded over and coated with muck. The aircraft was then moved to Pima and after a brief time in dismantled storage has been reassembled and put on display, though the radome was not put back on for some time she is now complete though in cosmetically poor condition.

The airframe can be seen today very faded and still in a poor state with some need for a bit of TLC.

Information on this page current as of 15/06/2021, last updated by Jake

Find other photos of XL482 on the following sites:

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