Sea Prince

In the late 1940's Percival Aircraft at Luton developed the P.50 Prince 8-10 seat airliner, the prototype of which flew in May 1948. Sold in fairly small numbers, the Prince served throughout the world, often as an executive transport rather than an airliner. It was for this role that the Royal Navy first ordered the Prince, in navy service being known as the Sea Prince C.1. This was followed by the Sea Prince T.1 'flying classroom' which was a specialised version for training navigators and anti-submarine observers, which as well as having minor airframe modifications, was fitted with additional radar and radio. The first flew at Luton in June 1951, and the last of the forty two ordered in August l953. A modified version of the Prince was developed by Percival for communications duties with the Royal Air Force - the P60. Pembroke. Over one hundred of this version was produced, which included sales to Belgium and Germany. The majority of Sea Prince T.1's spent their service life being operated by 750 Squadron, until replaced by the Jetstream in 1978. When originally delivered the squadron was based at Culdrose, Cornwall but moved to the warmer climes of Hal Far, Malta in October 1959. Cut backs in bases saw the squadron return home to Lossiemouth in July 1965, with the final move back to Culdrose in September l972. The Sea Prince had now become very dated in the training role, and was replaced by Jetstream T.2's from l978.

WP321 was the final Sea Price T.1 built by Percival, being delivered to the Royal Navy in August 1953 who initially allocated it to 744 Squadron at Eglington, Northern Ireland. WP321 was used by the Station Flight, serving with the squadron until its disbandment in February 1954, when it was transferred to 750 Squadron at Culdrose. Here it joined its companions in the training role, and moved with the Squadron to Hal Far in October 1959. The Squadron returned to the UK in July 1965 to be based at Lossiemouth before returning to its original home at Culdrose in September 1972. With the introduction of the Jetstream, WP321 was withdrawn from service in 1979 and placed into storeage. Along with a number of its colleagues, it was sold in 1980 and placed on the civil register in September as G-BRFC by the quaintly named Rural Flying Corps at Bourne. However it continued to fly in its Royal Navy colours, and over the next few years undertook display work at Air Shows. This ceased in 1986 and WP321 was stored at Bourne, being flown to North Weald in November 1993. Here it remained in further storage until activated to make its ferry flight to Bournemouth in December 1999 under American certification as N7SY. This was only its second flight in thirteen years, making it the last airworthy Sea Prince. At the present time there are a handful of Pembrokes still airworthy.

Just happen to be ‘surfing’ the net and saw your site with the Sea Prince.
Great old buses – I was a Midshipman in the RAN who was sent to Hal Far, Malta to become an Observer and flew in the Sea Princes which belonged to 750 Squadron. I thought you might like the following flight details of the aircraft you have (I was the Observer) :-

21 May 65 – Pilot – LEUT John Flexman RN: Radar check flight 1, 1 hours 20 minutes
24 May 65 – Pilot – SBLT Pete McManus RN: Navigational exercise 24 (Grid), 1 hour 40 minutes
25 May 65 – Pilot – LEUT Tod RN: Navigational exercise 25 (Grid), 1 hour 45 minutes
31 May 65 – Pilot – SBLT Pete McManus RN: Son San Juan, Majorca to Decimomanu, Sardinia, 1 hour 45 minutes
31 May 65 – Pilot – SBLT Pete McManus RN: Decimomanu, Sardinia to Hal Far, Malta, 2 hours 20 minutes

	Wing span : - / 56 ft Length : - / - Max weight : - / 11,850 lb Service ceiling: - / 22,000 ft Max speed: - / 223 mph Engines: Two 550hp Alvis Leonides 125


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