C
Caledonia
Guest
Hi Dave, thanks for sharing your memory, two pieces of information I read about recently was at retirement in 1988 the Lightning could still beat an F15 to 30,000 ft., also two years before retirement NATO held an exercise where an F15, F16 and a Lightning was set the task of intercepting Concorde, only the Lightning made the intercept. Will always remember the Leuchars airshows in the '60's when everyone was making thier way back to the car park after the show finished (we thought) and 4 Lightnings would come in at tree top height from St Andrews, and just as they passed over the crowd, they would stand on their tails and go vertical, the noise seemed to paralyze you; you couldn't move or speak until they were well into the clouds.\ said:I remember an air show at RAF Coningsby in the late seventies.The F15 did a take off and vertical climb but rolled over and levelled out after a few thousand feet.The 'old' Lighting did it's party piece and just kept on going vertical until we couldn't see it.A totally awesome display of engine power.Our Phantoms didn't even try it!.
There is an excellent DVD I have Cold War Jets Of The Royal Air Force [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD where ex Pilots relay thier experiences, one mentioned that even with the engines at idle, they had to keep their foot on the brake, also at take-off they had to get their nose up quickly or they would go supersonic, which many of them did on their first solo, much to the annoyance of the neighbourhood.
Thanks everyone for your interest and kind comments, and Trey for the tip re odorless C.A.
Am cleaning up the 'Flightpath' white metal undercarriages just now, will post some more photos shortly. Cheers Derek
Last edited: