The English Electric Lightning - Best aircraft ever!?

KatanaDV20 · 24 Jul 2010 at 19:30

Its not a pretty airplane but dayum that thing can climb...as Justin said...its basically two engines that happen to have wings attached to them.

It reminds me of a MiG-21 thats eaten too much (must be that nose!)

By the way you guys NEED to read this hair-raising true story. Put some coffee on first

:

This story is probably well known to some of you. In short it is about a man who had never flown a jet accidentally taking off in a Lightning, without and radio communication, and then having to land it. this account is written by the man himself. Enjoy!

Accidental lightning pilot
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...=676440&nmt=Oops - accidental lightning pilot

Cosimo · 24 Jul 2010 at 19:31

Some great advertising:

speedyj · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:08

I was on 11 Sqn at Binbrook when I was younger.

Had the pleasure of going up in a Tbird (twin seat version), awesome is the word to describe it, especially when the pilot atuck it on it's tail at the end of the run way and went vertical!

In a straight line there wasn't much that could stay with it, things changed a bit when you factored turning into the equation.

I remember one came down after following a Dutch F16 doing some aerobatics and the wings were almost corrugated.

We used to have to shimmy up the intake past the raydome to do engine stator/rotor inspections and one of the pranks was to press the starters, the fuses where taken out but it scared the crap out of you.

We used to go to Cyprus on apc and the silver ones got so hot you would literally stick to them if your skin was exposed.

Fond memories indeed.

speedyj · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:12

As for the it's not pretty comments, probably not but it was very imposing in the flesh. It did not look fast in the aeronautical sense but it just looked menacing and oozed power in my opinion.

Over Clocker · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:18

Just reading about other great British 50s and 60s planes, some of which never came to fruition due to some fairly controversial cancellations. It basically fell victim to being too advanced! But we needed US backing for an IMF loan, and they pressured it's cancellation.

All the Operational Requirement F.155 projects - Mach 2.5+ hybrid rocket aircraft

SR 177 - Should have been the NATO fighter instead of the Starfighter. Would have sold thousands!

Vickers Type 559 - Amazing design!

Probably the most famous - the excellent TSR.2, cancelled under VERY dodgy circumstances, with much talk that it was cancelled due to massive pressure from the USA, as they did not want to UK to build a plane that was ahead of what they had.

Over Clocker · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:26

Also, the British Aerospace EAP, which eventually became the basis of the EF Typhoon.

I can't help thinking how awesome our aerospace industry could have been today had these gone ahead!

Stolly · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:27

The Lightning was very good interceptor, and was probably the ultimate interceptor. It had a mediocre weapons fit and no endurance whatsoever. It did a fantastic job of intercepting single Soviet bombers but thank God we never had to put a pair up against a real raid.

Over Clocker · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:43

Wow, has anyone heard of the Avro 730??

A British aircraft capable of Mach 3! It was actually being built when it got cancelled in 1957 when the then government decided that manned aircraft was not the way forward! Looks like the US copied a lot of the design to make the Blackbird

I_M_Weasel · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:46

I never appreciated the lightning when it was flying in the UK, I miss it now.

The much more modern F-15 had to be stripped down to the bare essentials to beat the lightnings climb records.

stulid · 24 Jul 2010 at 20:50

Jeremy Clarkson thought it was awesome

JBuk · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:00

Over Clocker said:
Wow, has anyone heard of the Avro 730??

A British aircraft capable of Mach 3! It was actually being built when it got cancelled in 1957 when the then government decided that manned aircraft was not the way forward! Looks like the US copied a lot of the design to make the Blackbird

Never heard of it until now, quite a resemblance to the Blackbird

The Funktopus · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:06

Always had a grudging respect for the Soviet/Russian built MiG-25 Foxbat. Nothing fancy, stainless steel leading edges as opposed to massively expensive titanium used on the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a fairly unrefined pointy shape and a pair of enormous Tumansky R15 turbojets to give it almost Mach 3 performance. It was typical of Soviet engineering of the time, it was designed to do the job asked of it, without flourish. It's reminiscent of the zero mavity pen saga in the 1960's when NASA spent $100,000's developing a pen that would work in space. Soviet Cosmonauts simply used a pencil.

stulid · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:08

The Funktopus said:
Always had a grudging respect for the Soviet/Russian built MiG-25 Foxbat, and the subsequent MiG-31 Foxhound. Nothing fancy, stainless steel leading edges as opposed to massively expensive titanium used on the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a fairly unrefined pointy shape and a pair of enormous Tumansky R15 turbojets to give it almost Mach 3 performance.

didn't the FOXBAT have some silly operational ceiling height? - i mean in a good "silly" way.

Von Smallhausen · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:14

Wasn't the MiG 25 capable of Mach 3+ ?

As for the OP, I have a soft spot for the Lightning. It was and still is an incredible aircraft. It's a shame that such a design didn't leave much space for fuel as limited range was its main flaw.

Lunatic Dreyfus · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:19

You gotta love the Lightning. Proper 50's British engineering. Two huge engines and a seat.

Bit was it the best? Nah.

Was it the loudest..? Quite possibly.

The Funktopus · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:19

Von Smallhausen said:
Wasn't the MiG 25 capable of Mach 3+ ?

Yeah, it could do Mach 3.2 if pushed, but to try and maintain it would melt the engine's core. Thus Soviet Pilots were trained to push it no further than Mach 2.82. Even then, doing that at 80,000ft up would make you a bloody hard target to reach for SAM's or other aircraft. Although interestingly the ability to be able to zoom-climb to altitude and get within AIM-7 Sparrow range of a Foxbat was written into the F-15's design brief when McDonnell Douglas started work on it in the 70's. Hence the F-15's ability to beat the Lighting's time-to-altitude records.

Von Smallhausen · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:27

F-15, another favourite of mine although it has long since been outdone by other fighters.

Over Clocker · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:27

The Funktopus said:
Yeah, it could do Mach 3.2 if pushed, but to try and maintain it would melt the engine's core. Thus Soviet Pilots were trained to push it no further than Mach 2.82. Even then, doing that at 80,000ft up would make you a bloody hard target to reach for SAM's or other aircraft. Although interestingly the ability to be able to zoom-climb to altitude and get within AIM-7 Sparrow range of a Foxbat was written into the F-15's design brief when McDonnell Douglas started work on it in the 70's. Hence the F-15's ability to beat the Lighting's time-to-altitude records.

That was a modified F15 though!

Over Clocker · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:28

Just noticed that there were plans to fit a rocket engine to the Lightning to increase its performance, but these plans never got off the ground!

The Funktopus · 24 Jul 2010 at 21:37

Over Clocker said:
That was a modified F15 though!

True, that one was known as the Streak Eagle and was stripped down and lightened for the record attempt. Still, the F-15 has a bloody impressive climb rate, especially when you consider how much more it weighs than the Lightning when carrying the huge radar, 8 air to air missiles and enough fuel to fly a 750 mile combat mission.