Lightnings twilight event at Bruntingthorpe 16th November 2019 sees both XS904 and XR728 give a simultaneous display of reheat before heading down the runway one after the other, both burners on full !
I was a young acting corporal stationed at RAF Leuchars, Scotland 1966. It was quite something to witness the Lightnings on QRA take off out into the North Sea in full reheat. Tracking down the Russian Bombers (Bears) in minutes from take off. Occasionaly they had demo's for visiting polititions and overseas ministers. The show they put on was spectacular. The sheer speed and grunt of the lightning made your hair stand up. Nevr forget it.
@@coyote8427 it looks like somebody just stretched a thin sheet of metal over the engines. And then needed a bit more space at the bottom so extended it a bit more. like there is as little excess weight as possible and ended up being about 85% engine 10% wing and 5% seat
80s airshows as a kid, the noise from two lightnings and a vulcan taking off on full reheat was enough to make you think the ground was about to crack open.
In 1963 I was at RAF Coltishall as an air cadet which at the time was a Lightning interceptor station. I saw them take off and once airborne a few feet they would pull up and climb almost vertical and disappear through the cloud base in a few seconds. At air shows you do not see anything like what the are capable of.
Very nice capture - steady, no heads in the way and no messing about with the focus. Had the pleasure of watching these get airborne in an airshow at Mildenhall in the early 8os - the vertical climb was jaw dropping.
When I was as a kid we used to watch them fly out of RAF Manston along with Vulcan, Valiant and the handley Paige Victor made the hairs on the neck stand up and still can
It also intercepted a BA Concorde at 60K ft doing Mach 2, again as a trial. Admittedly a number of Lightnings failed that intercept, but some succeeded proving it was possible if ever needed. Nobody was entirely sure what the Soviets might be developing.
@@155mustang Low-bypass turbofans are used on the Eurofighter Typhoon. They're not ideal for supersonic aircraft, however, due to their larger cross-section.
I served in the RAF from 84 to 93, first posting RAF Wattisham in Suffolk. F4 Phantoms of 56 and 74 Squadrons. Binbrook Lightnings would often drop in and on departure would do the vertical climb take offs just to show F4 pilots what a real fighter was!!
Political stitch up by labour's Dennis Healey, He wanted American support for an if loan, they wanted an end to Britain's aero industry, and the sale of lardass f4s Healey got his loan , Britain lost its air industry.
I remember being sat on my Dad's shoulders as a kid watching these at RAF Binbrook and airshows. So awesome - you could feel the vibration in every cell in your body.
I still remember my first experience of seeing Lightnings in action. The Battle Of Britain display at RAF Coltishall in 1970 where there was a squadron and I think also the OCU. Seeing them blasting down the runway on full burners then pitching up and heading straight to heaven was very impressive to a teenage plane-spotter.
I forgot to mention the pilots were mostly young men. What a job, can you imagine the feeling, the pressure, the privilage of flying the fastest jet and the responibility.
I have a painting of XR728 in the stairway of my house which is signed by lightning pilots. Absolutely love the lightning, it's my favourite jet of all time, absolutely stunning.
Love the way you captured that at 3:22 nice angle letting run into view. Picked up the sound really well too, kinda shakes you as if you were there. Great stuff 👍
Off all the war birds I’ve seen this has to be the most wicked one ever, I’ve seen several in person but not this one, those vertical stacked engines was a design ahead of its time,
I love this jet. It served proud fo about 28 years. I have a nice photo of a 50pence lightning shooting down a brand new Tornado. I'll bet the mess was in uproar that night. God bless her.
If only, the faa will not ever let these types fly in the uk again, it was a hige problem mike beachy head had, and was why they all went in pieces to south africa
Amazing. Good to see this again. I was stood on that flightline at Bruntingthorpe with my dad, my wife and son - he was four at the time. I had been to LPG events before, but they had not, so were not fully prepared for just how visceral an experience this was. Anyway, all ears were fully protected and hearing survived intact.
I had the good fortune to be in the back seat of an RAF DHC1 at the holding point at RAF Wattisham when our takeoff was delayed while a lightning practiced for a display, I sat there and watched the whole thing then went flying, a few days later after returning from camp I went to the IAT at Greenham Common where I witnessed the same display, a sad day when the last Lightning left service.
@Arthur Humphreys Nope both the F104's that achieved over 100k ft were heavily modified aircraft. They were not stock fighters. The NF104 actually had a rocket fitted to get to over 120k and the official 103k height record was from an aircraft with modifications to its fuselage a different engine and a whole load of other mods which would make it useless as a in service fighter. The lightnings were all daily used for intercepts.
Sigh!! I was lucky enough to there at the last flight of the lightnings at binbrook . I use to love the journey there not only lightnings but vulcans too, in the sky around market raisin and louth . Long ago in a galaxy far far away much missed.
What got me was the way the Lightning skidded the n a fast turn. I was in the RNFAA from 1966 and we used to spend time at RAF bases on detachments. At Leuchars i used to love watching the Lightnings take off and stand on their tails!
Vulcan, Victor, Lightning, Harrier, Concorde. Any of those flying would get me back to an airshow. Like you I haven't been to one since XH588 grounding, which was entirely unnecessary on technical grounds and all about modern corporate mentality.
Went to the last air show at Binbrook before lightning were retired.Rumour has it that they were going to do something special.We were not disappointed!After take off each lightning banked round flying directly towards the crowd then went vertical,the noise was amazing!
I have such affection for the Lightning, big ugly bird that it is. It is the simplest of all, powered, flying objects; take the biggest engine you can, strap some wings on it and see what happens!
I was there in 1992? Maybe and it was pouring with rain. They did a simulated take off side by side and the spray was just like it would have been at Lossiemouth. Then we all sheltered under the Vulcan that was still warm.
i can remember as. a kid sitting on the front step of the farm house in suffolk, watching these screaming off overhead ,after burners giving it some on quick alert calls, made a hell of a noise,and was a fantastic sight in the pitch black them glows screaming across the sky
More then anything i wish these beauts could still fly, or that i could of been born in a generation where i could of seen and heard "binbrook, scramble 1 lightning"
I seen them a few times at Woodford when I went as a kid, that, the Vulcan and the Phantom were three of my favourites hands down. Scary loud on flypass :-) .
If this was the November run, I was there. We got to sit in XS904 after the run and the crowds had departed, and given a cockpit tour by the old Air Commodore of Binbrook (apologies I am terrible with names!). He had many an anecdote, favourite of mine was how he told us about doing over 20 interception sorties in a single day and only logging 1hr of flying time!
I have enjoyed seeing these flying in Cape Town till it stopped. Great photo ops there in the clip but the blue and white barriers really destroy the backdrop in my humble opinion. Makes it look like an amusement ride.
@@michellemiddleton2569 Great days, the sr71 was supposed to show but never came, plenty of f4 phantoms and saab draken, always remember pedalling there on my racer and out the corner of my eye i could see some massive black object, a B52 in the sky, just got there to see a low pass with full water injection balls to the wall power 😂💪😎 those were the days, you could sit in War birds and walk through Galaxy C5s with the nose and tail gate open, they use to fly over the crowds before all the health and safety came in.
Went to the final lightning display at RAF Binbrook in 1987. They were all over the sky, phenomenal. The weather was atroshious, they had to keep fairly low; photography was a bit of a challenge. These is a vid on here (see Joluqa Malta).
I worked with the lightnings of 19 and 92 sqn at RAF Gutersloh in the 1970's; A really impressive aircraft and when the F-16s were brought to Germany the lightnings would from being parked cold beat them to an intercept at 100,000ft, Not as good at turning dogfights but with pilots that knew what they were doing they would easily take out F4s
Lightning is a interceptor, F16 is more like multirole fighter. They are built for different tasks since different parameters. Lightning was designed to climb fast and high to shoot down incoming bombers.
Great film photography of a well choreographed demo of all that is good about the Lightning aircraft based at Bruntingthorpe. So sad that the aircraft no longer have access to the runway.
I've just spent the last hour reading the terrible news about Bruntingthorpe, which I missed during covid. Incredibly sad, more British heritage destroyed in the name of profit. It almost (but not quite) makes XH558's situation look not so bad (I note fast taxi opportunities were promised by Doncaster airport, which predictably never materialised). What no-one has said is why C. Walton company was sold, I mean no-one held a gun to their heads and forced them to sell.
All that performance came at a cost. Early generation Jet Engines used a lot of fuel. The Lightning's design with a lot of the fuselage taken up with Inlet ducting negated the opportunity for Internal fuel capacity, hence the addition of the 600 gallon Ventral tank the capacity of which was later reduced by the ventral Gun Pack. The design gave the Lightning it's astounding performance and unfortunately it's weak point, lack of fuel capacity.
@@claudebylion9932 OK Claude. So where does the money go if not in building, flying and maintaining the British best? You want that comfortable socialism with NHS and various benefits for the unemployed. As a result your magnificent Lightnings are reduced to mere taxi runs at airshows. Sad indeed.
A few years a preserved Victor on a test run took off for a few hundred yards before the pilot could plant it again. CAA were distinctly unhappy about it. The old girl just wanted to fly one more time.
The co-pilot froze, he didn't close the throttles when told to. Pilot had to take hands off the control column, close throttles, by which time aircraft was airborne but at a silly angle, pilot then had to land it. There's a youtube video where the pilot explains exactly what happened, look for "Last flight of the Victor".
@@michellemiddleton2569 Hi Michelle, yes, I could tell some stories. I also worked on Canberra, Tornado, Concorde, VC10, Typhoon, Boeing 707, and money others. All my working life in the industry, including a spell at Heathrow
When I travelled from Derbyshire to Rutland Water, down the A1, to go fishing, there used to be a Lightening in a scrap yard near North Muskham . Late 80’s early 90’s. Just rotted away and got covered in graffiti. Very sad indeed.
I've been driving up and down that stretch of the A1 several times a year since 1984. I always used to look out for the Lightning and what state it was in. It's been gone completely for quite a few years now.
3:22 Those dudes are standing so close to the runway that the exhaust plume would have singed their facial hair off. I would pay to be in their position, quite happily.
I was at Biggin Hill airshow in late 70s, the first aircraft was EE lightning, came out of the valley at around 700+ miles an hour, almost breaking sound barrier, commentary said pilot would get a ticking off. lol.
@@ProjectFlashlight612 it's amazing that such a small section of wing would have such an impact, you say that but I'm pretty sure the Mig-21 could take of on short run ways, granted it was alot smaller and lighter.
@@michellemiddleton2569 CAA won't allow it because the Lightning was unreliable and quite dangerous in RAF service, so there is no proven safety case. There was a joke about RAF Dogger Bank being a Lightning base, because there were more ditched there in the shallow waters than were at any actual RAF base. Compare this to the Vulcan B2 with Olympus 201 engines which had very good reliability and safety in RAF use so a CAA case was able to be made for that configuration.
@@michellemiddleton2569 Hi, I'm just wondering why they will not allow flights anymore, as well as if there are any airworthy Lightnings left. Searched through Google but it's all a bit outdated thanks!
@@ikodashiigo I'm not sure of the details but I believe the lightning is classed as a complex aircraft and has a chequered history from a safety point of view. The unique design of stacking one engine on top of another probably has something to do with it - fuel leaks from the top engine to the bottom were the cause of many fires! There are currently no airworthy lightnings left, the lastest to fly were based in South Africa at 'Thunder City' but a fatal accident halted that along with the death of the Owner Mike Beachy Head. The Anglo American Lightning Organisation are working towards getting a lightning airworthy at Stennis Airport in America - so they are ones to watch for the future. Hope that helps!
@@michellemiddleton2569 Ah seeing a Lightning airworthy would be a dream come true to me, never had the chance to see them flying! There is also a lightning at RAF Binbrook designated XR724. It's being restored to running condition, although I can't remember the parameters of what that means. Thanks for replying!
@@ikodashiigo No problem. I would love to see one flying too! I presume they will do static engine runs on 724 but it has been over 10 years since that last happened I believe.
