The weapon is 4.4m long and weighs 550kg. It is powered by a combination of solid fuel booster rocket, which is used for launching the missile, and simple ramjet, which gives it a speed of mach 2. The missile is effective over a range of approximately 80km.
Sea Dart entered service in 1967 on HMS Bristol, before becoming widespread on the Type 42 destroyers. The missile system was also fitted to Invincible class aircraft carriers but was removed during refits in the 1998-2000 period to increase the area of the flight deck.
The Sea Dart equipped Type 42s are reaching the end of their service lives, with some vessels already retired. Construction has begun on the Type 45 class which, with the much more capable PAAMS missile system, will replace the Type 42 from 2007.
The SeaDart had a vee-shaped hull, and its internal spaces were organized as multiple watertight compartments to keep it afloat if battle damaged.
The SeaDart could not take off or land on a runway, but each of the hydro-skis had a small wheel at the end, and a third small wheel was mounted near the rear of the aircraft to allow it taxi onto or off of a seaplane ramp.
The SeaDart was, to nobody's surprise, badly underpowered with its J34 engines and remained solidly subsonic.
Built in England in 1960, the Dart had its share of adventures with early owners, but the trip that would bring the boat world-wide fame, began in 1973 when she was purchased by adventurer Tristan Jones.
With Jones at the helm, SeaDart became the first boat to sail the Panama Canal (using hippies as the "sail"), the first vessel of its size to conquer the Humbolt Current and, most notably, the first ocean-going vessel to sail Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable water on Earth.
After Titicaca Jones drug, pushed, hauled, sailed, floated and wrestled SeaDart down the River Paraguay and across South America in an epic challenge that tested the resolve of what had to be one of the most obstinate, determined men who ever lived.
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