Lightning photos

[320psi]

Hi

Thats Mini Me!!!!

My lad Oliver.... he loves all aircraft, but was over the moon at Brunty

Andy did us proud that day, I must have had a grim from ear to ear

It was our pleasure, and yes you did have a big grin, or were you just cold

Thanks for the piccies

See you some time this coming year

[Yorkie]

you try keeping me away.......

So many familiar faces over here......

will email you when we are coming over. let me know when your planning the antidets, will see if we can deafen the wife.

will make sure I tell Gaz this time, he will show us the Superguppy

Nik

[RLN]

Nice pics, Yorkie

[320psi]

Right, some really special ones now, some Ive not seen before either

The occasion was the Lightnings 25th anniversary on Aug 3rd 1979 at Binbrook

All display aircraft were specially marked up representing all of the types previous front line sqadron operators.
29 , 111 , 23 , 74 , 56 , 19 and 92Sdns . The last photo is of course Roland Beamont , English Electrics /BAC's chief test pilot

The plan was to do a 25 ship display fly by, all practiced and sorted, but as per usual the Binbrook weather knacked it all, and the flyby was scrubbed



XP694, surface decoy at Binbrook by 87, cut and moved to Otterburn ranges March 88, removed and scrapped by 1999


XR751 nearest, bought by Roy flood and cut then moved to his house in Cornwall, now in situ in his back garden









XR726, cut and moved to Rossington July 88, scrapped by 1992



XR756, spares recovered June 88, cut and moved to Foulness ranges, scrapped by 1994





XR761, crashed Nov 84, 3 miles off Donna Nook, due to fire and loss of control, pliot Mike Hale ejecting safely





XR763, Crashed on approach July 87 to Akrortiri after A/C ingested part of the Banner after a live firing sortie, which resulted in a double engine failure, pliot Dave Chan, ejecting safely, wreckage scrapped locally



XR769, has the dubious claim to 'fame' that of being the last Lightning to be lost in RAF service, (all of the '760' series were lost to crashes strangely )
Crashed March 88 only 2 months from the end of operations, 5 miles off Eastington after a No1 reheat pump fire that ate its way along the fuse and ended up with control loss, Australian exchange pilot Dick Coleman ejecting safely, wreckage never recovered







XS899, one of a pair of Lightnings (XS898 being the other) that were the last to fly out of Binbrook in June 88, to join the other four in Arnold Glasses 'airforce' at Cranfield, she ended up being cut for scrap in Dec 1998, all very sad, I was there watching
Very sad as we were there to watch them leave Binbrook, they both took off and came back in low and fast across the ASP, lighting the burners as they pulled up and dissapeared, really strange feeling to be honest, all gone, done, finished, over, end of story, staff just wandered off, almost lost, really odd feeling

Her nose was saved though





And the man himself, Roland 'Bee' Beamont and true WW2 B of B fighter pilot, a real old gentleman, and one I glad to say Ive meet and chatted with over a beer or two




Thats it for Freds pics at the mo, hope you have enjoyed so far

[Jigsaw]

Excellent Andy , really great stuff.

A mixture of happiness at seeing so many lined up and sadness at how they ended their days.
I am just glad I grew up at the right time to witness the power and displays of the Lightning more than once

[Xplumberlives]

Excellent Andy , really great stuff.

A mixture of happiness at seeing so many lined up and sadness at how they ended their days.
I am just glad I grew up at the right time to witness the power and displays of the Lightning more than once

Should you be admitting that?

[320psi]

Excellent Andy , really great stuff.

A mixture of happiness at seeing so many lined up and sadness at how they ended their days.
I am just glad I grew up at the right time to witness the power and displays of the Lightning more than once

Thanks, I love these shots, brings back alot of memories I had forgot from childhood airshows where the Lightning display (all 2minutes of it) were the high light

And of our early days, will we got one ?, wont we get one ?, which will we get ?, can we afford it ?, how mch will they want ? have we bid enough ? etc etc etc, all very tummy turning stuff

Seems an age ago now though, almost dream like

[Molerat]

I remember that day. You can only imagine the amount of work we had to put in to get that many serviceable and then scrubbed They really did look the biz though

[Thumper]

Loving this thread and all the photos, you can never have enough Lightning photos!!

[Gully]

Great stuff Andy - superb pictures. You can tell a lot of prep went into the aircraft for that display line.

Not seeing the Bee Beaumont picture - 'just' a repeat of the one above?

Thanks,

Gully

[320psi]

Thanks all,

There you go Gully

Few more

XR716, flown to Cottesmore Aug 87 after its display at Fairford, spares recovered and placed on the fire dump, expired by 1994



Sad but a lovely photo of this aircraft, XS451, you know how the stories ends



XS455, Crashed into the north sea just off Withernsea, Sept 1972, following hyd failure, both crew ejecting safely



XR759, spares recoverd June 88, removed to Rossington, nose saved, remains scrapped by 1992



Few more to come later

[Spitfire]

Excellent Andy , really great stuff.

A mixture of happiness at seeing so many lined up and sadness at how they ended their days.
I am just glad I grew up at the right time to witness the power and displays of the Lightning more than once :D

Here here
Nothing like seeing - and feeling - a Lightning streak down a runway at zero feet and pull up to go vertical at the end and just become a tiny dot in the sky within seconds Loved it

[Gaz]

Some cracking shots there, Andy!

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks again Andy

[Mackrick]

Just when I thought you had run out of photos you come out with this lot ......

Fantastic Andy

[Yorkie]

Fantastic photos Andy. just when i thought there were no more that could impress!

[Dagger_id]

Lightning...one of the best!

[Thumper]

Love these Lightning photos 320, many thanks

Welcome to Iconic Dagger_id

[320psi]

Glad your enjoying

Few more, some crackers as well, ones Ive never seen before

XM183 Ended up being used in 1975 as the camo evaluation airframe, stood as a Decoy untill being broken up and scrapped in Jan 1988


XN782, last flight to Wildenrath March 1977, put out as surface decoy, scrapped by 1990



XP696, to storage at Wattisham in 1974, on the dump by 1975, scrapped by Sept 75



XP751,this is the famous Ian Black aircraft, he got her back to Binbrook after a jet pipe firecaused by a broken fuel line, in Oct 86 spares recovered and placed out on the airfield ay Binbrook in 87 as decoy, scrapped by Jan 88



XR716, flown to Cottesmore in Aug 87 spares recoverd and on the fire dump, scrapped by 1994



XP753, Crashed into the sea whilst in tranist to Teeside airshow, pilot, Mike Thompson killed as to low to eject



XN787, put to use as GIA at Larrbruch in Jan 1977, scrapped by 1985



Right now for some really special ones Ive never seen before, taken in May 1988 at the last photo shoot, there were certain photograhers invited to go up in a Herc and get this lot, Ive seen many shots of this sortie before but not these, the sortie was the last RAF offical multi aircraft sortie

And our very own XR728 pays a big part

The other two aircraft are T5 XS452, and XS923, the last Lightning to fly out of Binbrook in early June 88, flown to cranfield and like the others (898, 899 and 328) she scumbed to the scrap mans axe in Dec 98
XS452 is now with Thunder City in Cape Town







728, she did once fly



I love this one, probably the best Ive ever seen of her in flight



Lovely

[Dan4th]

Wow, Andy, you just keep on getting better!
These are some of the best yet, and that one
closeup out the back is, I think, the best pic
I've seen yet!

Tell me, though, did the crews ever have any
nicknames for Lightnings over the years?

Printable ones, that is?

Danf.

[320psi]

Wow, Andy, you just keep on getting better!
These are some of the best yet, and that one
closeup out the back is, I think, the best pic
I've seen yet!

Tell me, though, did the crews ever have any
nicknames for Lightnings over the years?

Printable ones, that is?

Danf.

Thanks mate, yeh some crackers there eh

Oh a question I like them

Yeh,
Pilots, usually the 'Frightning'

Ive not heard many others, a famous line offen come up though, ' I was with it all the way to brakes off'
I can totally belive that one

Ground crew, cant print any of them, sorry

Most thought we were utterly off our 'rockers' when we spoke to them about keeping a Lightning going and all were glad to see the back of 'em'

Interestingly we still never come across many ex Lightning 'techs' who want to get involved, they all shy away from the bloody loss

[Gaz]

Great stuff again, Andy!

[Xplumberlives]

Fancy leaving the best till last!

Bravo Andy.

[Vulcan Bomber]

Andy, do you know if 728 ever had overwing tanks on in service and did all the F.6's have the hard points for them?


Cheers, David.

[320psi]

Andy, do you know if 728 ever had overwing tanks on in service and did all the F.6's have the hard points for them?


Cheers, David.

David, yes 728 carried over wings many times over the years, as most of the F6's did at one time or another, mostly for long transit flights Tengar or Cyprus for example, but the RAF didnt use them that much really, the effort to fit them and make them ok for flight was very time consuming, so most of the time aircraft deployed to Cyprus without using them, using the RAF tanker fleet to get them out there.

Yes all F6's had a hard point in each wing, this is basiclly a hole though the wing tank, with a bloody big threaded bolt on the tank running though the middle and a massive nut underneath.
It takes a massive box spanner and a enormous 'T' bar to tighen or undo them,its a four man job

The fuel pick up point is located aft of the 'hard point'

They were jettisionable, with explosive charges fitted, 904 had them when we took delivery of her in 93,
Know one ever it tried out, not even EE or Bae when they were being developed, they did lots of ground tests on a special 'wing' rig but never any flight trials, strange I know


They werent all that useful however as their weight and the drag they induced used fuel, and they only a 'subsonic' fit

They only really gave about 10 minutes extra flight time, but in a Lightning 10 extra minutes is alot

When a Lightning pilots called 'short fuel' they meant 2 minutes

Heres a shot of our 728 in her early life when with 56sdq with 'over burgers' fitted