-Tauren- said:
So why arent they allowed to fly them here? I mean lightnings.
The Lightning is quite a complex aircraft and as such would fall into the 'Complex' category for a Certificate of Airworthiness if one were to be given.
The CAA deem them an unsafe design due to a number of reasons. The location of fuel lines near the jet pipes proved to be a cause of fires when in service. Redundancy of flying controls being a couple of nitrogen bottles to blow down the flaps and gear for a landing, with limited stick movement.
The fuel tank range is also quite an interesting point, IIRC 15 minutes with some use of reheat
Also if one were to be a flyer, it would need an OEM such as BAe to back it with spares, repairs and mods. The engines, finding Rolls Royce Avon engines with Zero hours would be like looking for rocking horse ****, lack of parts is a stumbling block.
Then the choice of a suitable airframe in this country, all are suffering from some sort of corrosion and have high fatigue index's and hours on the airframes.
Numerous other reasons, though it shows how much of a nanny state we live in. They've been flying three Lightnings with a possibly forth in South Africa for quite a few years now with no serious incidents that I know of.
VeNT, it's a Handley Page Victor.
Neil.