Is the UK getting another "Damien"?

I had to post this in fun, but it seems the UK will be getting another "Damien" in one of its RC-135W Airseekers.

In May of 1995, the crew of a Nimrod R1, which provided the same mission as the Airseekers will, survived a ditching after an onboard fire. The aircraft was nicknamed Damien, as the number was XW666.

Now that the RAF is getting the Airseeker to replace the R1s in that mission, the first aircraft will be numbered ZZ664, which leads one to the third and final aircraft will be ZZ666 (of course logic is not the strong point in any military bureaucracy).

Another Damien? I guess we'll have to wait a few years to find out.

During a visit to the Royal Air Force's Waddington air base in Lincolnshire late last week, I was told that the service's first RC-135W Rivet Joint will be touching down in the UK in October or November this year.

To be operated by the personnel of 51 Sqn, the UK's "RJs" will be identical in configuration to the examples flown by the US Air Force's 55th Wing from Offutt AFB in Nebraska. Indeed, the allies already fly joint missions on the latter, under a long-term collaboration agreement, and more than 100 UK personnel have been trained to date.

www.flightglobal.com...

Those serials were deliberately chosen to reflect the serials of the Nimrods that 51 Sqn previously flew.

reply to post by waynos


I figured they probably were, when I saw that. It would be stretching things a LOT to have them come up like that, and NOT be related.

Indeed, I just noticed that the flight blog failed to mention it

reply to post by waynos


Sorry, didn't mean to sound snippy in that reply. I didn't notice it right away, but when I started to think about it, that was one of the things that occurred to me. I'm surprised they didn't catch it in the blog too.