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Right Lightning buffs; just off the phone from the old man trying to pin this down. In his words they were operationally limited to about 1.7 mach simply because the airflow around the nose cone could get all (something technical...) and it could damage the engines. Apparently acceleration was the thing rather than flat out speed... He reckoned the fastest he ever went was about mach 2 in the winter (again for some technical reason about dense air?) sorry, I tried to pay attention, but it's mostly Greek to me...
Really? No one going for the P51b Mustang?
My brother in law made a bit of mess with a F15http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?81457-F-15E-Crash-at-RAF-Lakenheath
Well, clearly not his fault, was there a skip nearby?
CharlieMungus - Member
Really? No one going for the P51b Mustang?
Well, I went for the 'd' - see page one. Is that close enough?? 🙂
Loads of great stuff up there
andituk - thanks for the Warthog - I was entering this thread thinking i'd have to go find a picture but no, beaten too it! In my old plane spotting days I was at a club where they had a crew in doing a presentation - think I was around 13-14 at the time... looong time ago
F15 - lovely bird - at it's inception it was the only plane to be able to accelerate whilst in a vertical climb.. 😯
Actually it was Lairyplanes that got me into photography, a long, long time ago...an uncle worked for BAE, we went to few air-shows with him - great memories of getting a 'boost' to try and see things by standing on his aluminium case after he'd put his old screw thread Pentax together....
CharlieMungus - Member
[i]Really? No one going for the P51b Mustang?[/i]
Well, I went for the 'd' - see page one. Is that close enough??
the 'D'? ****ing splitters!
BTW, there is a story of a Lightning "kill" - the only one during it's thirty year career - the victim being a Harrier which had gotten into trouble over Germany resulting in the pilot ejecting. Apparently the pilotless Harrier continued on it's wobbly course and a Lightning on patrol was vectored in to bring it down before the errant jump-jet crashed somewhere in densely populated Holland.
Can anyone add any credence to this?
+1 for the SR71, boys own stuff, and it did nothing more scary and destructive than take a few "holiday pictures"
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Really? No one going for the P51b Mustang?
Pah! Mass-produced rubbish. The P47 Thunderbolt was a far better plane!
(OK, maybe it was a little pricey though)
Vulcan and spitfire just 'cos they are beautiful. No other aircraft comes close IMO - ecept perhaps the concorde
But the one I would have loved to fly in is
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Now thats when flying was luxury
And of course the one that was noever built!
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Designed in 1929, the "Flying Hotel" was the most luxuriant airplane ever thought up. Designed for the 1040s, it was planned to have:
Main Lounge 36 ft high, 9 decks, 3 Kitchens, 13 pantries, writing rooms, 2 public dining rooms, (the main dining room converts into a dance floor for 100 couples), orchestra platform, 3 private dining rooms capable of feeding 40 people, 4 deck tennis courts, 6 shuffle board courts, 6 quoits pitches, library, 1 gym with dressing rooms and showers, 1 men's Solarium w/16 couches and a masseur, 1 womens Solarium w/16 couches and a masseuse, 1 children’s playroom, 1 doctors office with waiting room, barber shop, hairdressers salon, 2 bars, 1 store, 1 huge promenade deck, 1 Veranda Cafe seats 90, 18 single state rooms, 81 double state rooms, 24 suites w/ baths, 179 sleeping rooms, air-conditioning through out, and 155 crew members, from cooks to bus boys
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One of my favorites the fantastic Mossie!
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Jimbo wins IMO!
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Wins!
Always SR71 for me. Read somewhere about crew setting a couple of speed records - just because - on its retirement flight.
For looks I always used to like F16. Just a nicer looking plane than F15 and F18 of similar period
Saw Typhoon in action at this year's Moto GP and that thing was impressive
What about this chap? Beautiful, I reckon.
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I'd like one of these:
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can't do photos, but, afer a nice Berks bimble me and gf got (later than expected - thanks punctures, no really, THANKS punctures) to White Waltham airfield, and wandered in. mmmmm - that's a Hurricane over there (30 yds), blimey that's a Spitfire behind it, I could have walked up and touch them, no crowds, nothing. Anyway we sat outside, admired the view and ordered lunch, generally enjoyed the ambience - sunny, a little windy, very few people around, Anway a few chaps in overalls came out of the clubhouse, chatted, and then walked over to the planes, some tyre kicking, CRACKING engine noise, then they both taxied together,along the grass, to runway, for a truly glorious moment I though they we're going side by side, but the Hurricane went first, then Spitfire, the noise was awesome, up, bank right, circle round and then waggling wings over the field, absolutely directly above us - fully side on, felt like 100 ft but I suspect it was higher.
To cap it all the bloke next to me was a spotter and he mailed me a cd of the entire sequence.
happy days
BTW, there is a story of a Lightning "kill" - the only one during it's thirty year career - the victim being a Harrier which had gotten into trouble over Germany resulting in the pilot ejecting. Apparently the pilotless Harrier continued on it's wobbly course and a Lightning on patrol was vectored in to bring it down before the errant jump-jet crashed somewhere in densely populated Holland
The Harrier story I'm aware of (I think I read the accident report BITD on a RAF base somewhere) was one on a test flight. There was a seat malfunction and the pilot was ejected and unfortunately killed. The Harrier flew on and something was scrambled to intercept and the cockpit was empty, canopy blown out, etc. I wasn't aware it was shot down though - maybe it's a different example? Will have a google...
gusamc - awesome. Got those pics on this thread.
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My boss used to work on the same base as Lightnings, apparently one had a runaway engine situation that the pilot could not shut down and as the speed was picking up quickly he was ordered to eject. After ejecting it carried on in level flight reaching some very large mach numbers (which were quickly classified "and no don't ask again sonny") before crashing in the sea.
He also tells a story of the Vulcan that the apprentice nearly backflipped off the maintenace jacks whilst trying to be clever with the undercarriage.......eek.
the single greatest british invention
Don't talk crap.
I saw the F35 display at Farnborough, albeit only from a distance. It was unbelievable, as was the noise. Like tearing the very fabric of the universe apart along with the rules of physics.
I saw the Typhoon to but it wasn't quite as good 🙂
ooooooh TSR-2 eh Ming?
Harrier Jump jet!!
The mighty PR-9 Canberra
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Best part of my Army career so far was spent working on 39 Sqn with these great recce aircraft.
[b]I saw the F35 display...[/b]
Has the US-made F-35 displayed anywhere in the world, yet?
Even though my favourite is Concorde, I'm loving the Dakota DC3 ^^^. One flew over us when riding Rivington pike a few months ago, so low we saw the pilots.
+1 for TSR2, my old chap worked on that too.
Apparently the prototype left it's Lightning chase plane standing during an early acceleration test, no mean feat by any standards, let alone those of a heavy strike jet.
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anyone else making plane noises to themselves while looking at these pics?
[b]Apparently the prototype left it's Lightning chase plane standing during an early acceleration test, no mean feat by any standards, let alone those of a heavy strike jet.[/b]
The only thing faster was the axe wielded by the politicians.
@Jimbo that's very true.
In 1965, Britain was skint and went cap in hand to the World Bank. America threatened to veto loans unless the British government cancelled TSR2, which itself was an export threat to the F-111 and F-4.
Britain had at this point agreed to sell Lightnings to the Luftwaffe who were extremely keen to get them. The Germans backed out when the British government agreed to the sale, but warned that it could not guarantee spare parts - again, after pressure from the Americans.
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I've got lots of fond memories of this old girl:
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one of my favorites, I don't know why it just looks right.
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Lovely plane to fly according to the pilots at work.
I'm a sucker for german ww2 aircraft
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Experimental..
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Miketroid
Of the timmys which is your fav?
I preferred the KCs to the Ks and C2s.
Liked them all apart from Damian!!
I know, sadly, that I won't fly a better beast again. It was so revolutionary and beautifully engineered. Economics won't allow that to happen again.
My fav were the KC1s in cargo mode ,lots more space to stretch out and sleep to ensure I was fully rested to enjoy the next stop. 😛
I think I only flew in a K once ,over the adriatic on a tanking trip trying to sort a snag.
Had my most fun trips in the C2s Vegas,Nairobi and a Medman or two and even trips to the deep south were ok as most of the crew were fun and sitting in the jump seat and watching the systems work was always intresting. The eng always seemed to work the most.
Happy days but I sure dont miss working nights in all weathers and the none aircraft stuff but I did enjoy working on the timmys the systems did make you think.
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I'm a Spitfire man meself, although the Sea Fury is rather nice:
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Mpies,
'twas a complex beast. The FE panel was a bit of a headache!!
Medman.... How I miss those now...
Now the sea fury-nice. Like the sea vixen too.
I love these threads. I can remember being in the back garden in '69/70 in South Essex and watching (one of the?) first Concorde test flights escorted by the Red Arrows. And then again 34 years later the three Concordes flew over work in Bracknell on their final flight into Heathrow. Everyone stopped work to go outside and watch. 😀
Hercules C130
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because I jumped out of one or two or three...