Planes (again)

POWER!

Nice Lightnings. 🙂

Sukhoi Su-25UB Frogfoot

What’s the second plane? With the fancy tail?

What’s the second plane? With the fancy tail?

Think it is a sea vixen.

Thanks! 🙂

Is this US special forces deploying undercover?

No. Those are clearly penguins. Not seals.

^ very good. Have a Warthog.

No. Those are clearly penguins. Not seals.

f-35b

f14

Remember the circular runway thread?

I’ve found the perfect plane for it.

Sopwith Triplane (replica)

Some good photos! I’ll have to dig some out & scan them to put on here.

Here’s me sitting under my private jet a LOT of years ago at Alconbury. (I accidently tore the photo up with some others, hence the marks)

Heh. That first Lightning is exactly the same livery as the Airfix one. I wonder if the air intakes and cockpit fit when they assembled it?

I think that first Lightning might be my dad’s when he was in 92sqn. (19 and 92 were stationed at Gutersloh, hence the dark green camo paint, he hated it) I’ll ask him.

Hated the Lightning or the paint job?

tthew, got my Lightning together now (it was a bitch) and am just about to start on the decals and weathering. Just bought myself a Sea Vixen and a Flanker, hence the pictures posted above.

I’m still painting the body. I’ve put the undercarriage on the wings because I was getting a bit bored with just painting, but then I realised it would have been easier to do the decals on them first. I’ve learned a lot with this one.

No, he liked the Lightning well enough (apparently XN770 was a rocket-ship) just preferred them when they were shiny and blue.

LIGHTNING vs CONCORDE
The Lightning that once overtook Concorde was described as ‘the best of the best’ by Flt Lt Mike Hale at the roll-out ceremony for XR749 at Teesside Airport on September 28th 1995. Now an instructor with 56 Sqn at Coningsby, Mike flew 80 sorties in XR749 after the aircraft was allocated to 11 Squadron at Binbrook. He has a particular affection for the aircraft: “The Lightning was an exceptional aircraft in every respect, but XR749 was one of the best of the best. It is probably the best aircraft that I will ever have had the privilege to fly. Because of her tail code BM, she was known as ‘Big Mother’, although the tail code changed to BO for her last few months on 11 before joining the LTF in January 1985. She was a very hot ship, even for a Lightning. She remained my aircraft for all her time on 11 Sqn despite my being entitled to an F6 as I moved up the squadron pecking order. I invariably asked for her to be allocated to me for the major exercises such as MALLET BLOW, OSEX, and ELDER FOREST despite her being a short range F3 – there were invariably plenty of tankers about!”
His memories include the time in April 1984, during a squadron exchange at Binbrook, when he and XR749 participated in unofficial time-to-height and acceleration trials against F-104 Starfighters from Aalborg. The Lightnings won all races easily, with the exception of the low level supersonic acceleration, which was a dead-heat. This is not surprising when the records show that the year before on one sortie XR749 accelerated to Mach 2.3 (1500 mph) in September 1983.
It was also in 1984, during a major NATO exercise that he intercepted an American U-2 at 66,000 ft, a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Shortly before this intercept, he flew a zoom climb to 88,000 ft and, later that year, he was able to sustain FL550 while flying subsonic. Life was not entirely without problems, however, as in a three month period his No 2 engine seized in flight and its replacement failed during a take-off when intake paneling on the inside of the aircraft became detached and was sucked into the engine.
In April 1985, British Airways were trialing a Concorde up and down the North Sea. When they offered it as a target to NATO fighters, Mike and his team spent the night before in the hangar polishing XR749 which he borrowed from the LTF for the occasion, and the next day overhauled Concorde at 57,000 ft and travelling at Mach 2.2 by flying a stern conversion intercept. “Everyone had a bash – F-15s, F-16s, F-14s, Mirages, F-104s – but only the Lightning managed to overhaul Concorde from behind”.

Mint story that Steve!

Can anyone shine a light on this one? I can’t even remember which show it was but it was yonks ago!

Drakens.

Needs moar engines

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/154615-e-e-lightning-t-5-xv328.html

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/survivor.php?id=613

I like utility planes, like this Caribou

There’s a very good, and very sad documentary on a mad attempt to recover a crashed B-29 that was abandoned on the ice in Greenland in 1947… The whole thing’s batshit but everything involving their flying LDV convoy makes me laugh “So we’re flying in a bulldozer, because we need a runway so that we can land heavy stuff safely, at the moment we’re basically crashing every time we land even with a light load” “Isn’t a bulldozer fairly heavy?” “Hmmm”

in my days at 611sqn atc we had a lightening cockpit, I loved it and refurbished it when I was there.

It got scrapped due the the irideum (sp) paint on the gauges

I am still pissed off now about it

oh just found these:

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/walkaround.php

Wee pic i took of a Huricane. Love the way the sun is hitting it.

Your airshow static Lightning looks like Alconbury, probably 1987, the aircraft was in the Lightning Training Flight rather than operational squadron.

Great Hurricane pic! One to be chuffed with alright!

The AWACS boing E 3 is at Manchester airport atm.

The AWACS boing E 3 is at Manchester airport atm.

It comes over every spring!

Your airshow static Lightning looks like Alconbury, probably 1987, the aircraft was in the Lightning Training Flight rather than operational squadron.

Ah yes, very possible. That was a regular show for me along with Lakenheath & Mildenhall.

The AWACS boing E 3 is at Manchester airport atm.

Which one ? British or US ?
There’s a British one flying in circles over the North York Moors at this very moment.