the majority of royal navy gannets were scrapped following withdrawal. the drawdown of the gannet force in the late 1960s and early 1970s however led to a significant amount of electronic equipment being removed from the gannet airframes for installation in avro shackleton aircraft of the royal air force, which allowed the raf to undertake its own aew operations. in addition, a handful continued flying operations in the hands of civilian operators into the 1980s – one was used by hamilton standard in the united states for propeller vibration trials, while another was used by dowty rotol for propeller development purposes. in addition, a further aew3 was used as a private display aircraft at airshows until the late 1980s. as of 2012, one aircraft (xl500 civil registered as "g-kaew"), which was once flown by prince charles, was undergoing comprehensive restoration to airworthy condition by hunter flying.