JP-1

For you Guys in the U.K.who have traveled the A.1. Trunk road through Nottinghamshire at Balderton, near Newark, over the last few years can't failed to havenoticed, a scrapyard, withthe relic of a English Electric Lightning F 2A (XN728) pointing skyward.

Well the old girl has finally gone to the smelter.

By coincidence in the September issue of "Flypast Magazine" page 107 there is a centre fold picture of XN 728 at R.A.F.Gutersloh in happier times'

Regards,

Alistair.

Ayrtonsenna

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Such a waste Alistair..... [&o]

JP-1

Yes, sure is a shame, When the Lightning was first moved there it was in reasonable condition, I believe the *Newark air museum attempted to buy the airframe, however nothing came of it.

Alistair.

http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/

JP-1

Oops double post!!!!!

JP-1

I have since read in "Flypast " magazine that the nose section has actuallybeen saved for possible presevation

Alistair

F86_SABRE

Well not all Lightnings end up complete going to the smelter. Here is the front part of a Lightning still preserved at our local Aviation Museum in Malta. I remember them quite well flying overhead when I was still at school....many moons ago!

Reuben

JP-1

Reuben,

That looksverynice indeed. I believe you also have a very nice Vampire T.11 in the Malta Air Museum WZ550, I am led to believe it has been restored as a Malta-based, 750 Fleet Air Arm Squadron - T22 Trainer

Alistair

invertmast

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Here is the one we share a Hangar with in Stennis, Mississippi USA that is currently undergoing restoration back to Flight status....one day

F86_SABRE

Hi Alistair, yep its there.
Am not sure of the details of the aircraft but there were many Vampires located in Malta during the fifties. Infact ,we are flying from what is left of the original runway at Ta' Qali. The museum is just a stone throw away from our flying field.

F86_SABRE

This one

RoLe

Hi!

Wery rare plane... But one of the Norwegians jet dude, Mr Hammerhead is building one from Airworld.

This is worth a watch - even if the text is in the easy Norwegian language

[link=http://jetsofnorway.no/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=535]The "Norwegian" Electric Lightning[/link]

David Gladwin

There is a picture in that file of XM135 which is on display in the Duxford Museum.

This aircraft has the distinction of having been flown by an engineering officer with very little (Chipmunk) flying experience . He was conducting a taxi check following engineering work (at Leconfield ?) when he got both engines into reheat and couldn't cancel them. He took off, did a circuit and landed.

So the story goes !

Regards,

David

CJ2002

Hi David,

It happened at Lyneham. Extract from Thunder and Lightning's website...

XM135 is famous for being the aircraft in which an engineering officer had an extremely scary experience when some ground running tests went badly wrong... on 22nd July 1966, the aircraft was with 33 MU at RAF Lyneham being worked on to fix a persistent electrical fault that only showed up when the aircraft was accelerating. Wing Commander Walter "Taff" Holden was undertaking taxiing tests to see if he could replicate the problem. The canopy was off, ground locks were in on the undercarriage and the ejector seat safety pins were in. Initial slow(ish!) speed taxi runs on Lyneham's 'lazy' runway did not show up the fault, so Taff tried a further run but inadvertently advanced the throttles too far into the reheat position; now a Lightning doesn't give you much time to think in reheat, and before Taff could figure out that the throttles hadn't jammed but were just through the reheat gate, disaster loomed in the shape of a fuel bowser crossing the runway in front of him. Just missing this, he was soon about to cross the main duty runway - as a Comet on its take off run shot past! Having avoided disaster twice by pure luck, the end of the short lazy runway was coming up fast and he had no choice but to lift off, having had no luck trying to get the throttles back to idle - and having run out of time to do anything about it.

Luckily Taff had some limited hours on lighter prop-driven trainer aircraft - Tiger Moths, Chipmunks and Harvards - and this experience enabled him to calmly explore the aircraft's handling and make some attempts at landing. His first two attempts to line up on the runway didn't go well but on his third attempt he got it right - and only made the error of landing in the attitude a tailwheel aircraft would, with the result that he scraped the tail and in the process cut the brake chute's cable. When he deployed the chute, then, it simply dropped off immediately and he had to rely on the wheelbrakes alone to stop him before the runway end. This they did... with 100 yards to spare. Unsurprisingly some years after the event Taff suffered some post-traumatic stress problems but recovered fully with some help. It is a remarkable story and to have the aircraft still in existence over 40 years later is a bit of a bonus.

See you at Wtn soon.

Cheers,

Dick

David Gladwin

Dick,

Thats it, Lyneham, knew it had an L in it ! A remarkable story and one (as a bomber pilot) I used to tease Lightning drivers who exaggerated how hard it was to fly a Lightning ! Even EOs can fly them !

Really looking forward to doing a LOT of flying in UK next year, 13 jets packed so far !

Best regards,

David.

HarryC

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So would we David, have you forgotten how bad our weather is!

I was at Duxford a couple of weeks ago taking hundreds of photos of XM135 to get the detailing for my MR EE Lightning.

H.