I SS ION

A DM
FREE
fun!
aving
’re h
you
s w hen
e fli e
Tim

i t i o n
E x h ib
W a r 5 4
C old h e M
n a l on t
N a tio n c t3
o f th e
fro m J
. o r g
H om e
d r i ve
s e u m i
n u te s
a fm u .m o b
3 m i w .r e u m
Just ww r f m
a cosford u s afm use u m .org

w. @ r
ww Email:
Cosford, Shifnal,
Shropshire, TF11 8UP
Tel: 01902 376 200
 Lightning F1s of 74 Squadron at RAF
Coltishall, Norfolk, c1960. This unit was
the first to receive the Lightning into
Squadron service in June 1960, with
the aim of integrating the new
supersonic jet into Fighter
Command’s Eastern Sector defence
structure. No.74 was the only unit to
fly the F1 operationally, as the
upgraded F1A followed soon after.
Time Line Images

EE Lightning 3
Contents
6 Introduction – Going supersonic 50 Lightning F6 in detail
8 Dawn of the Lightning 52 ‘Gas guzzlers’
18 ‘Tigers’ 54 Binbrook – the Lightning years
22 A Pilot’s perspective 62 Lightnings live on!
30 Thoroughbred Fighter Station 74 Thunder City
34 Lightning weapons system 78 A Lightning life
40 Lightning F3 cockpit 86 “Mayday, Mayday”
42 The ‘Hole on the Wall’ 90 Scramble!
48 ‘Bee’ – test pilot of the
ultimate British fighter

4 aviationclassics.co.uk
 92 ‘Brass Monkeys, Battle Flight Editor: Jarrod Cotter
and Low-Level’ Production editor:
jcotter@mortons.co.uk
Janet Richardson
Publisher: Dan Savage
Contributors: Ian Black, David Bowers, Martyn
100 ‘Firebirds’ Chorlton, Douglas C Dildy, Juanita
Franzi, Geoffrey Lee, Richard Norris,
Jim Meads, François Prins, Clive
104 Fighting the Lightning Rowley, David Seward, Hugh Trevor,
John Ward, Robert I Winebrenner.

Designers: Justin Blackamore, Charlotte Pearson

108 Eject! Eject! Production manager: Craig Lamb
clamb@mortons.co.uk

110 Air defence generations Divisional advertising manager: Tracey Glover-Brown

tglover-brown@mortons.co.uk

Advertising sales executive: Jamie Moulson

112 Lightning sunset jmoulson@mortons.co.uk
01507 529465

118 Riding the Magic Carpet Magazine sales manager: Paul Deacon
pdeacon@mortons.co.uk
Brand manager: Sarah Downing
sdowning@mortons.co.uk
122 Last of the Lightnings 01507 529549

Operations Director: Dan Savage

Commercial Director: Nigel Hole
Business Development Director: Terry Clark
Managing Director: Brian Hill
Left: Lightning F6 XR728 ‘on the pan’
Editorial address: Aviation Classics
at night. In its last year of RAF service, Mortons Media Group Ltd
this jet became the favoured mount PO Box 99
of Binbrook Station Commander Horncastle
Group Captain John Spencer, Lincs LN9 6JR
Website: www.aviationclassics.co.uk
gaining his name and rank pennant
on the forward fuselage and his Customer services, back issues
initials ‘JS’ on the tail from July 1987. and subscriptions: 01507 529529 (24 hour answerphone)
help@classicmagazines.co.uk
Nowadays it is kept in ground
running condition by the Lightning Archive enquiries: Jane Skayman
Preservation Group at jskayman@mortons.co.uk
01507 529423
Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire.
Matt Jamieson Distribution: COMAG
Tavistock Road, West Drayton,
Middlesex UB7 7QE
Cover image: Lightning F1A XM171 01895 433800
of the RAF’s 56 Squadron ‘Firebirds’
aerobatic team caught in a Printed: William Gibbons and Son,
Wolverhampton
dramatic vertical descent in 1963.
Courtesy Gp Capt David Seward
© 2010 Mortons Media Group Ltd.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system
without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN No 978-1-906167-36-3

Having trouble finding a copy

of this magazine? Why not just
ask your local newsagent to
reserve you a copy

Independent publisher since 1885 Member of the

Periodical Publishers
Association

EE Lightning 5
Former British Aerospace
F6 XP693 highlights the
Lightning’s outstanding
performance. Ian Black

6 aviationclassics.co.uk

Going supersonic
I
t was a balmy autumnal morning at
RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire on
17 October 1984. That was the date of
my passing out parade from basic
recruit training in the Royal Air
Force, and while we were promised the
customary flypast, you weren’t told what
aircraft it would be carried out by. I was
hoping for something ‘tasty’.
After the reviewing officer had arrived
and taken up his position on the dais, we
were ordered to present arms for the
General Salute. As I positioned my rifle and
its shiny bayonet right in front of me, I heard
a great roar and caught sight of two
Lightnings flashing overhead – what a
welcome into the RAF!
And so it would seem to be that, while I
never served on a Lightning unit, all the
times that I came into contact with the superb
jet fighter would be memorable.
My next encounter was after a long shift,
when a search and rescue operation at RAF
St Mawgan in Cornwall had kept us busy
until late as a 42 Squadron Nimrod had been
extensively involved. As I left the operations
building the sun was just setting and there
was a summery golden glow in the sky. I had
noticed the arrival of a Lightning at the base
earlier that day, and its departure fortuitously
coincided with my leaving work. The sight of
its two afterburners glowing as they powered
the jet up into that golden sky is still vivid in
my memory.
Then, in early 1988 while I was part of the
RAF Germany Harrier Force at Gütersloh,
we were paid a visit by four Lightning F6s
from 11 Squadron which were to carry out
Dissimilar Air Combat Training with our
Harrier GR3s. This was quite an occasion, as
it was the last time the jets would visit this
former Lightning base, and their imminent
departure had been much talked about. Two-
by-two the F6s lit the pipes, set off down the
runway, then went vertical for a trademark
Lightning ‘rote’. Even to those who worked
with fast jets on a daily basis and were
consequently almost blasé about being in
such an environment, this was a breathtaking
sight. But with it there was a feeling of
sadness, as yet another era of RAF operations
was coming to a close.
Little could I know at the time that over
20 years later one of the pilots on that
detachment would be writing for me! In fact,
I am fortunate to have been offered the
writings of several former Lightning pilots
for this issue of Aviation Classics, which has
added to the variety of content
tremendously. For example, Sqn Ldr Clive
Rowley highlights the little-known
operations of the F2As in West Germany,
Thunder City’s T5 XS451 and F6 XR773
tuck in close to the camera ship as they
cruise along the coastline of the Indian
Ocean in South Africa. Jörg Adam
Wg Cdr John Ward gives a fascinating
insight into the Lightning’s weapons system,
while Ian Black charts the type’s last year in
RAF service. There is also a rare treat from
Gp Capt David Seward, who tells of the 1963
‘Firebirds’ aerobatic team. For those of us
who enjoy watching the Red Arrows, just
imagine a diamond-nine of Lightnings
carrying out a loop!
What I hope is that the result marks the
type’s 50th anniversary of entering RAF
squadron service in a fitting manner. At the
time of going to press this occasion was
soon to be commemorated by a special open
day at the Lightning Preservation Group’s
Bruntingthorpe home, which was to also
formally open the recently-completed
Q-shed. This now houses the organisation’s
two F6s as a fitting tribute to those who
stood at constant readiness to defend our
country during one of the most tense
periods of history. !
Jarrod Cotter
Editor
EE Lightning 7
WG760 after roll-out.
Time Line Images
 Dawn of the
Lightning
David Bowers highlights the origins,
design and production of the
all-British supersonic interceptor.
F
ollowing on from the remarkable
success of manufacturing the
versatile Canberra, Britain’s first
jet powered bomber, the English
Electric Company was awarded a
contract by the Ministry of Supply on 3 August
1948 to provide a detailed design for a jet
interceptor with the potential for supersonic
flight, an excellent rate of climb and superb
manoeuvrability.
So began the development and production
of one of the most remarkable aircraft of the
post-war years, which continued in RAF
WG760 being rolled out at Warton. North West Heritage Group
service until it was stood down on 30 April
1988 – some 40 years after the original
requirement had been drawn up.
Designated as the P1 prototype under
Experimental Requirement 103, this project
was first conceived by English Electric’s
chief engineer, WEW ‘Teddy’ Petter, until he
left the company in 1950 and was replaced by
FW Page.
Rather than the conventional approach at
the time, the design featured a swept,
notched wing layout and low tailplane. This
change of direction failed to meet with the
Head on of prototype P1A WG760,
highlighting the significant
difference in the intake design
compared to production aircraft.
Time Line Images
Royal Aircraft Establishment’s approval,
which then placed a contract with the Short
company for the SB5, a delta-winged
prototype with a ‘T’-tail designed to show up
shortcomings with English Electric’s new
design. However, this had the unintended
result of validating the swept wing and low
tailplane layout.
English Electric was awarded a contract to
build three P1 prototypes on 1 April 1950, two
of which possessed flight capability and the
third as a structural test-bed airframe. Later
re-designated as the P1A, they were to be
powered by a pair of un-reheated Armstrong
Siddeley Sapphire engines.
After making an initial test flight on 4
August 1954, P1A prototype WG760 broke
the sound barrier reaching Mach 1.01 a week
later on 11 August.
THE MAGIC FIGURE – MACH 2
Development of the P1B took longer to
complete, as it was recognised the
aerodynamics needed refining. English
Electric redesigned the wings with a straight
leading edge, a nose cone containing the
radar was added to the intake, and the
cockpit was raised to improve the pilot’s field
of vision.
The P1B also benefited from a significant
increase in power output over the P1A: the
Sapphire engines were replaced with Rolls-
Royce Avon RA24R Mk.210 engines,
producing 11,250lbs of dry thrust, and
14,350lbs of wet-rated thrust with the
afterburners in action. Its maiden flight was
carried out on 4 April 1957. "
EE Lightning 9
The P1A sweeps past
the camera, highlighting
its wing design.
Time Line Images

On 25 November 1958, P1B XA847 – now

officially known as the Lightning – cracked
the magic figure of Mach 2 in level flight!
The P1B represented a significant
advance in development of the Lightning as
these prototypes were a lot closer in design
and specification to the 20 pre-production
fighter aircraft.
Indicating further confidence in the
aircraft’s potential, an order for a pair of two-
seater T4 trainers was received on 15 May
1956; followed by an order for 50 production
F1 versions in November of that year.
Securing these orders turned out to be
fortuitous in view of a Defence White Paper
issued on 4 April 1957, which ill-advisedly
predicted the future of air defence rested with
missiles rather than manned fighter aircraft!

DESIGN COMPLICATIONS
A problem that beset the engineers from the
development of the first prototypes to the final
production aircraft was the decision to install
the engines in staggered formation, with the
upper engine being mounted above and
behind the lower one. The aim of this was to
minimise the aircraft’s frontal aspect thereby “…P1A prototype WG760
reducing drag.
This proved to be most successful as broke the sound barrier
regards performance, although the complex reaching Mach 1.01 a week
engine layout took up much of the available
space in the fuselage; resulting in many later on 11 August.”
complications for the engineers during the
construction of the prototypes and
subsequent production aircraft. As space
was so restricted in the fuselage, it resulted
in fuel having to be stored in the wings,
which was in turn restricted by the swept
wing design which presented a much
smaller surface area than a delta wing would
have provided for this purpose (the addition
of a ventral fuel tank would later help the
fuel storage issue).
This was a tricky issue that English
Electric answered by installing a main fuel
tank in three sections that took up most of
the inner main section of the wings; with
additional fuel storage provided along the
leading edges. Underlining the need to
exploit any available location for storing
fuel, a small tank was also installed in the
wing flaps!
The main landing gear had to retract into
the thinner outer sections of the wings, as the
length of the leg precluded an inwards
retraction. " Lightning front fuselage structures under construction. North West Heritage Group

10 aviationclassics.co.uk
P1A in test frame at Warton. North West Heritage Group

The P1B performed well, paving the way for the Lightning to go into production. Time Line Images

EE Lightning 11
P1B XA847 breaks from the
camera ship. This jet
exceeded the speed of
sound on its first flight on
4 April 1957, then on 25
November 1958 became the
first British aircraft to reach
Mach 2. Time Line Images

Even though the aircraft demonstrated an

impressive rate of climb, adding a Napier
Double Scorpion rocket motor was
considered, however, this proposal was
rejected later on in 1958, by which time the
P1B had demonstrated its excellent potential
in its intended role as a supersonic interceptor.
English Electric completed the batch of 20
pre-production aircraft by September 1959,
which were fitted with a larger fin in order to
provide better longditudinal stability because
of the pair of Firestreak missiles mounted to
the front of the fuselage. In readiness for RAF
pilot training, the first T4 two-seater was test
flown on 6 May 1959.

Lightning assembly line. North West Heritage Group
FIGHTERS ARRIVE
The first F1 production aircraft powered by
Avon 210R engines made its first test flight
on 29 October 1959. Deliveries of F1s to the
Air Fighting Development Squadron at RAF
Coltishall in Norfolk commenced in
December 1959, followed by 74 Squadron on
29 June 1960.

12 aviationclassics.co.uk
 Lightning centre and rear fuselage assembly out of its jig. North West Heritage Group

“…the F53 was used with distinction to suppress a

border dispute with South Yemen in 1969 – the only occasion
when Lightnings actually went to war!”

No.74 was the only unit to fly the F1

operationally, as the upgraded F1A followed
soon after. F1As could be fitted with an in- Front fuselage structure under construction in a turn-over rig. North West Heritage Group
flight refuelling probe to increase endurance
and had UHF rather than VHF radios.
English Electric then had a new task on
their hands developing the Lightning F2,
which first flew on 11 July 1961. Deliveries to
the RAF commenced in 1962. The F2
benefited from more advanced electronics
and rather than the four-stage afterburner,
the new system allowed fully variable control
of the power output.
Further development resulted in the F2A,
which benefited from aerodynamic
improvements, with an increase in the size of
the tail fin and a cambered leading edge on
the wings as featured on the F6. The first F2s
modified to F2A standard arrived in
September 1966.
Development of the F3 allowed more
powerful Avon 301R engines to be installed,
and after making its first test flight on 16 June XG310 was one of the 20 pre-production Lightnings, though is seen here after modification
1962, the first aircraft were delivered to the " to F3 standard. Time Line Images

EE Lightning 13
LIGHTNING TIME LINE
3 August 1948
English Electric awarded
contract to design a
supersonic jet interceptor

1 April 1950
contract received to build
three P1 prototypes

4 August 1954
first P1A test flight

11 August 1954
P1A achieves Mach 1

15 May 1956
order received for a pair
of T4 trainers

November 1956
order received for 50
production aircraft

25 November 1958
P1B achieves Mach 2
The first Lightning F2 was XN723, seen here on a test flight out of Warton in mid-1961. The F2 was the first
6 May 1959 variant powered by Avon 200-series engines with fully variable afterburning. Time Line Images
First test flight of T4
twin-seat trainer “On 25 November 1958, P1B XA847 – now officially known as the
September 1959 Lightning – cracked the magic figure of Mach 2 in level flight!”
First batch of 20 pre-
production aircraft
completed XP693 was the first
production Lightning F3.
29 October 1959 Time Line Images
First test flight of F1
production aircraft

23 December 1959
Delivery or first F1 to AFDS

29 June 1960
Delivery of first F1s to 74
Squadron, RAF Coltishall,
commence

11 July 1961
First test flight of Lightning F2

16 June 1962
First test flight of Lightning F3

16 June 1965
First test flight of Lightning F6

December 1967
First deliveries of F53 to Royal
Saudi Air Force

30 April 1988
Lighting finally withdrawn
from RAF service (May &
June currency flying only, all
gone by 30 June

December 1992
BAe retires development
Lightning chase aircraft

January 1993
Last military flight, XS904
Warton to Bruntingthorpe

14 aviationclassics.co.uk
RAF in April 1964. This gave the green light
for RAF pilots to crack Mach 2 for the first
time whilst in regular service use.
The side-by-side seating with dual controls
T4 prototype trainer was based on the F1A. In
support of the F3 training requirements,
English Electric then developed the T4
trainer based on the F3, two of which were
later converted to T5 specification.
The most advanced version of this
superlative aircraft was the F6. This started
out as a further development of the F3 to F3A
specification, with an enlarged ventral fuel
tank which improved the aircraft’s flight
range. XP697 was the first to be converted to
F3A standard, which was re-designated as the
F6 – the final production variant. F6s first
entered RAF service with 5 Squadron in
December 1965.
The F6 featured the same uprated Avon Lightnings well on their way to completion. North West Heritage Group
engines introduced with the F3, producing
13,220lbs of thrust, increased to 16,360lbs on EXPORT LIGHTNINGS pylons for bombs or unguided rocket pods
full afterburner. This gave the aircraft a top By December 1967, anyone looking over the installed for ground attack operations in
speed of Mach 2.27; with a staggering rate of wire fence at the BAC factory in Warton near addition to the standard interceptor fit. It was
climb of 50,000ft per minute! Also equally Preston may have been surprised to see also bought by the Kuwaiti Air Force.
impressive bearing this aircraft’s defensive Lightnings in the colours of the Royal Saudi The F53 was used with distinction by
role in mind, flight times could now reach a Air Force, as four ex-RAF F2s and two T4s Saudi Arabia to suppress a border dispute
full two hours in the ferry configuration or were slightly modified to what then became with South Yemen in 1969 – the only occasion
one hour in combat configuration due to the known as the F52 and T54. Further orders when Lightnings actually went to war. An
additional fuel capacity and more efficient from the kingdom were received for the F53 armoured column was halted using SNEB
wing design. based on the F6, which differed in having unguided rockets which Roland Beamont "
ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM COSFORD
The RAF Museum Cosford in Shropshire, West Midlands, has over 70
aircraft displayed in themed areas, including the Research &
Development collection. On display within there is one of the P1A
prototypes, WG760 (photo Chris Pearson).
Also on site is the National Cold War Exhibition, housed in an
incredible piece of modern architecture which holds 19 aircraft
exhibits which played their part in preventing a potential nuclear
holocaust. Of particular note, this is the only place in the world
where people can see an example of all three of the RAF’s
V-bombers in one place – the Vickers Valiant, Handley Page Victor
and Avro Vulcan. Dramatically mounted Lightning XG337 is also
displayed within the structure (photo David Bowers).
For more information and directions and opening times, visit
www.rafmuseum.org

1. 2.

said were very effective. One Lightning was Protoype Lightning T4

shot down by ground fire. two-seat trainer XL628
To support the Saudi and Kuwaiti training carried out its first
requirements, English Electric also supplied flight on 6 May 1959.
the T55 trainer based on the T5. It very Via François Prins
usefully featured the larger F6 ventral tank.
In December 1992, long after the last
production Lightning was delivered to the
Saudis in June 1972, BAe retired their
chase and test aircraft, so severing their
links with a superb flying machine that had
ser ved the company well. A total of 277
were built as single-seat fighters, with an
additional 52 trainers.
Success of a sort, although to this day
many maintain that through government
indifference, and maybe the lack of a level
playing field when it came to selling these
aircraft abroad, the Lightning could have
achieved world-wide sales with the right sort
of backing. !

Royal Saudi Air Force Lightning

T55s and F53s lined up at
Warton on 12 February 1968.
North West Heritage Group

16 aviationclassics.co.uk
Original Lightning
advertisement, c1960.
English Electric
‘Tigers’
Marking the Lightning’s 50th anniversar y of
entering RAF ser vice, we focus on the first unit to
receive the type for operational flying, 74 Squadron.

18 aviationclassics.co.uk

N
o.74 Squadron was formed
at London Colney on
1 July 1917 and was
initially a training unit
equipped with Avro
504Ks, before commencing work-up as a
fighter squadron flying the Royal Aircraft
Factory SE.5a. The squadron deployed to
France in March 1918, beginning
operations in April flying fighter patrols
for the last eight months of World War
One. It returned to the UK in February
1919 and disbanded on 3 July 1920.
The squadron was reformed on
3 September 1935 when detachments
from various units en route to Malta
aboard the transport ship Neuralia were
combined. However, the numberplate
wasn’t officially allocated until some
months later and, equipped with Hawker
Demons, was known as ‘Demon Flights’
for a short period.
In July 1936, the unit returned to the
UK as part of the newly formed Fighter
Command. No.74 received Gloster
Gauntlets the following April and in
February 1939 began its conversion to
Supermarine Spitfire Is.
During the early months of World War
Two, 74 Squadron carried out defensive
patrols over southern England. In May
1940, its Spitfires took part in the air
battles over Dunkirk as the British forces
evacuated from France. No.74 then fought
in the Battle of Britain, earning it the
RAF’s most coveted Battle Honour. The
action took a heavy toll on the squadron’s
pilots and aircraft and it was sent north to
‘rest’ in August, returning south back at
full strength two months later.
In January 1941, it began carrying out
fighter sweeps over France, before
resuming the air defence role and
moving to Wales then Northern Ireland.
In April 1942, the unit embarked to Egypt
where it received Hawker Hurricanes by
year’s end. Later equipped with Spitfire
Vs and IXs, it returned to the UK in "
Nine-ship of F1s of 74
Squadron, the ‘Tigers’,
photographed in
January 1962.
North West
Heritage Group
No.74 SQUADRON
Badge: A tiger’s face, approved by HM
King George VI in February 1937 and
developed from an unofficial version
used during World War One
Motto: I fear no man
Battle Honours: Western Front 1918*,
France and Low Countries 1940*,
Dunkirk*, Battle of Britain 1940*, Fortress
Europe 1940-1941 and 1944*, Home
Defence 1940-1941, Mediterranean
1943*, Walcheren, Normandy 1944*,
France and Germany 1944-1945*,
Rhine (*Honours marked with asterisk
are emblazoned on the Squadron
Standard, now laid up in the Rotunda
at RAF Cranwell)
No.74 Squadron began to receive F3s from
April 1964. Here two F3s are seen over St
Andrews in Scotland on 29 September 1964,
as the unit had moved to RAF Leuchars in
February of that year shortly before taking
the new variant on strength.
www.lightningpilots.com

April 1944, just in time to take part in the

D-Day operations during early June that
year. With its aircraft flying fighter-bomber
sorties, No.74 supported the Allied advances
through Europe.
Soon after war’s end, it returned to the UK
to become one of the RAF’s early jet
squadrons when it received Gloster Meteor
F3s in June 1945. Hawker Hunter F4s arrived
in March 1957 followed by the F6 that
November. In June 1959, the squadron moved
to Coltishall, Norfolk, where it would receive
the RAF’s latest jet fighter a year later.
GOING SUPERSONIC
Under the command of Sqn Ldr John Howe,
74 Squadron became the RAF’s first unit to fly
the Mach 2 fighter operationally when it
received Lightning F1s from June 1960. It was
the only operational unit to fly the Mk.1, as
the improved F1A was soon made available.
When Lightnings first arrived on strength, the
colour scheme consisted of an overall natural
metal finish with ‘tiger stripe’ bars either side
of the nose roundel and the unit’s tiger face
badge on a white disc on the tail.
In 1961, the squadron took on the
additional role of an official RAF aerobatic
team, appropriately called the ‘Tigers’.
Displays were flown at Farnborough and
No.74 Squadron was the only air defence unit in the Far East, but was disbanded in September
1971 and its Lightnings were transferred to 56 Squadron at Akrotiri, Cyprus. This photo was taken
over Singapore in 1971, shortly before the unit’s disbandment. Via Ken Williams
Paris – and at the former 1961 SBAC air 1965, the unit reverted to the bare-metal
show, the ‘Tigers’ performed an impressive finish its F1As had worn. F6s had begun to
nine-ship Lightning roll. The following year, arrive from September 1966, and it was with
the squadron became Fighter Command’s this variant that the squadron embarked to
lead aerobatic team, though its place was Tengah, Singapore, in June 1967, to become a
taken by 56 Squadron ‘Firebirds’ in 1963. component of the Far East Air Force. After 74
No.74 moved north to RAF Leuchars, Fife, had deployed overseas, it reinstated black
Scotland, in March 1964. The Lightning F3 tails on its Lightnings.
came on strength that April. During its stay at The squadron was once again disbanded
Leuchars, 74 Squadron participated in the on 25 August 1971. Its Lightnings were
first Tiger Meet, a gathering of NATO units flown to Cyprus to be taken on the strength
with a tiger for their badge which became of 56 Squadron.
well known in the military aviation world. No.74 was reformed at RAF Wattisham,
When the colourful markings became the Suffolk, in October 1984 with the McDonnell
norm for Lightning squadrons, 74 applied Douglas F-4J(UK) Phantom. This variant was
black tails and fuselage spines to its jets. later replaced by Phantom FGR2s, with which
When Fighter Command put an end to this in the squadron was disbanded again in October

Lightning F6s of 74
Squadron peel away in
echelon. No.74 received its
first F6s in September 1966.
Via Geoff Parselle

Full afterburners are lit on Lightning F1 XM145 of 74 Squadron during a ground-run test at
Coltishall in 1960. Note that the jet does not have a ventral fuel tank, giving this early example
of the fighter a flight time of only around 40 minutes. Time Line Images

20 aviationclassics.co.uk
Sqn Ldr John Howe and pilots at RAF
Coltishall in 1960 looking delighted
to be the first RAF aircrew to fly the
Lightning in service after its arrival
that year. Time Line Images
1992 as the last RAF unit to fly Phantoms.
However, it was re-formed just a few days
later at RAF Valley in Wales as a training unit
flying the BAe Hawk T1, until being
disbanded yet again in September 2000.
Sadly, this is likely to have been the last
incarnation of this proud unit, as following a
parade to lay up the Squadron Standard, it
was announced that No.74 would not be re-
formed as one of the future Eurofighter
Typhoon squadrons. How nice Typhoons
would have looked at RAF Coningsby in
Lincolnshire, wearing the famous tiger badge
on their tails along with black and yellow
‘tiger stripe’ bars on the fuselage sides. With
further defence cuts imminent, it seems
unlikely that this unit, which fought so hard
in the skies over southern England in the
summer of 1940, will appear again – leaving
its Standard with the Battle of Britain
emblazoned on it laid up in the Rotunda at
RAF Cranwell as the Service’s last reminder
of the fighter squadron which brought the
Lightning into service. !
‘AIRSPACE’
Imperial War Museum Duxford’s newest
exhibition development is ‘AirSpace’,
which highlights how British and
Commonwealth aviation has played a
major role in the field of aircraft
development. Housed in a state-of-the-
art complex, the main aircraft hall
contains over 30 relevant historic
aircraft, including military and civil
types as varied as Royal Aircraft Factory
RE.8 F3556 and Concorde G-AXDN. One
of the RAF jet types displayed is
Lightning F1 XM135 in 74 Squadron
markings. Of particular note, this jet was
the first F1 to be taken on strength at
RAF Coltishall in May 1960,
subsequently going on to the ‘Tigers’.
EE Lightning 21
 Lightning F1 XM147
caught on a
dramatic rotation in
damp conditions.
Via author
A Pilot’s perspective Wg Cdr John Ward AFC RAF Ret’d, who flew ever y RAF variant of the
Lightning, describes some of his experiences.
B
y the time these words are
read, it is likely that the British
Defence Budget will be
undergoing some of the most
Draconian and damaging cuts
ever, likely to decimate the Nation’s defence
capabilities. A very similar situation arose
more than half a century ago, when major
defence cuts were also ruled necessary
because of a serious budget deficit.
The 1957 Defence Review – the infamous
Duncan Sandys review – decimated both
Britain’s Armed Forces and large parts of our
aerospace industry. Could it be that there are
some present-day lessons for us there? At
that time, the British aerospace industry led
the world in ground-breaking technological
ideas and achievements. But there was a
budget deficit and Sandys was Macmillan’s
hatchet man. Supported by ill-informed
advisors, Sandys managed to inflict damage
from which this nation has never recovered.
His one positive act was to allow continued
development of the iconic English Electric
Lightning, on the basis that “the P1 project
had reached such an advanced stage that it
22 aviationclassics.co.uk
would be allowed to continue as a stop-gap
interceptor until missiles took over
completely by the mid-sixties”.
Sadly, that ‘stop-gap’ label was to plague
this magnificent aircraft throughout its life. In
this look back at my experiences in flying the
Lightning, I hope to show how well it served
this nation’s front line for 28 years, despite
Treasury antagonism, and interference and
incompetence on the part of the various
ministries’ officials.
Let’s briefly remind ourselves of the
Lightning’s origins. A 1948 contract for a
supersonic research aircraft led, the
following year, to English Electric’s design
team, under WEW Petter submitting their
proposal to meet Ministry Specification
F23/49, which itself was based on an Air Staff
Operational Requirement (OR 268) for a
single-seat fighter to intercept high-speed,
high-altitude bombers.
Despite the company’s confidence in the
work that went into their concept and
design, even in those early days there was
interference from the Ministry of Supply
and from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at
Farnborough. The RAE argued, for
example, that a 60-degree wing sweep was
too much and 45 degrees would be better,
and they were also against a low-set
tailplane. Early in 1950 Petter became so
exasperated by the incompetent
interference that he resigned. The Ministry
went on to waste huge sums by ordering the
construction of Short’s SB5 experimental
research aircraft in an attempt to prove
Petter wrong. In fact, it proved him right.
So two P1 prototypes were built, the first
one made its maiden flight on 4 August 1954
and went supersonic on its third flight a few
days later. The second P1 flew for the first
time in July 1955. Back in 1952, the company
had been notified of the intention to order
three more “fighter prototypes”, so they
decided to label the original two as P1As and
then the following three became P1Bs. They
were very different in appearance because
the company intended from the start to build
an integrated weapons system.
At the same time as the Air Ministry was
evolving a more sophisticated F23 Specification
for an urgently needed, all-weather, missile "
 Lightning pilot
John Ward in 1974.
Via author
“…until that point, the
Lightning force had been
restricted to experienced
pilots only – they had to
have at least one thousand
hours first pilot time.”
armed fighter, the politicians and Treasury
civil servants were clinging to the assumption
that it was only a stop-gap; approval and
funding for every step were invariably
protracted and delayed.
However, Air Ministry pressure, in
concert with the Ministry of Supply,
eventually led, in 1954, to Treasury
agreement for 20 pre-production, or
Development Batch, aircraft. This was
probably in imitation of US practice at the
time, but was not thought through logically
and served only to complicate and delay the
programme enormously – and consume yet
more money. On 11 April 1958 Sandys was
forced to concede: “…we have no option but
to provide Fighter Command with the P1”.
LIGHTNING STRIKES
Just a few months later it was named
Lightning. And so it was that the P1B was
developed into the F1, and eventually entered
service with 74 Squadron at Coltishall,
Norfolk, in 1960.
No.74 Squadron was to be the only
squadron to operate the F1. That variant was
fitted with two VHF radios and was armed
with either four 30mm guns or two upper
guns and two Firestreak missiles. But in
reality the RAF was not ready for the aircraft
– there was a desperate shortage of support
equipment and spares – and of Firestreak
missiles too!
Wattisham in Suffolk was next, with both
56 and 111 Squadrons receiving F1As in
1961. The F1As had UHF radios, which were
a great operational improvement, the two
small whip aerials on the spine – for UHF
homing – and the external cable ducts were
the only visual external differences. Next
Formation of 56 Squadron F3s with red and white chequer-board tail fins before the Lightning
force lost its colourful squadron identities. www.lightningpilots.com
came Leconfield, Yorkshire, with both 19 and
92 Squadrons receiving their F2s in 1963; the
most significant improvement here was the
incorporation of a standby DC generator –
identified by the small cooling air intake
scoop on the spine.
And Leconfield was where I first met this
mighty beast. I was training on the Jet
Provost at Church Fenton and during the
spring of 1963, on a visit to Leconfield, I had
my very first sight of a Lightning as one
taxied past the hangar – huge, powerful and
awesome even to a very inexperienced
teenager. Later in 1963, towards the end of
Advanced Flying Training on the Vampire at
Swinderby, Lincolnshire, I was both
dumbfounded and delighted to be told I had
been selected for the Lightning force.
‘FIRST FIRST TOURISTS’
You have to appreciate that, until that point,
the Lightning force had been restricted to
experienced pilots only – they had to have at
least one thousand hours first pilot time. The
RAF realised that it couldn’t continue to build
the force that way, so three of us, Doug
Aylward, Jerry Bowler and myself, became
the ‘First First Tourists’ – guinea pigs, to see
if it was possible to take students straight
from flying training onto the Lightning.
The three of us went first to Chivenor,
Devon, for three months to get some swept
wing experience by flying the Hunter. Then,
in May of 1964, on to the Lightning
Operational Conversion Unit, which had
moved from Middleton St George to
Coltishall a month earlier.
My instructor at Coltishall was Jim Jewell,
who had spent his previous tour as a member
of 56 Squadron’s 1963 ‘Firebird’ formation
display team. After the required checks in the
two-seat T4, he had the courage to send me
off solo.
My first solo in a Mk.1 Lightning was
quite a step. Today the latest USAF fighter –
the F-22 Raptor – is described as having the
ability to ‘super-cruise’ – fly supersonic in dry
or cold power – without reheat. In the Mk.1
Lightning the two VHF radio control boxes
were on the left side of the cockpit, down
below the port console, and the channel
selectors were not easy to see.

No.56 Squadron
Lightning over
Akrotiri, October
1969. Via author

24 aviationclassics.co.uk

On that first solo out of Coltishall,
climbing in cold power on a north-easterly
heading over North Walsham, I was looking
down trying to change from Colt Approach to
Neatishead control when, from the corner of
my eye, I caught a brief ‘hiccup’ in the way
that the altimeter was winding up. Looking
closely, I quickly realised that despite having
the nose high and climbing rapidly, we were
supersonic and I had to pull the nose up even
more to get back to the required Mach 0.9
climb speed. I never did hear what the folks
of North Walsham thought.
After completing the course, I was posted
to 56 Squadron at Wattisham, equipped with
the F1A. I flew the F1A from Wattisham and
from Akrotiri, Cyprus, for the next eight
months, during which time I learned a small
lesson about the aircraft. Whilst intercepting
a Canberra ‘target’ up around 39,000ft over
the North Sea, I manoeuvred a little too hard
with too little speed and the resultant ‘flick’
left me with the long nose pitot boom bent up
around the left side of the radar nose cone.
Now the F1 and F1A, unlike all the later
models, did not have a standby airspeed
Bent pitot tube on the Lightning F1A flown by
John Ward while intercepting a practice target
at 39,000ft over the North Sea. Via author
instrument or secondary pitot system. So
having got the aircraft back under control
and approximately level, I found I had no
airspeed indication and the altimeters were
gyrating up and down. All I could do was to
set the throttles at cruise power and then
began trying to figure out how on earth I
was going to get back to Wattisham through
all the cloud underneath me. But my luck
was in because just a few minutes later,
Chris Rowe, another 56 Squadron pilot,
checked in on the frequency; I called him to
join up on me and he led me back for a
formation landing.
SURVIVAL SCRAMBLES
It was the height of the Cold War and much
of the daily squadron training was directed
towards defence against nuclear war. We
regularly practised Survival Scrambles –
every available jet getting airborne very
quickly to survive the nuclear missile strike –
and then landing to refuel and scramble again
to intercept those manned nuclear bombers.
On the assumption that ground radar
stations could well have been destroyed, we
would all fly to pre-planned ‘Lanes’ out over
the North Sea and hope to intercept the
bombers coming the other way. It would have
been interesting out there because, although
we didn’t know it at the time, dozens of our
own nuclear-armed V-bombers would also
have been heading out right through the
middle of our Survival Scramble.
In the spring of 1965, 56 Squadron
converted to the Mk.3 Lightning. Sqn Ldr
Hank Martin, the ‘Boss’ at the time, asked his
brother to suggest some paint schemes and
the result was the red and white chequer-
board tail fin. Unfortunately, the ‘Airships’ at
Fighter Command and the MoD did not
approve – the lack of a red/white/blue fin
flash probably didn’t help. The consequence
was that the Lightning force lost its colourful
squadron identities and a more sombre
standardised scheme was ordered.
The Mk.3 brought a number of
improvements – more powerful engines,
more versatile fuel system, AI23B radar, Red
Pair of 56 Squadron F3s refuelling
from 57 Squadron Victor K1s in
October 1969. Author
Top missile capability and a higher Mach
limit compared with the Mk.1A, which was
limited to M1.7. One of the early
familiarisation conversion sorties I well recall
was to take the jet to Mach 2 out over the
North Sea.
FIGHTER WITHOUT GUNS
Sadly, when the Mk.3 was ordered, the
Sandys mentality still prevailed in the MoD
and in the then new Ministry of Aviation. Gun
armament was deleted, so we had just two
infra-red missiles – Firestreaks and then Red
Tops. The absence of gun armament meant
that, in reality, the Lightning was no longer
an ‘all-weather’ fighter, since infra-red
missiles cannot be used in cloud. It was a
retro-grade step, since the earlier marks –
F1/1A and F2 – had theoretical gun
capabilities in cloud with the AIRPASS
radar/PAS system.
The two squadrons at Wattisham were
responsible for the peacetime Southern UK
QRA and, not long after we had re-equipped
with the F3, I was sitting on alert with Pete
Clee in the Wattisham QRA facility one
Saturday morning. The duty controller at
Bawdsey (the Air Defence Radar site near
Felixstowe) called on the direct-line and
explained that the Territorial Army
parachutists were training at Weston-on-the-
Green, jumping from a balloon basket. But
the balloon had escaped and was drifting
eastwards across the Home Counties with its
underslung basket and trailing its full length
of cable. Because it was a hazard, would we
go and shoot it down? Pete had to explain to
an agitated controller that we no longer had
any guns – but, he said, he was happy to go
and frighten it!
The combat tactics used by the
Lightning force at the time were based on
the earlier combined gun and missile
armament and I felt that our tactics needed
to be revised to reflect the absence of guns.
So strongly did I feel about it that I wrote a
short paper and submitted it to the Boss.
His response was to send me back to
Coltishall to attend the Interceptor "
EE Lightning 25
Weapons Instructor course. While I was
there, 56 Squadron was posted to Cyprus to
take over from the Javelins of 29 Squadron,
so after completing the course, in the spring
of 1967, I started a second tour on 56 as the
squadron weapons instructor.
BATTLE FLIGHT
The task of 56 Squadron in Cyprus, defence of
the Sovereign bases and the CENTO assets,
required us to keep two fully armed aircraft at
10 minutes readiness – the Battle Flight. We
scrambled whenever the radars detected
unidentified aircraft that could approach the
island. And that summer of 1967 was busy
because of all the activity linked to the ’67
Arab/Israeli war and its aftermath.
An example was the massive urgent airlift
mounted by the Soviet Union to replace
Egypt’s destroyed military equipment and
weapons. For several days a steady stream of
An12 freighters flew directly over the Island,
straight from Soviet bases into Egypt. A
Lightning escort served to remind them
whose patch they were in.
The simmering EOKA-led tension of the
1950s between Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-
Cypriot communities was re-ignited in 1967
when the Junta seized power in Greece.
Turkey became even more vociferous, and
both air forces were sending their fighter jets
over the island, with the aim of showing
support for their respective communities
and in order to gather intelligence. The
Lightning really proved what a
magnificent quick-reaction interceptor
it was over that period – scrambles
were very frequent. My logbook for
November 1967 records that on one
of my scrambles I intercepted two
F-84s and four RF-84s, one of them
directly over Nicosia.
It was a hectic month, with fears that
Turkey would invade the island. Three
Shackleton patrol aircraft were sent to
Akrotiri; every night, all night long, one of
them would patrol the Straits between Cyprus
26 aviationclassics.co.uk
and Turkey, watching for signs of landing craft
or invasion activity. The positive British
response at that time contrasted so vividly
with the disgraceful head-in-sand attitude of
the Wilson Government in 1974, when the
same threat was allowed to become a full-scale
invasion despite the Geneva agreements.
BADGER INTERCEPTION
One particular scramble is vivid in my
memory. Throughout those years in
Cyprus, there was continual air activity by
the major powers, particularly the US Sixth
Fleet and the Soviet Naval Air Force. Soviet
intelligence-gathering Tu16 ELINT
(Electronic Intelligance) Badgers were very
regular customers, sometimes in Soviet
markings and other times carrying UAR
serials. We aimed to get close to them to
photograph their various sensors. On the
A pilot climbs the
ladder of his F3 as a
member of his ground
crew passes him his
flying helmet. Via
Geoff Parselle
Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday of 26 May
1969 I was sitting Battle Flight in the
squadron Ops Room with Roy Somerville
when he was called to cockpit readiness and
then scrambled for a contact off to the
south-west.
When we had first started to react to
ELINT activity we had been puzzled by the
way that the targets always seemed to know
we were coming and would turn away before
we got to them, perhaps trying to lure us out
beyond our limiting radius. In case they were
listening to the various control frequencies,
we’d adopted a procedure allowing total radio
silence until the fighter was within radar
range of the target.
So it was as Roy scrambled and I sat beside
the telebrief speaker in the Ops Room listening
as the ConEx passed me comments about the
progress of Roy’s intercept. Suddenly, he
shouted down the line “John, there’s a second
one, SCRAMBLE!” Two Tu16 Badgers had
been flying a mirror formation, with the low
one very low indeed keeping directly below the
high one. As Roy had closed with his high
target, it had turned away and exposed the
second underneath. I raced to the jet, hit the
starters and roared off down the runway.
As soon as I switched to the GCI frequency
I could tell this was different; he was giving
me rapid-fire instructions about the second
target and as I raced away south-west I saw
him very quickly – it could not have been
more than just a few minutes after take-off
– and he was heading straight for
Akrotiri. Surely he wasn’t intending to
attack the base!
 I hauled in alongside him, gave the
controller his ident and then realised we were
getting very close to the airbase; I could see
the RAF hospital on Akrotiri’s Cape Zevgari
directly ahead. He turned slightly and with
me sitting 10 feet off his left wing we flew
eastwards just a mile or two south of the
base. At that point came a loud and clear
instruction over the radio: “John, you are to
order him to land”.
He was racing along, just a few feet above Lightning T4 and F3s of 56 Squadron on the flight line at Akrotiri, June 1969. Author
the water, and for the next 15 minutes or so I
diced with him, giving all the recognised
international signals to convey my
requirement, even trying to force him by
turning right in front of him. But he didn’t
budge. If only I had carried guns – a short
warning burst alongside him would have
made all the difference. Eventually, fuel
forced me to pull off; I was full of adrenaline
but I also felt very let down, being asked to
do something but with only half the tools
required for the job.
That incident generated a lot of activity
at Minister of State and Vice-Chief level.
Back in 1964, before the F3 had even
entered service, there had been a
realisation that the absence of a gun was a
bad decision and Warton had done a lot of
design work on the gun installation. Close formation of 74 Squadron Lightnings with overwing tanks. www.lightningpilots.com
Consequently, it gave me considerable
pleasure, some 18 months after that Singapore, with four of the jets being left Try to imagine this: with just two fighters
scramble, while serving on 5 Squadron at there for 74 Squadron and four of their you could each tuck in under the Victor wing,
Binbrook, Lincs, to take the very first ‘tired’ jets coming back to UK with us on the with the pod to focus on, but with three, the
modified F6 in squadron service on its gun return journey. only place for the third Lightning was to try to
proving flight – XR726 on 15 October 1970. It required the fitting of the overwing hang on to the tanker’s wingtip. When it was
It was fitted with the modified hatch tank ferry tanks, a lot of shake-down flying and his turn to take fuel, one of the other two had
with two 30mm Aden cannon. The trade-off sorting minor snags, but we left Binbrook as to move aside and only those who have tried
was 75 gallons of fuel – Lightning pilots planned on a dark and dirty December night, night formation, in thick turbulent cloud, on a
everywhere felt that was well worth it. around 03:30 in the morning. That was heaving, indistinct, frequently disappearing
because the first stop was to be RAF Masirah, Victor wingtip, with the lights making
DEPLOYMENT CAPABILITY on the edge of the Indian Ocean, and the shadows that are trying to convince your
Initial plans for the Lightning force had take-off time was dictated by the need to land body that the tanker is doing slow-rolls, can
envisaged two squadrons based in the Far there in daylight, in the late afternoon. possibly know how demanding that is. But
East at Tengah in Singapore, but Treasury There was an elaborate Victor tanker plan then comes the really tricky bit – this tanker
pressure had cut that to one on the basis which had tankers pre-positioned along the is now empty and you all have to move across
that, if necessary, a second squadron could route – Malta, Cyprus, Bahrain and then onto the next one, who is a mile ahead, a
be rapidly deployed from the UK. A few Masirah and Gan. It required everybody to thousand feet above and still in cloud.
weeks after I arrived at Binbrook I found be there in five days, so the first two days had
myself heavily into the work-up for what was waves of three Lightnings with their tankers REFUELLING INCIDENTS
to be the exercising of this rapid deployment – a piece of cake in good clear conditions but The full story of the amazing things that
capability – Exercise Ultimacy. No.5 at night, in thick, turbulent cloud, it’s a happened on that deployment – there and
Squadron was to deploy ten aircraft to completely different ball-game. back – would fill a book. But having

Formation of 111
Squadron F1As.
Via Geoff Parselle

EE Lightning 27
 Mixed formation for the
mentioned the ferry tanks, some incidents flypast of Winston
are worth noting. No.74 Squadron had left it Churchill’s funeral on
very late in the day before they got around to 30 January 1965. From
fitting the tanks to their ‘tired’ jets, so there front to rear:
was very little time for shake-down proving 19 Squadron F2 XN779,
flights and we had a lot of problems on the 56 Squadron F3 XP746,
way home. 111 Squadron F3 XP739,
I led one of the three-ship formations on 92 Squadron F2 XN783.
the return out of Tengah. We joined up with Via author
three Victor tankers near the top-of-climb and
turned west to cross Sumatra on the 2,200
mile leg to Gan and onwards to Masirah. We
each took a couple of top-ups off one tanker,
then watched as he gave his remaining fuel to
one of the others and turned around to
return to Tengah. But soon after joining with
the tankers we had noticed that my number
two had developed a very slight fuel leak
from the base of the port overwing tank
pylon. Unless the tanks and pylon seals were
fitted very precisely, the cold soak at altitude
could lead to seals failing. Akrotiri, but on the flight out of Cyprus, The problem was strong crosswinds and
By the time we all took another refuel off bound for England, it all went sour. wet runways; the full overwings complicated
the full tanker, the very slight leak had About an hour out, half way down the Med, the problem because they put the jet close to
become most obvious and very alarming. At I no longer had to worry about that overwing max landing weight. So now it was time to
first the Victor navs, monitoring the problem, trick because, having filled the overwings they dump. I selected the overwing dump switch
had said there was enough fuel capacity in then refused to feed at all. So I was stuck with but nothing happened. The explosive bolts
the formation to carry the leak to Masirah. two full but useless tanks of fuel. We continued fired to open the dump valves but, because
As it got worse they called ahead for one of like this up across France, refuelling more no bleed air was going into the tanks – the
the Gan tankers to get airborne early to meet frequently as a result. Somewhere north of reason they didn’t feed – no fuel would come
up with us. But the continued worsening of Paris, and within radio range of UK radars, we out. (It says in Pilot’s Notes that, in the event
the leak finally forced the realisation that the were given the depressing news that the of loss of tank pressurisation, the fuel will just
formation would not have the fuel to reach January weather across all of the UK was bad, dribble out – not true!) The overwings can
the Gan RV. With the shark-inhabited Indian very bad. As a result, a tanker was scrambled only be jettisoned if they are empty, so I was
Ocean below, the only solution was for the from Marham and met us off the Norfolk stuck with them. Crosswinds and low cloud
leaking jet to turn back towards Tengah and coast. While our now empty tanker continued ruled out all the usual bases and eventually I
hope that by flying at best range speed and on to the north of Scotland in the hope of was told to have a go at getting into Valley,
height he could make it back. finding somewhere to land, I refuelled again across on Anglesey, because they had a
I felt annoyed that we had got ourselves and then followed the tanker around the cable. I got there to find there was no cable
into such a hole, but on deployments such as North Sea while the powers that be on the but I finally landed anyway, still with those
that, control and decisions rest with the lead ground figured out what to do next. full overwings.
tanker crew. And the Victor tanker force
showed what an outstanding bunch they
were – the empty tanker returning to Tengah
had been listening in to all the developments.
They landed, the crew stayed with the
aircraft, took on as much fuel as they felt time
allowed and then scrambled again to the west
to meet up with the returning jet and ensured
he made it back.
After that first leg to Masirah, one of the
‘tired’ jets was proving troublesome and so I
was given the task of taking it on to Akrotiri
and home. We found that if the overwings
were allowed to empty completely, they
wouldn’t refill, so the trick was to stop them
transferring when there was around 20-30
gallons left in each one. This worked fine for
the leg up through Iran and Turkey to

28 aviationclassics.co.uk
Lightning T4 XM973 of 226
OCU, Coltishall. ©NA3T
AIR DEFENCE WINNERS
During my time at Binbrook, as a deputy
flight commander and again as the squadron
weapons instructor, 5 Squadron was selected
to represent the UK in the annual NATO/
AFCENT Air Defence Competition. This
required the interception, identification and
simulated kill of a variety of targets in four
demanding events, involving targets at high-
level by day and night, subsonic and
supersonic and at low-level over land – with
points based on the time taken for pairs of
fighters to scramble and to complete the task
on each target.
We were against other NATO squadrons
flying F-4E Phantoms, F-104s and French
Mirages. It was my job, as weapons
instructor, to devise the tactics and oversee
the training of the pilots involved. In 1970 the
Lightning proved itself the top interceptor in
Europe. And it also came out on top again in
the same competition the following year;
probably the world’s best interceptor at that
time. No.5 Squadron was consequently
awarded the Huddlestone Trophy outright.
It’s interesting to reflect that NATO could
have had the Lightning, instead of the much
inferior F-104; so short-sighted was the
Government’s attitude to the Lightning that,
as was subsequently revealed, a British
Government official in Bonn was instructed
to actively lobby the Germans not to buy it.
And why would they if our own Government
For several days in the summer of 1967 a
steady stream of An12 Cubs flew directly
over Cyprus, straight from Soviet bases into
Egypt, all being shadowed by a scrambled
Lightning. Via author
was so anti-Lightning? Even as late as August
1965 a Treasury note about the Lightning
contract commented “it is a reasonable
assumption that the RAF will not need all its
Lightnings” …and commenting on Ministry
of Aviation fears that any cutbacks in the
Lightning force would wreck its export
prospects, the Treasury note went on “to
doubt the reality of such prospects”.
How ironic then, that Saudi Arabia was so
delighted with the jet that they went on
subsequently to award the UK its biggest
defence contract ever. And if, instead of
duplicitous antagonism, the Government had
shown support and encouragement for
British industry, the Lightning could well
have been selected to meet NATO’s
interceptor requirement
WEAPONS SPECIALISTS
From Binbrook I moved, in 1972, to the OCU
at Coltishall to take up a post as the senior
weapons instructor running the Lightning
Interceptor Weapons Instructor school. It
was there, as the specialists on the Lightning
and its weapons system, that we were able to
develop a bunch of ideas into a whole
package of radar and weapons system
modifications that eventually became AI23C.
These significantly improved the operational
effectiveness of the Lightning – for example,
it allowed the pilot to steer the seeker heads
of his missiles with the radar hand controller,
while the radar was still in search mode. He
could lock the missiles onto the target
without alarming the target’s RWR – and it
was most rewarding to visit 11 Squadron at
Binbrook in November 1973 in order to take
XR769 on its radar air test as the very first
AI23C-modified jet in squadron service.
And it was also while serving at Coltishall
that I became the very first pilot to reach 2000
hours Lightning time – and since most of it was
on the short-range versions, that represented a
great many more strap-ins! I was presented
with an engraved silver model by Roly
Beaumont at Warton to mark the occasion.
One of our tasks from the OCU was to
visit all the squadrons annually to assess
procedures and standards. It was on such a
visit to 56 Squadron in Cyprus in 1974 that I
had very special reason to be thankful for
Petter’s radical design – that over/under
engine layout. Flying an F6 from Akrotiri I
had a tailplane control failure; thankfully it
was at high altitude, but it meant that I
couldn’t move the tailplane – at all!
Fortunately it happened early in the flight so
I had plenty of fuel; I was in a dive at the time
so the seized tailplane certainly had the
adrenaline pumping.
Whilst investigating my predicament I
discovered that, by pulling one engine to idle
and slamming the other into full burner, I
could make very small pitch attitude changes
– tiny, but that technique was just enough to
allow me to get the aircraft back to base and
have a go at putting it back on the ground.
Luckily, Akrotiri has a long runway because I
had to land some 60 knots faster than normal,
but getting the jet back safely made it
possible for the fault to be investigated.
That summer of 1974 was the time when
Coltishall ceased to be a Lightning base. The
Ministers and Air Force planners had
decided that an OCU was no longer needed –
the run-down of the Lightning force had
begun. How ironic then, that time would
prove that it was in fact only half way through
its service career. The ‘stop-gap’ interceptor
would remain a key element of the nation’s
front line defence for another 14 years.
That the Lightning was never developed
to its full potential is beyond doubt. The RAF
and the Air Staff were very keen to see it
developed but, to a significant extent, the
changes in Air Staff thinking that bedevilled
development were largely dictated by the
rapidly changing environment in which the
aircraft was expected to operate. I hope I’ve
shown that the Lightning most certainly had
all the potential but, sadly, it was hampered
from the outset by the Government’s ‘make
do’ attitude towards equipment for the
nation’s military front line and its lack of
support for the defence industry. !
EE Lightning 29
Thoroughbred
Superb AFDS three-ship led by Lightning
F1 XG336, accompanied by Hunter F6
XK149 and Javelin FAW8 XH979.
Five ship of Lightning F1s of 74 Squadron,
which became the first operational RAF
unit to receive the type in June 1960.
All via author
Somewhat reduced in surface area, this
was all that remained of the tail of XM141
after Flt Lt Jim Burns landed safely on
16 May 1961.
30 aviationclassics.co.uk
Fighter Station
Martyn Chorlton looks at the
Lightning’s time at RAF Coltishall,
from 1959 to 1974.
T
he first time I laid eyes on a
Lightning was during the mid-
1970s when I was treated to a
brief visit to Coltishall’s main
gate. From that day onwards, I
always thought, unknowingly, that Coltishall
was the spiritual home of the supersonic
fighter and despite the fact that the Lightning
left the Norfolk station 14 years before its
retirement, I still do.
It was in the capable hands of Wg Cdr
Jimmy Dell that the first Lightning was
delivered to Coltishall on 23 December 1959.
Jimmy was the boss of the Air Fighting
Development Squadron (AFDS) which had
moved in from West Raynham only two and a
half months earlier. It was with envious eyes
that the pilots of 23 and 74 Squadron, flying
the Gloster Javelin and Hawker Hunter
respectively, watched as XG334 A taxied to a
halt on that winter’s day. Both of these
squadrons were destined to fly the RAF’s first
supersonic fighter.
XG334 was the first of three Development
Batch (DB) Lightnings to arrive on the
AFDS. XG335 B and XG336 C arrived just a
few days later. These DB Lightnings were
built very close to F1 specification which
would be the first mark to enter front line
squadron service. The first pure F1 to arrive
on the AFDS was XM135 on 25 May 1960, an
aircraft that was destined to have a long and
interesting career and still survives at the
Imperial War Museum Duxford. In the
meantime though, the AFDS had already lost
one of its DB Lightnings when XG334
suffered a major hydraulics failure with just
over 23 hours’ flying time on the clock. The
pilot, Sqn Ldr R Harding, safely ejected off
Wells-next-the-Sea, becoming the first RAF
pilot to do so from a Lightning.
ON SQUADRON STRENGTH
During April 1960, 23 Squadron was re-
equipped with the ultimate mark of Javelin,
the FAW9R, while 74 Squadron, flying the
Hunter F6, prepared to become the RAF’s
first Lightning unit; 23 Squadron would have
to wait until August 1964. Wg Cdr RP
Beamont delivered 74 Squadron’s first
Lightning, F1 XM165, on 29 June 1960, which
was eagerly received by commanding officer
Sqn Ldr J Howe. As there were no two-seat
Lightnings in service at the time, a new
Lighting Conversion Squadron (LCS) was
formed with the CFE at Coltishall. The LCS
was a little disjointed to start with as it had no
aircraft of its own, having to borrow them
from the AFDS which was still flying a host of
trials to bring the machine into service.
Conversion training for the 74 Squadron
pilots began with a five-day aviation-medicine
course at Upwood, followed by seven days’
worth of lectures at Coltishall. Aircraft
systems and emergency drills were covered
in great detail, culminating in 10 one-hour
sessions on a Lightning F1 simulator. These
‘flights’ in the simulator were vital although
many on the squadron, despite the massive
increase in performance, thought that the
leap from Vampire to Hunter was more
traumatic. The LCS remained at Coltishall
until August 1961 when it moved to
Middleton St George. It would go on to form
226 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) in
June 1963.
Sqn Ldr Howe flew 74 Squadron’s first
Lightning sortie in XM165 on 14 July 1960
and just over a week later, all of the unit’s
pilots had completed their conversion
training. However, a distinct lack of aircraft
hampered the squadron’s progress on the
new type, with just two aircraft on strength by
 The eyes of the world were watching
as 74 Squadron showed off its
immaculate Lightning F1s at Coltishall
during an official photo shoot.

the end of the month. A lack of spares and nine aircraft and these were displayed to full carry out the work and the first aircraft was
serviceability problems would also hold the effect at the 1961 SBAC show. The display back in the air again on 26 March 1962.
squadron back, but Sqn Ldr Howe’s began with an impressive stream take-off Sqn Ldr Howe’s routine at Farnborough
enthusiasm for the new aircraft would push with each aircraft climbing at a 30-degree must have impressed senior RAF staff
the unit along. At the end of August 1960, the angle from the runway. By the time the ninth because the ‘Tigers’ were selected by HQ
squadron was requested to provide four aircraft had left the Tarmac, the first was Fighter Command to become the official
aircraft for the following month’s SBAC show passing 5000ft! aerobatic team for 1962. Now under the
at Farnborough. Thanks to the efforts of the Once again, after Farnborough, the command of Sqn Ldr Peter Botterill, the
ground crew, a four ship managed to perform squadron knuckled down to operational pilots of 74 Squadron had to re-qualify back to
every day at the show, except one which was training and managed to achieve their most combat status because of the amount of time
scrubbed because of poor weather. flying hours on the type to date during it had taken to modify their jets. Extensive
November 1961. But by January 1962, not a use of the ‘in-house’ simulator kept most up
BECOMING OPERATIONAL single Lightning could be declared to speed and now the squadron was called
Post-Farnborough, all focus was in bringing serviceable. The Lightning’s delicate upon again to carry out a PR task.
74 Squadron up to operational status. This hydraulic systems had been causing A team of eight pilots were preparing to
was no mean task, as technical problems continuous problems and it was decided to take part in a British Trade Fair taking place in
continuously reared their ugly heads and a re-pipe the whole system with more Sweden during May 1962. The trip to Vasteras
constant modification programme did not substantial pipe work. Engineers from was a combined goodwill visit, prospective
help the situation. Spares support during English Electric relocated to Coltishall to sales pitch and training exercise all rolled "
these early months was poor and aggravated
by a lack of basic experience in dealing with
the complexities of a supersonic fighter.
Both spares and experience rapidly
increased and, combined with sheer hard
work, 74 ‘Tiger’ Squadron began to find its
feet on the new type. During December
1960, as if to show to the rest of the RAF that
the Lighting had arrived, Sqn Ldr Howe led a
tight four-ship formation over several of East
Anglia’s operational airfields. By April 1961,
almost 10 months since receiving its first
Lightning, 74 Squadron was finally declared
fully operational.
As the RAF’s premier Lightning fighter
squadron, the ‘Tigers’ were in great demand
for public events and operational training
continued to take a back seat during the year.
Sqn Ldr Howe recognised that the Lightning
was a very impressive aircraft for display
flying and the squadron became a display XM172 striking a dramatic pose photographed by an impressionable young author in 1975.
team. By now, it could just maintain a team of The F1, in 226 OCU colours, remained on Coltishall’s gate for over a quarter of a century.

EE Lightning 31
into one. While goodwill and a useful
exercise prevailed, the Swedes never did
order any Lightnings. Coltishall hosted a
return visit by Swedish Air Force SAAB
Drakens a few months later.
Display flying continued to dominate, even
more so when the Hunters of 92 Squadron,
‘The Blue Diamonds’, arrived from
Leconfield on 7 August 1962. The plan was to
carry out a combined flying display for the
forthcoming SBAC show involving 16
Hunters and seven Lightnings. Their
stunning display over Farnborough the
following month certainly left an indelible
impression on the large crowds.
No.23 Squadron left Coltishall for
Leuchars in Scotland leaving just 74
Squadron on the airfield; the AFDS having
left for Binbrook the previous October. The
‘Tigers’ now carried out tasks expected of a
Fighter Command squadron, including QRA
(Quick Reaction Alerts) as well as
participating in a host of exercises.
The squadron lost its first Lightning on 26
April 1963 when Flt Lt J Burns was forced to
eject. The aircraft, XM142, was being flight
tested by Burns after a 400-hour service, and
after a standard 10-second inverted run,
several hydraulic warning lights illuminated as
the aircraft rolled level. Pointing the aircraft
out to sea, Burns made his escape while the
Lightning continued on to crash into the sea
off Cromer. Burns was picked up by a 228
Squadron Westland Whirlwind and was back
on the squadron less than 24 hours later. This
was the second close shave for Burns who, on
16 May 1961, had a delicate moment in XM141.
While flying close formation at low level
over the airfield, the Lightning’s fin and
rudder began to disintegrate and part of the
spine also suffered damage. Not realising the
full extent of the damage, other than a total
loss of rudder control, Burns made a long
straight-in, aileron-only approach and luckily
landed safely. A follow-up investigation
revealed that extreme aerodynamic
pressures had built up as a result of flying at
high speed in such close formation.
Modifications were initiated and Flt Lt Jim
Burns was quickly nicknamed ‘Finless Jim’
by his colleagues from then on.
No.74 Squadron’s tour of duty came to an
end at Coltishall on 2 March 1964. Six
Lightnings and two Hunters performed an
excellent flypast before setting course for
their new base at Leuchars. Four others that
Lightning F1 XM137 F of the AFDS lifts off from Coltishall’s main runway circa 1960.
32 aviationclassics.co.uk
Mass taxi out of 226
OCU Lightnings.
were on APC at Valley joined them the same
day and a great testament to how far the
squadron had progressed was shown when
the ‘Tigers’ were declared operational just
five hours later.
LIGHTNING TRAINING
The airfield now entered a second era of
Lightning flying, when possibly the largest,
and certainly one of the busiest units to
operate from Coltishall arrived. No.226 OCU
moved in from Middleton St George on 20
April 1964 having been developed from the
fledgling LCS which had struggled to train
Lightning pilots just a few years before. The
OCU brought the Lightning F1, F1A and T4
into Coltishall and during its existence very
rarely had less than 40 aircraft on strength.
This number on a single airfield would not be
surpassed until 1976, when the amount of
airframes at Binbrook suddenly increased.
Once the trainee pilot had passed out from
advanced pilot training, he would already
have been allocated to a particular squadron.
He would then train on the mark of Lightning
that his future squadron operated, initially
spending a great deal of the early weeks of
the course in ground school. He would have
then been taught the complex weapons
system of the aircraft followed by the final
stage of the course, which involved
interception techniques.
These three phases were carried out by
three squadrons within the OCU. No.1
Squadron was the ‘ab-initio’ conversion onto
type; 2 Squadron taught radar training and to
those being posted onto the F2 in RAFG,
advanced radar training; while 3 Squadron
focused on additional radar training on the
AI23B which was introduced with the F3 and
later F6, the latter never serving with the
OCU. No.3 Squadron did not really become
fully operational until the arrival of the first
Lightning T5 XS419 on 20 April 1965, only to
be renamed 2T Squadron from 1971.
In the event of war, 226 OCU would
become 145 Squadron, this remaining the
case until a re-organisation in May 1971 saw
the unit’s new shadow numberplate become
65(R) Squadron. At the same time, the OCU
was declared available to SACEUR (Supreme
Allied Commander Europe) and from then
on, the Lightnings wore fighter squadron
style bars either side of their roundels. For
the remainder of its tenure at Coltishall, the
OCU took part in many NATO exercises
under the guise of 65 Squadron and QRA
type scrambles were commonplace.
While many at Coltishall thought the
Lightning would see out its days in Norfolk, it
was not to be. Premature plans to run down
the Lightning as an air defence fighter were
instigated and the OCU days were numbered.
One of those Lightnings that flew its last
sorties on the OCU was F1A XM172, which
would live on at the airfield for many decades
after their departure. With an impressive – for
a Lightning F1A – 2083 flying hours, the
aircraft was retired in June 1974, but rather
than being sent to the scrap man, was
allocated for display at Coltishall. On 24
September 1974, it was mounted on a plinth on
the main gate, destined to remain there, even
after being sold by the MoD, until 17
November 1999. Thanks to XM172, the
Lightning era at RAF Coltishall had not been
forgotten and the sights and sounds of this
superb aircraft will always be associated with
this thoroughbred fighter station where the
type first entered RAF squadron service. !
 www.collectair.co.uk
Beautiful Signed Limited Edition
Lightning prints by Michael Rondot
Prices from £75.00
Collectair Limited Editions
5 Dillington Hall Cottages, DEREHAM NR19 2QB
COLOUR ARCHIVE CATALOGUE AVAILABLE - Price £5

To order, or to find
out more:
+44 (0)1362 860890

TANGMERE
military aviation
museum
" Visit our unique collection of Military Aviation Exhibits and memorabilia from
WW1 & 2 and the Cold War Era COMING
SOON
" Try your skill with our simulators ‘The Lightning
" Museum shop " Cafe " Picnic Area Experience’ - Watch our
website for upcoming
details of how you may
" Memorial Garden " Disabled Facilities ‘Fly’ our new Lightning
Cockpit
simulator!

Museum
Open Daily from
10am February-
November
Tangmere nr Chichester, West Sussex PO20 2ES (signed from main A27 3mls east of Chichester)
Further details about Museum and Special Attractions Tel 01243 790090 or visit
www.tangmere-museum.org.uk
aviationclassics.co.uk 33
A pair of Lightning F6s
caught head-on, with
their the intake centre-
body radar ‘bullets’
prominent. North West
Heritage Group

Lightning
weapons
system
Wg Cdr John Ward AFC RAF
Ret’d, a former Lightning Chief
Weapons Instructor, outlines the
systems that would have allowed
the jet fighter to be used in anger
to defend UK airspace from a
potential nuclear strike.
34 aviationclassics.co.uk
M
odern weapons systems
give today’s fighter pilot
quite astounding
capabilities. When it first
entered service the
Lightning weapons system was also highly
advanced, introducing very innovative
concepts. As the RAF’s first radar-equipped,
single-seat all-weather fighter, the Lightning
was a huge leap forward, not just in aircraft
performance but also in the challenges it
posed for the pilot.
It was originally designed to operate in
conjunction with the Linesman computers in
the GCI stations, to be a completely
integrated nav/attack weapon system;
Warton even tested a fully automatic attack
facility, although that was never cleared or
fitted for Service use. It was required to be
fully day and night capable, with infra-red
Firestreak or Red Top missiles and 30mm
cannon, although the guns were short-

sightedly deleted as a cost-saving measure

INTERCEPTION for the F3. Firestreak could only be used to

attack targets from the stern, while Red Top

PHASES could be used in the target’s forward

hemisphere as well. What we did if the target
was in thick cloud was never resolved,
although the conceived threat, supersonic
Soviet bombers, were likely to be high up in
the stratosphere, well above any cloud.
The idea was to find the target with GCI
help, lock on the radar, let the computer
figure out the best approach, follow the
steering dot and pull the trigger when the
computer said so. If the ground radar was
being jammed, there was the E/F Band
Homer which detected that jamming, and
then gave the pilot a proportional navigation
intercept course. That allowed us to find the
culprit and then attack him using angle
ranging techniques.

RADAR
But first things first. The radar was largely
contained within the intake centre-body (the
radar ‘bullet’), although many associated
units were located elsewhere, primarily in
the forward and main equipment bays. The
double-shock centre-body intake was a
clever design, coping with a wide speed
range to ensure that air at the engine face
was always subsonic.
Ferranti’s AI23/23B/23C radar was,
for its time, a truly brilliant design; an
I-band monopulse system using a split
parabolic dish (two parabolic reflectors joined
along a vertical edge) it could, unlike
contemporary conical-scan radars, angle
track in azimuth [directional bearing] and
elevation from a single pulse. The split four-
horn feed gave a radar beam made up of four
overlapping lobes, ideal for angle tracking
while giving good protection from angle
deception jammers.
In the cockpit the radar hand-controller
was, without question, the best, user-friendly,
ergonomically perfect piece of pilot/radar
interface of any contemporary fighter. The
pilot had 17 functions at his fingertips, giving
him optimum control of the radar features "

EE Lightning 35
and, with the later AI23C modifications, of the
missiles as well.
The cockpit radar display was the B-scope; it
presented a raw radar picture – the actual target echo
– in range and azimuth, and the Lightning pilot had to
learn to interpret it. Operating the radar while flying
the jet (‘walk and chew gum’ was the expression)
required pilots able to think in three dimensions,
because they had to quickly assess what they saw in
order to build a mental image of the intercept
geometry. And they had to be able to accomplish
everything on the blackest of nights, on a completely
blacked-out target.
The radar showed the pilot where the target was –
its range, azimuth and elevation – but to intercept it
he has to know which way it’s heading. Unlike more
modern fighters such as Tornado F3, where the
target’s heading, height and speed are continuously
displayed as an on-screen read-out with a plan picture,
the Lightning pilot had to determine target heading
from the behaviour of the radar return. To help the
Lightning pilot assess his target’s heading and quickly

RADAR DATA

HEAD-ON &
RE-ATTACK

36 aviationclassics.co.uk
 “For a supersonic target,
closing speed could be around
1500mph or more…”
build a mental picture of the most practical
(and tactical) intercept geometry, targets
were put into one of four basic categories,
depending upon the relative heading
difference, or angle between courses. So a
target heading in the opposite direction was a
180; if it was on the nose the blip (target
echo) would come marching down the radar
scope at 0° azimuth.

ATTACK/RE-ATTACK
Red Top allowed the use of the ‘attack/re-
attack’ option, whereby the first shot taken
head-on would hopefully achieve the kill. But
if that failed the fighter would have to re-
attack – turn hard to get in behind and take a
second shot; the diagram on the bottom right
of page 36 shows the result for different high-
speed targets. As a rule of thumb, we
considered a supersonic target on a 180 and
detected within 20 degrees of the nose as a
sure thing for a head-on shot with Red Top.
But if the target’s heading put him outside
the success zone for a front shot, or the pilot
was armed with Firestreak, or he has to
identify the target before he shoots, it gets
more difficult – because he has to get into the
target’s stern cone. The radar had a field of
view of 50° to either side and it was best,
having acquired the radar contact, not to let it
get outside that field of view.
So the challenge then was to get in behind
the target without losing it outside the radar
field of view. At high altitude, the fighter
requires adequate room to make the turn
and, with a slow target, there may be time to
turn out and make some displacement before
turning in behind. For a stern attack on a
supersonic target, it was important not to
delay the turn behind, even if that meant
losing him briefly out of scan – a compromise
between the time taken to catch him up and
his opportunity to use chaff and evasion to
confuse and perhaps escape.
But because the radar didn’t tell the pilot
what the target heading was, we had to figure
that out for ourselves, doing rapid 3-
dimensional mental trigonometry as we
watched the target on the radar. Remembering
that the bottom of the B-scope was us, any
radar contact that hit the bottom of the scope
would hit us if it was at the same height, so
any target blips that moved straight down the
B-scope – in other words, maintained a
constant azimuth – were on a collision course.
If it was dead ahead then it was obviously at
A DECEPTIVE
USE OF CHAFF
180° to us. If the target is coming straight
down (constant azimuth) but is holding 45
degrees left or right of the nose, then simple
trigonometry tells me his heading is at 90
degrees to my heading. (This assumes co-
speed targets; in practice, if the target was
slower the pilot made an allowance of one or
two degrees in the collision azimuth.)
Take the example (below left) of the target
blip at 15 degrees left and coming straight
down; again simple trigonometry tells me that
his heading must be 150 degrees to mine. On
the right of the diagram I’ve drawn in the plot
of a target blip that looks at first to be coming
straight down – at that azimuth it would be
about a 120 collision – but then it moves "

16–12–16 SUPERSONIC ACTION LINE TYPICAL LOW LEVEL

INTERCEPTION

EE Lightning 37
further out, so its heading must be at
something like 150° to mine and if he RADAR“LOOK
maintains his heading his track will cross
mine – but a long way behind me.
DOWN”TECHNIQUE
For a supersonic target, closing speed
could be around 1500mph or more; the
AT LOW LEVEL
Lightning pilot had only the time between
initial detection of the target (say around 30
miles) and it reaching the ‘action line’ to
assess target heading, use the radar elevation
marker to make an estimate of target height,
and then decide what action to take.
Consider the very simple example in the
diagram at the bottom right of page 37 – a
low-level intercept over the water, with a
target crossing ahead of the fighter at 90° to
his heading. There is a ship to the left of the
nose – ships and chaff behave in pretty much
the same way. While the target blip will move
across our nose, and stay on the nose as we
turn after him, the ship will remain on the left
and go further left as we turn right to attack
the target.
So by considering the targets in those four
basic categories: 180, 150, 120, and 90, the
pilot could decide on the intercept option that
best suited the conditions. Tactics were
based on the assumption that the Lightning
pilot was alone; assistance from GCI radars, THE FIRING PROBLEM
AWACS, or other fighters was a bonus.
Initiative and good situational awareness
were essential.

FIRING MISSILES
But then comes the problem of firing the
missiles. So very easy if I can see him visually,
when I can simply fire using the gunsight, but
what about a dark black night, no lights, and
worse, what if he is at low level? Although I
can see him on the radar, a monopulse radar
will not hold lock easily on a very low target
and attempting to lock will warn him; that
would trigger his countermeasures – chaff,
flares, electronic jamming, evasion – so in this
case better to fire in search mode. But
without radar lock I’ve lost some important
information and, most significantly, slaving of as well. His jamming meant I could point at using another piece of simple trigonometry
the missile seeker head. him but I couldn’t tell how far away he was – I (the sine of 1° is 1/60). In other words, a
Consequently, with AI23B we had to push simply had a line or band of ‘noise’ on my target showing 1 degree up on the radar
over into a dive to put the weapon line on the radar scope. That E/F Homer allowed me to elevation marker would be 1nm above
target – believe me, that needs a lot of intercept the target, but to fire a missile I had (6000ft) at 60nm range. At 30nm he would be
courage on a black night at very low level. to know his range. 3000ft, at 10nm 1000ft, and 100ft at 1nm. But
Later, with AI23C, we could use the hand So it was back to the mental trigonometry 1° is too small to work with so, assuming a
controller to point the missile, so that the again. Having got somewhere near him (the missile launch range of 2nm, for every 1000ft
pilot had only to manually assess the firing E/F Homer) I could find his altitude by using I descend below the target, the elevation
parameters and then pull the trigger at the the radar elevation marker – climb or marker (radar look angle) will increase by 5°.
right range. descend until it showed level – and then The accepted technique was to descend
But what if the target was already descend by a suitable amount. The change in 3000ft, look for 15° then go for missile
jamming my radar? And jamming GCI radars look angle allowed me to calculate his range, acquisition and launch.

BLIND FIRING I

38 aviationclassics.co.uk
ANGLE RANGING PRINCIPLE
GUNS
This look at the Lightning weapons system
would not be complete without mention of
the guns. In the early variants – the F1s,
F1As and F2s – two 30mm Aden cannon were
fitted in the nose, one on either side of the
cockpit, and two more could be carried in the
armament pack behind the nose wheel. The
Pilot Attack Sight (PAS) had a target
indicator and a gyro graticule that could be
ranged by either the AI23 radar or manually
by the pilot using the No.2 engine throttle
twist grip. The guns gave the pilot a valuable
alternative in combat situations where the
target was inside missile minima or both
missiles had already been fired. Four cannon
with 5Z HE shells represented quite
formidable firepower. With a radar lock,
those jets even had a theoretical gun
capability against gently manoeuvring targets
in cloud.
Unfortunately, guns were not specified for
the F3s, a quite lamentable situation – one
argument was that the LOX (liquid oxygen)
pack occupied what would have been the
Lightning F6 XR753 of 23
Squadron escorts a Soviet
Bear somewhere over the
North Sea. Via Author
“…the general consensus among Lightning drivers
was “for gun kills, get close, very close”!”
gun bay. I had personal reason to deplore
that decision when, in an F3, I was ordered
to force a Soviet bomber to land but without
a gun to fire a warning shot. The RAF’s
fighter force was made to look foolish.
Fortunately, sense dawned and the F6s were
retro-fitted with twin 30mm cannon in the
forward (hatch tank) section of the 610
gallon ventral fuel tank. Each gun carried
up to 120 rounds. They were predominantly
an airspace policing weapon, but also
provided an important back-up to the
primary missile armament.
The F6 gun system also reflected the
stop-gap, makeshift, minimum-cost approach
to Lightning upgrades in general. No radar
data was provided to the Light Fighter Sight
(LFS) so all gun attacks were strictly visual,
using a fixed gyro sight with sensitivity
pegged for 500 yards. Unlike the earlier
Lightnings, where the guns were aligned to
the wing chord line, the F6 guns were
aligned to the horizontal fuselage datum.
That gave a better breakaway if firing at low
airspeed against slow targets but, because
LFS sensitivity was pegged – with no inputs
from the air data system – some velocity
jump errors were likely. In addition, gravity
drop correction was applied in the pitch
plane, the assumption being that the sight
would only be used for gun attacks with
small bank angles. With such built-in errors
to contend with, the general consensus
among Lightning drivers was “for gun kills,
get close, very close”!
Over the years there were numerous
ideas and proposals for weapon system
improvements that would have seen the
aircraft reach its full potential. Compared
with her stable-mates, the Jaguars and
Harriers, where numerous major
improvement programmes and costly weapon
upgrades were implemented, the Lightning
was the poor relation. Cost and that ‘stop-gap’
label meant that it fell largely to the pilots to
find the innovations and tactical ideas that
kept the Lightning an effective front-line
fighter for 28 years !
Firestreak missile being fired from a
Lightning. www.lightningpilots.com
EE Lightning 39
Lightning F3 cockpit
General view of the
layout inside XP703.
All Chris Pearson

A look inside XP703 at the City

of Nor wich Aviation Museum.

Lightnings were fitted with a strip speed display,

located high and central on the main instrument
panel. Note that as well as the indicated air speed the To the left of the pilot the most prominent controls are the
strip is annotated with the Mach number. AI23B hand controller and the two throttle levers forward of that.

40 aviationclassics.co.uk
Complete list of controls and instruments
of a Lightning F3 from original
documentation. Via Time Line Images
 The
‘Hole on the
Wall ’ Sqn Ldr Clive Rowley MBE
RAF Ret’d recalls in present
tense an incident in
Lightning F2A XN789 where
hours spent training in the
simulator paid off.

42 aviationclassics.co.uk
O
n my lounge wall at home is a
strange looking object, which
could, at first glance, be taken
for a piece of modern
sculpture of dubious artistic
merit. On closer inspection, a brass plaque
explains the jagged hole in the centre of the
metal panel: ‘THE HOLE, Reheat Fire damage
to Lightning F2A XN789 on 11th May 1976’.
This strange wall decoration has a special
place in my heart and my home, as it reminds
me of a day when I was very lucky to keep up
my record of having the same number of
landings as take-offs and that all pilots need
luck as well as skill. This is the story.
It is 11 May 1976 – I’m taxying out towards
the runway in Lightning F2A, XN789, tail letter
J (the personal aircraft of Sqn Ldr John
Spencer, 19 Squadron’s OC B Flight), and
taxying rather fast as we always do. No ‘fast
walking pace’ for us, as taught at the flying
training schools, we don’t have the fuel to waste
taxying slowly. Even in the F2A with its large
ventral tank and 10,300lb of fuel, we still suffer
from the Lightning’s well-known shortage of
‘go juice’. I’m burning only slightly less fuel per
minute on the ground than in the cruise at
36,000ft and I’d rather be burning it up there.
I’ve been flying Lightnings with 19 Squadron at
RAF Gütersloh in Germany for just over two
years. I have over 500 hours flying on type,
although I’m still only 25 years old and still
considered a junior pilot on my squadron.
PRE TAKE-OFF CHECKS
As I taxy out, I complete the pre take-off
checks from memory. These are now
second nature. Trim: Set for take-off.
Airbrakes: In and locked. Anti-ice/rain
dispersal: Off. Autopilot: Set up. Fuel:
Transfer switch on, ventral tank feeding.
Flaps: Up and indicating up. Instruments
and electrical system indications: Checked.
Pitot heater: On. Warning panels: All
warnings out. Battery master switch:
Checked on. Oxygen: Check contents,
pressure and flow. Hood: Close the cockpit
canopy fully and double check that the
handle is fully down with the electric switch
in the handle fully recessed, check that the
shoot bolts that lock the canopy down are
in the locked position and that the canopy
seal is inflated. (In the past there have been
several incidents with the canopy being
sucked off just as the aircraft reaches lift-
off speed on the take-off roll due to the pilot
not having locked the canopy fully; this is
now virtually a ‘hanging offence’ so extra
care is taken over it). Seat harness, leg
restraint lines and dinghy line: Connected.
Hydraulics: Check controls for full free
movement, warnings out, pressures good.
Finally, ejection seat safety pins all stowed.
The seat is now live and ready to fire when
the handle is pulled. It’s a slightly strange
thing to be sitting on an explosive seat, but
it’s something that you get used to and are
happy to accept as this could be your life
saver if and when staying with the aircraft no
longer has any merit!
I call on the radio for permission for our
formation of two Lightnings to take-off;
adding “canopies locked” as without that
confirmation the air traffic controller will not
let us go. Having received clearance, I taxy
onto the runway, line up pointing down the
centre of the left-hand half and bring the
aircraft to a halt, the nose dipping as the nose-
wheel leg compresses when I apply the
brakes. My wingman for this sortie, Flt Lt Phil
Owen, the 19 Squadron Qualified Flying
Instructor, lines his aircraft up alongside me
on the right-hand half of the runway. He looks
across at me and gives me a ‘thumbs up’.
I give him the ‘wind up’ signal, rotating my
gloved index finger. I parallel the two throttles
and then advance them both smoothly
forward to wind the two mighty Rolls-Royce
Avon jet engines behind me up to 92 per cent
RPM. This is the most power that the brakes
can hold, any more and the wheels will start to
slide even with the brakes fully on. I can hear
an increased roar behind me to accompany
the engine indications on the gauges. A quick
check around the cockpit shows that all is well
and I look across at Phil. He gives me another
‘thumbs up’ – he’s ready. I tap the front of my
flying helmet on the ‘forehead’ twice and then
give a pronounced nod of my head to indicate
brakes release. "
Lightning F2A XN724 F of
19 Squadron landing.
Erich Westersoetebier
EE Lightning 43
Clive Rowley’s usual aircraft was F2A XN790 L
of 19 Squadron which is pictured at height
from another Lightning. Clive Rowley
“This strange wall decoration has a special place in
my heart and my home, as it reminds me of a day when
I was very lucky to keep up my record of having the
same number of landings as take-offs…”
TAKE-OFF
We both release the brakes simultaneously,
the acceleration is immediate and, as we start
to roll down the runway in formation, we
move the throttles forward to maximum
‘cold’ (unreheated) power, and check that the
engine indications are normal. I nod again
and we both push the throttles through the
‘gate’ to select reheat. A double ‘thump’ from
behind me and a kick in the back tell me both
reheats have lit and I glance in to check the
indications – jet pipe nozzle positions and jet
pipe temperature. I bring the power back a
bit from full reheat to give my Number Two
something to play with. On my right, Phil is
doing all that I am doing and trying to stay in
formation with me; others will be watching
and reputations are at stake! All this has
taken mere seconds but we are already
accelerating through 150 knots so I start to
raise the nose-wheel and at 180 knots pull
back on the control column to lift-off from
the runway.
As soon as I’m safely airborne, it’s brakes
on to stop the wheels rotating (there is a lot
of energy in wheels doing 190mph) and
select undercarriage up even though we’re
only feet above the ground. The aircraft is
accelerating rapidly and because the nose-
wheel retracts forwards into the airflow, it
will stick down if the speed reaches 250 knots
before it is locked up. As a single aircraft
there is the option, albeit an untidy one, of
pitching the aircraft into a steeper climb to
keep the speed down while the undercarriage
locks up, but this isn’t something you can do
during a formation take-off, with a wingman
trying to keep station. Rapid and apparently
Lightning F2A XN789 J of 19
Squadron – the aircraft in
which Clive Rowley suffered a
serious reheat fire on 11 May
1976. Via Geoff Parselle
quite ‘punchy’ undercarriage retractions
immediately after lift off are therefore the
‘norm’ for Lightning pilots.
Once the undercarriage is locked up, I
nod my head again and we both cancel the
reheats and continue to accelerate fairly
rapidly in ‘cold’ power to the climbing speed
of 450 knots. I roll gently into a right turn
onto the northerly climb-out heading and, as
I roll out of the turn, I wave Phil away and he
breaks out in a ‘punchy’ manner to position
his aircraft in tactical ‘battle’ formation about
a mile to my right and line-abreast with me.
The speed is now at 450 knots and we’re
climbing rapidly through 2000ft with an 18
degrees nose-up attitude. This is a fairly steep
climb, but if I was climbing at full power, in
reheat, as we sometimes do, I would need a
30 degrees nose-up attitude and close
attention to the speed to prevent the aircraft
going supersonic in the climb!
We switch to the departure frequency on
the radio and continue the climb,
transitioning to a climbing speed of M0.9 as
we pass 16,000ft. About 31⁄2 minutes after
take-off (not that I’m counting) and 28 miles
from the airfield, we level off at 36,000ft,
cruising at M0.9 now talking with the
German Ground Control Intercept (GCI)
controller who will organise and provide
control for the supersonic intercepts we are
going to practice.
GOING SUPERSONIC
We split up under his control with Phil going
off to the north to act as the target for the
first intercept (he will run in at 40,000ft and at
M1.1) and I am held at the southern end of
the supersonic corridor. When the controller
has organised sufficient range between us,
we both turn in onto reciprocal headings as
directed by him; our tracks will have about 10
miles lateral separation between them.
To the north, I know Phil will be engaging
reheat on his engines to climb and accelerate
to the target parameters, then he’ll throttle
back to minimum reheat to hold the speed;
the F2A will not quite hold supersonic flight
in ‘cold’ (unreheated) power so cannot
actually ‘supercruise’ like the earlier marks of
Lightning could. In my aircraft I engage the
reheats and accelerate through the transonic
regime. There is a second or two of very light
buffet, the so-called ‘cobblestone’ effect at
about M0.97, which could easily be mistaken
for some clear air turbulence. The Mach
meter winds up through M1.0 – the only
indication that I am supersonic – there is no
noise, no vibration, no fuss; this is what the
Lightning is designed to do.
At M1.04, the altimeter height suddenly
winds up by 1800ft and indications on the
other pressure instruments also jump as the
pressure errors disappear when the shock
wave moves back past the static vents. I’ve
been supersonic on very many occasions now
and there is really no thrill to it anymore. At
six miles high you are not even aware,
visually, that you are accelerating towards
1000mph and beyond. That said, I’m quite
proud of my ‘Ten Ton Club’ membership
although, now every Concorde passenger
Metal fragment lodged in the
reheat burner ring of the No.2
engine of Lightning F2A XN789,
11 May 1976. Via Clive Rowley
qualifies, it’s somewhat less exclusive!
Accelerating through M1.25 at 38,000ft
with both engines in full reheat, I notice a
slight pulsing in the power and, looking in at
the engine instruments, I see that the Top
Temperature Control on the No.2 (top)
engine is intermittently trimming back the
RPM. I throttle back to an intermediate
reheat setting and, as I do so, the No.2 reheat
self-cancels. I re-select reheat on the No.2
and it lights normally, we are accelerating
again, perhaps it was just a ‘glitch’.
Thirty seconds later, I get an audio alarm
which immediately draws my eyes to the
warning panel. The Reheat Fire 2 warning is
illuminated! This is just like being in the
simulator except I’m not; this is for real and it
isn’t good. A reheat fire warning might be
spurious, but if it is real, the outcome may
involve earning a Martin-Baker tie and landing
by parachute rather than as planned. Many
Lightnings have been lost over the years to fires.
EMERGENCY DRILLS
I immediately and rapidly carry out the
reheat fire drill, instinctive actions drummed
into me during the regular simulator training
I’ve received. I throttle the No.2 engine back
to idle, operate the catch on the throttle and
bring the throttle fully rearwards, closing the
high pressure fuel cock for that engine and
shutting it down. I also turn off the low
pressure fuel cock and the fuel pumps, and
select the air-to-air refuel switch to refuel to
stop fuel transferring through pipes that may
be damaged.
There is no fire extinguisher for the
reheat zones of the Lightning so that’s all that
can be done for now. I declare a ‘Mayday’ on
the GCI frequency, hoping I sound a lot
calmer than I feel, and about 10 seconds later
the warning light goes out. Perhaps it was a
false alarm or perhaps the fire is so bad it’s
burned through the fire wire! I really don’t
fancy ejecting at supersonic speed and at
such high altitude so I now start working
hard to slow down and go down, in case
ejection becomes necessary.
The ideal ejection parameters we are told
are 10,000ft and 250 knots, although,
personally, I’ve always felt that 10,000ft is a
long way to come down in a parachute, the
harness of which may be pinching certain
sensitive parts of one’s anatomy. I am now
heading towards the pre-meditated ejection
area, the Dummersee Lake and its
surrounding marshland, about 30 miles north
of Gütersloh. If I have to eject, the aircraft will
hopefully cause no harm to anything or anyone
on the ground in this unpopulated area.
Meanwhile, Phil Owen in the target
aircraft has got GCI to vector him onto me
very slickly and he joins into close formation
to give my aircraft a visual inspection. From
the port side he can see nothing amiss,
perhaps it was just a spurious warning. He
moves to the starboard side and finds
something. “Oh yes, you’ve definitely had a
fire!” he says on the radio, sounding really
quite enthusiastic about his discovery. I’m
glad he is pleased!
He describes what he can see; a large
jagged hole about a foot in diameter on the
top of the rear fuselage beneath the base of
the fin. Even more worrying, he also reports
what he says looks like smoke or fluid
venting from the hole, and he asks me to
check that I have completed the drill and
turned off the fuel to the No.2 engine. I
double check and confirm that I have.
The reheat fire drill requires the pilot to
hold off for a minimum of five minutes before
commencing recovery. This requirement is
as a result of experience gained with reheat
fires earlier in the Lightning’s life, and is
intended to give confidence in the integrity of
the tail plane control rods at the rear of the
aircraft, which could easily be damaged by a
fire and which might then fail, leading to loss
of pitch control. By the time that I have "
EE Lightning 45
waited my five minutes from the initial fire it all catches fire and quite bizarrely, not to was inevitable. Effectively the No.2 reheat had
warning, my usable fuel (in the left wing) is say bravely, the OC Engineering Wing (a burned out through the side of the aircraft.
getting quite low. I do not want to transfer Wing Commander) is standing on the top of Considerable damage had been caused to
fuel from the other tanks as I don’t know an ‘A’ frame ladder in his shirt sleeves with the rear fuselage on the starboard side and
whether the fuel transfer pipes have been his hand in the hole, attempting to stem the the rudder powered flying control unit had
damaged. So I request permission to flow of hydraulic fluid with what looks like a been damaged by the heat and was leaking
commence my recovery with the Gütersloh large handkerchief! I suddenly realise that, fluid from the No.1 control system. In the
Air Traffic Controller we are now talking to. now that my part in the drama is over, my Lightning the flying controls were entirely
His immediate response is, “From your hands are beginning to shake. hydraulically powered with no manual back-
Squadron Commander you are to remain in up. If both hydraulic systems failed, the
the ejection area for another two minutes”. I THE SEQUEL controls went solid.
point out that my fuel is now low, I have At the end of what had been a rather exciting With the No.2 engine shut down and with
already completed the five minute hold-off day and once I had completed all the various it the No.2 hydraulic system, the flying
and I’d really like to recover now. After a brief paperwork that an incident of this nature controls were being supported only by the
pause, during which my future is presumably generates, I went to the Officers’ Mess bar No.1 system. This was losing fluid at such a
being discussed on the ground, I am allowed and was enjoying a well-deserved beer or rate that had I stayed airborne for much
to commence recovery. I complete a slow two. The squadron’s Junior Engineering longer, I would have had a complete flying
speed handling check on the way back to Officer came looking for me to explain what controls failure and been forced to eject,
Gütersloh, slowing down to 175 knots in the had happened. possibly at a late stage on the approach. The
landing configuration with undercarriage For some reason the No.2 (top) engine had engineers actually calculated that I probably
down, flaps down and airbrakes out, to lost about 25 per cent of each of the four had only two minutes left before the controls
ascertain that I still have control at the exhaust cone support fairing shrouds at the would have failed completely. I had been very
approach speed. rear of the engine and two pieces of fairing, lucky indeed!
one quite large, had lodged in the reheat When I went back to my room later that
‘MAYDAY’ RECOVERY burner ring. It seemed that these lodged evening there was a piece of Lightning
I land from a straight-in visual approach, my pieces of metal had sufficiently disturbed the propped against my door, a panel with a
‘Mayday’ status ensuring I have priority over reheat flame distribution to cause excessive jagged hole in the middle, obviously beyond
all other traffic. I fly a relatively shallow heating and failure of the jet pipe skin. Once repair and looking like it had been damaged
approach, a glide path angle of about 21⁄2 that had happened, burning through the by ‘flak’. Stuck to it was a note from OC Eng
degrees converting to two degrees for the aluminium alloy structure and fuselage skin Wing that simply said, “A Souvenir?!” !
last part just before landing, coming down at
175 knots with that high nose-up attitude the
Lightning’s 60-degree swept wings demand
on the approach. Phil stays with me all the
way home flying a loose formation position,
keeping out of my way but keeping an eye on
me, which is quite comforting; he overshoots
on my right as I am about to land.
The landing is quite normal, albeit on one
engine, which is no big deal in the Lightning
as there is plenty of power from just one
engine even without reheat. I touchdown at
about 160 knots, with a slight check back on
the control column to arrest the rate of
descent and then, as the nose-wheel comes
down onto the runway, I close the throttle to The ‘Hole on the Wall’, which is still displayed in Clive’s living room. Clive Rowley
idle and reach for the brake chute handle.
As it is the No.1 engine that is still running
and that provides the hydraulic power to
open the brake parachute doors, the chute
works normally and stopping is no drama at
all. I have 600lb of usable fuel remaining, not
a lot, as I pull off the runway at the far end
and shut down, immediately being
surrounded by fire trucks, tractors and
assorted senior officers.
Thinking that the panic is now over, I
carefully confirm that everything is switched
off and made safe in the cockpit. While doing
this, I suddenly notice the ‘Boss’, Wg Cdr Bob
Barcilon (OC 19 Squadron), frantically
signalling from the ground beside the cockpit
for me to get out. The firemen have
positioned one of their ladders against the
cockpit so, without further delay, I scramble
down it to see what the fuss is all about.
Moving to the rear of the aircraft, the cause of
everyone’s concern becomes apparent; highly
inflammable hydraulic fluid is pouring from
the vicinity of the hole in the fuselage and
running down inside over the hot jet pipe.
The firemen are poised with hoses ready lest Reheat fire damage to Lightning F2A XN789 on 11 May 1976 – the ‘Hole’. Via Clive Rowley

46 aviationclassics.co.uk
Fg Off Clive Rowley with
a Lightning F2A in 1976.
Via Clive Rowley
‘Bee’
test pilot of the
ultimate British fighter
François Prins highlights how fortuitous English Electric was to have
the best pilot to test its new supersonic aircraft, Roland Beamont.
R
oland Prosper Beamont was
born on 10 August 1920 at
Chichester in Sussex and
educated at Eastbourne
College. ‘Bee’, as he was
known throughout his life, had like many
schoolboys of the time a passion for aircraft.
When he was old enough he joined the RAF
and his operational career began in
September 1939 when Britain went to war.
Beamont was stationed at Lille in
France, flying Hawker Hurricanes with 87
Squadron and the air contingent of the
British Expeditionary Force. During the
Battle of France he shot down three German
aircraft. With the withdrawal of British forces
48 aviationclassics.co.uk
from France, ‘Bee’ was back in the UK and
soon embroiled in the Battle of Britain,
during which he shot down three more
enemy aeroplanes.
Beamont was awarded a Distinguished
Flying Cross in June 1941. He had now been
on operational duty for two years without a
break, and in December 1941 was taken off
operations for a rest period. This ‘rest’ was
spent on a posting to Hawker at Langley to
test Hurricanes. At Langley he was involved
with night-fighting trials, as he later recalled:
“My experience was limited to production
testing and a few development flights on late
modifications. Nothing major, but good
experience none the less.”
‘Bee’ had fond memories of the Hurricane
and he told me: “It was a strong, stable and
forgiving aeroplane. There was nothing it
would not do, even on the rain-soaked
airfields in France it never let me down. I
suppose at the time, 1940, it was probably the
best aeroplane for the job.”
GROUND ATTACK
In July 1942 he was back on operational flying
and posted to 609 Squadron flying Hawker
Typhoons. Beamont was appointed Squadron
Commander on one of the first units to operate
the new and technically complicated Typhoon.
“There were initial problems with that
aircraft,” he said, “but I had already seen the
prototype when I was at Langley and I
remember, when asked what I thought, telling
them that it would not make a fighter! The
WG760 on take-
off, with its gear
visible retracting.
whole of the rear canopy was solid so there
was no rearward vision. Of course that was
changed before the aircraft went into service.”
Beamont tested the Tornado, as the
prototype was known, and the first Typhoon
and found it to be a stable gun platform. In
time he came to appreciate the “heavy, rough
but impressive aeroplane” and wrote a report
that favoured the Typhoon for low-level
combat and ground attack operations. His
report resulted in RAF Fighter Command
asking him to appear and argue the case as
the Typhoon was being considered for
cancellation at the time. “I think the report
and with the support of others in the
Typhoon camp meant it was accepted, but it
was a near thing.”
During his time with 609, they were
tasked with working-up trials for the
Typhoon Mk.I and getting the aircraft
operational. His belief in the Typhoon for low-
level combat was justified when 609 carried
out several trial sorties against targets in
France. The Typhoon went on to become the
RAF’s most successful ground-attack and low-
level fighter of the war.
Beamont was posted back to Hawker for a
second time in June 1943 to work on the
Typhoon and the new Tempest alongside
Hawker test pilot Bill Humble. In February
1944, he returned to operations and was
given the task of forming the first Wing
(No.150) of Tempest aircraft with Nos.3,
486(NZ) and 56 Squadrons. He was promoted
to Wing Commander.
‘Bee’ at the controls of
WG310 after it was
converted to become
the first Lightning F3.
Close up of the front
end of WG760 on an
early test flight.
All via author
D-DAY
The Wing was declared operational in March
and carried out several sorties in the months
leading up to 6 June 1944, D-Day. On that day
the Tempest Wing was on patrol at dusk, but
saw no enemy aircraft. Two days later the
Wing accounted for three Messerschmitt
Bf 109Gs, two of which were credited to ‘Bee’.
A week later the Wing was on interception
duty against the new V-1 flying bombs and
during the following seven weeks they
accounted for the destruction of 632 V-1s; 32
of which were credited to Beamont. “The
quality of the Tempest was outstanding and
began to set new standards. There was
nothing it would not do. We operated the Wing
in fours from dawn to dusk against all sorts of
targets from V-1s to trains and lorries.”
Following the invasion of France, the
Tempest Wing was posted to Volkel in
Holland and on 2 October 1944, Beamont
achieved his ninth and final ‘kill’ of the war
when he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190
near Nijmegen. On 12 October, while
attacking a heavily defended troop-train near
Bocholt on his 492nd operational mission,
‘Bee’ was shot down and became a prisoner
of war. He remained a PoW until the end of
the war in Europe, being finally repatriated in
late May 1945.
Beamont applied for a permanent
commission and the resultant offer coincided
with his being offered a position as a test pilot.
He decided to resume his career as a test pilot
and commenced trials with the Gloster Meteor
IV that was being prepared for an attempt on
the world’s airspeed record. These tests led
directly to the establishment at Warton of
Britain’s first supersonic flight research and
fighter development programme.
On 13 May 1949, Roland Beamont carried
out the maiden flight of the English Electric
Canberra. This was to be his first of many
flights in the Canberra. Beamont has the
distinction of being the first pilot to make a
double-Atlantic crossing by jet, when on 26
August 1952, flying Canberra B.5 VX185, he
flew from Aldergrove to Gander and then back
again to Aldergove, in 10 hours 3 minutes.
FIRST SUPERSONIC ‘BRIT’
However, it is with the English Electric P1
that ‘Bee’ will always be identified with. This
was the prototype supersonic fighter design
that would lead in due course to the
Lightning. “I was most interested in the P1
and when it was under construction I would
go and see the aircraft taking shape. I was
going to fly it so I needed to know all about it.
The first flight was on August fourth 1954.
From the first I knew the P1 was going to be a
success. We exceeded Mach One on the third
flight and Britain had its first fully supersonic
aeroplane.” ‘Bee’ was the first British pilot to
fly faster than the speed of sound.
Testing of the P1 continued at Warton for
the next three years until the P1B (Lightning)
prototype joined the programme. ‘Bee’ flew
this for the first time on 4 April 1957 and
exhaustive trials commenced leading up to
the type being selected for RAF service.
From the Lightning, ‘Bee’ went on to the
ill-fated TSR-2. “That was a brilliant aeroplane
and the flying programme showed that it had
tremendous capability, but as we all know it
was not to be. She flew superbly and all I can
say is that it was shame we lost the lead due
to the politics of the day.”
‘Bee’ went on to become Director of Flight
Operations of the Warton division of BAe,
and from 1970 he was responsible for the
international testing of the Tornado MRCA.
During his test pilot career, ‘Bee’ flew the
VC-10, BAC1-11, Jaguar, F-86, F-104, XF-106
as well as captured German aircraft such as
the Fw 190 and Bf 109. He retired in 1979 and
remained enthusiastic about aviation,
especially the Lightning and TSR-2. ‘Bee’
produced several books on his flying career;
and died on 19 November 2001. !
EE Lightning 49
 Lightning F6
ROLLS-ROYCE AVON 301

SPINE PANEL

JET EXHAUSTS MAIN UNDERCARRIAGE

in detail
English Electric Lightning F6 XR772 E of
5 Squadron, Binbrook, c1969, fitted with
jettisonable overwing fuel tanks.
In late 1965 No.5 became the first unit to
receive the F6, which was the last production
version of the Lightning for the RAF, and so
the last wholly British RAF fighter.
Juanita Franzi/Aero Illustrations © 2010

CANOPY
ENGLISH ELECTRIC LIGHTNING
F6 SPECIFICATION
Dimensions: Wingspan 34ft 10in; Length
55ft 3in; Height 19ft 7in
All-up weight: 42,000lb
Powerplants: Two 16,360lb wet-thrust
Rolls-Royce Avon 301
turbojets with variable
afterburning
Performance: Maximum speed 847mph
(Mach 1.1) at sea level,
1,320mph (Mach 2) at
36,000ft; Climb to 36,000ft,
2 minutes 30 seconds;
Service ceiling 55,000ft
Armament: Two Red Top short-range
infrared-seeking air-to-air
missiles, provision to
mount two 30mm Aden
guns in ventral pack
RED TOP MISSILE RADOME

All Jarrod Cotter

‘Gas guzzlers’
Well known for its thirsty appetite for, and shortage of
fuel, air-to-refuelling was vital to keep the Lightning
airborne for longer sorties. Here we present a pictorial
look at a variety of in-flight ‘tanking’ scenes.

At around 30,000ft above northern Germany, A Lightning F2A from

19 Squadron based at RAF Gütersloh makes a refuelling
rendezvous with a Victor tanker from RAF Marham in Norfolk
during November 1973. Note that the Lightning’s probe is about to
plug into the Victor’s port ‘basket’. Via Mike Spick

F1A XM179 of 56 Squadron takes on fuel from Vickers Valiant XD816

circa 1962. Via Gp Capt David Seward

52 aviationclassics.co.uk
 A Victor K2 refuelling a pair of 11 Squadron F6s in September 1974. Via Geoff Parselle

Another view of the 11 Squadron F6s with the Victor K2 in September 1974. Via Mike Spick

Three 56 Squadron F1As stay close to their

Valiant tanker ready for when they need to
take on more fuel en route to Akrotiri, No.74 Squadron F6 XR768 with overwing tanks fitted ‘fills up’ from Handley Page Victor
Cyprus, c1962. Via Gp Capt David Seward XH620. Time Line Images

EE Lightning 53
Binbrook
the Lightning years
Martyn Chorlton presents a look at
the famous Lincolnshire airfield
where from 1962 to 1988 the
Lightning reigned supreme.

Lightning F6 wearing
11 Squadron markings
and ‘RAF Binbrook’
prominently stenciled
on its pilot’s ladder.
Jarrod Cotter

F
or many, the loss of Binbrook
not only brought to an end the
career of the English Electric
Lightning, but was also the
beginning of the end for the old,
traditional Royal Air Force. It was a station
with a proud World War Two history and for
those lucky enough to serve there, it never
really felt like it had moved on much from
those wartime years. Of course, the war it
was now partaking in was a ‘cold’ one, and its
days would end when this long but stable
period of our history also came to an end.
Personally, my first and only experience of
Binbrook came in 1983 when my Air Cadet
squadron’s annual camp took place on the
north Lincolnshire airfield. I will never forget
spending a day in ASF (Aircraft Servicing
Flight), happily wire locking hydraulic pipes
inside an engineless Lightning F3. The
atmosphere was amazing, combined with the
noise and smells that went with the never
ending task of keeping the fighters flying.
Unbeknown to me, the Lightning was
entering its twilight years and those few hours
that I actually worked on one of the beasts will
stay with me forever. I think both Binbrook
and its Lightnings were a powerful recruiting
tool for those who were serious about joining
the RAF and, for those who were unsure,
certainly made up their minds that service life
was the way forward for them.
Spitfire PR.XIX PS853 at full throttle
across Binbrook as Lightning F3
XP695 formates even lower! A 64
Squadron Javelin can be seen
parked on the ASP in February
1964 during the ‘piston versus
supersonic’ AFDS trial.
F6 of 11 Squadron with
overwing tanks at low-level
above the North Sea.
All via author unless noted
ORIGINS
A large airfield was, first considered, north of
Binbrook village in 1935 and, four years later,
work began. Planned as a bomber airfield,
the site was 330ft above sea level and the
nearest town was Market Rasen, located over
seven miles to the south-west. Positioned in
the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds, the usual
clichés about airfields being windswept bleak
locations certainly applied to Binbrook.
Initially built with grass runways, the airfield
was very well equipped, with five large Type
‘C’ hangars dominating the skyline and
comfortable brick-built technical and
domestic buildings were warmly welcomed.
Binbrook opened in June 1940 within
1 Group Bomber Command, becoming home
to 12 and 142 Squadrons, flying the Fairey
Battle, not long after. By early 1942, both
units had moved on and Binbrook was
quickly upgraded to an ‘A’ Class bomber
station with three concrete runways capable
of handling the new generation of ‘heavies’.
Re-opened in May 1943, it was the
Australians of 460 Squadron flying the Avro
Lancaster, who made Binbrook their home
until July 1945. No.460 Squadron was an
outstanding bomber squadron which went on
to achieve many records. These included
flying the last Lancaster sorties for 1 Group
and Bomber Command and it is believed the
Australians dropped the highest tonnage of
bombs during World War Two, at
approximately 24,000 tons. All this came at a
cost, and during its 5700 sorties, the unit lost
140 Lancasters; the highest in the group.
Post war, 12 Squadron returned, now also
flying the Lancaster and was joined by 101
Squadron in September 1945. Nos.9 and "
EE Lightning 55
‘We’re going on a bear hunt!’ F6 XR754 of
5 Squadron achieves another successful
interception high over the North Sea.
617 Squadron moved in during 1946 and, over
the next decade, all four squadrons made the
transition to the Avro Lincoln and English
Electric Canberra almost side by side. The
pioneering twin engine jet bomber dominated
the 1950s at Binbrook, with 50, 109 and 139
Squadrons all operating the Canberra from
the airfield until 31 December 1959. The
following day, the airfield was placed under
Care and Maintenance and, within weeks, was
in the hands of Fighter Command.
FIGHTER COMMAND AND THE CFE
This new era with Fighter Command brought
about a period of expansion and change as
the airfield was modified to handle the RAF’s
next generation of jet fighters. The main
runway was extended from 6000 to 7500ft
and a pair of Operational Readiness Platforms
(ORPs) were built at either end. A pair of
‘Safeland’ barriers were fitted at both ends of
the main runway and a large Aircraft
Servicing Pan (ASP) was constructed along
the hangar line in front of the control tower.
Binbrook re-opened on 1 June 1962 and, on
22 August, 64 Squadron arrived from
Waterbeach with the Gloster Javelin FAW9. But
it was with the arrival of the Central Fighter
Establishment (CFE) during early October
1962 that the debut at Binbrook of the iconic
No.12 Squadron re-equipped with the Vickers Wellington II during its tenure at the airfield.
General purpose bombs and incendiary blocks in the foreground and the control tower at
the rear help to frame this typical World War Two Bomber Command scene at Binbrook.
56 aviationclassics.co.uk
Lightning was made. The CFE was made up of
three parts, the HQ and Day Fighter Combat
School (DFCS) moved in from West Raynham
and the Air Fighting Development Squadron
(AFDS) from Coltishall. Both the DFCS and
AFDS flew the Hunter and Meteor, while the
latter flew every mark of the Javelin plus the
Lightning F1, T4 and later the F2. By early
1963, the last Javelins had left to be replaced by
the Hawker Hunter F6.
The role of the CFE, which was first formed
at Tangmere in September 1944, was to develop
the skills of the RAF’s best fighter pilots. The
HQ element of the unit focused predominantly
on the activities of ‘enemy’ air forces. Detailed
studies were carried out on foreign aircraft,
their equipment and when known, the tactics
they employed. Once the information was
compiled, the CFE began the equally
challenging task of proposing and testing
tactics to deal with the enemy’s fighter aircraft.
The AFDS, under the command of Wg
Cdr J Nicholls, was staffed by the most
experienced and talented fighter pilots the
RAF had to offer. One of their main tasks was
to develop the tactics that the HQ element
had produced, which once applied from black
board to 40,000ft up, often changed. These
tactics at the time were primarily designed
for the Lightning, although the main fighter
in squadron service at the time was the
Hunter. Trials firing live missiles and guns
also took place as well as the development of
flight refuelling techniques.
The DFCS’s role was mainly to provide a
‘post graduate’ course for fighter leaders.
Once again, the best fighter pilots were
creamed off and, individually, their skills
were developed and expanded upon. The Day
Fighter Leader courses were also run
alongside Pilot Attacker Instructor and
Canberra Weapon Instructor courses.
On arrival at Binbrook, the AFDS brought
a pair of Lightning F1s and a single T4 XM973,
all of which were settled in between 1 and 5
October 1962. On 14 November, the first F2
arrived for the AFDS when XN771 was
delivered direct from the manufacturer. XN777
followed on 6 December but, while in the
capable hands of the CFE commandant, Air
Cdre EGL Millington, just 12 days later the
Lightning overshot the runway and was
damaged after engaging the Safeland barrier.
A complex combination of factors, mainly
centering in the aircraft’s auto-throttle system,
resulted in the accident which was beyond the
pilot’s control. Millington was uninjured but
the barrier caused severe damage to the
aircraft’s spine, rated at Cat 3. The jet was
back with the AFDS during February 1963.
A lack of aircraft and poor weather
conditions disrupted the AFDS tasks and this
was knocked again, when the unit’s only T4,
XM973, suffered an undercarriage collapse
on 22 January 1963. As the aircraft was about
to turn onto the main runway, a faulty
component within the undercarriage gave
way and the Lightning was left stranded. The
aircraft was destined to be confined to the
hangar until May 1963.
One of the first trials carried out by the
AFDS at Binbrook involved the USAF’s
Lockheed U-2s, which were operating
primarily from Upper Heyford in
Oxfordshire. While not possessing
supersonic performance, the U-2 was capable
of comfortably operating at heights in the
region of 70,000ft. Flying from Middleton St
George (home of the Lightning Conversion
Squadron and later 226 Operational
Conversion Unit [OCU]), the object of the
trial was to develop the best technique for
intercepting high altitude targets. Between 8
and 26 October 1962, 28 supersonic flights
Long serving Lighting T5
XS458 while serving with the
LTF in February 1978.
were made by the AFDS Lightnings, the vast
majority of them were proving flights,
although at least half a dozen were
interceptions achieved above 60,000ft. While
not all were successful, the trials proved that
the Lightning was more than capable of
intercepting a U-2. At the time, the Lightning
was in fact the only weapons system in the
world capable of reaching the U-2.
‘PISTON VERSUS SUPERSONIC’
By late 1963, the F2 began to leave the AFDS
but, the unit’s first Lightning F3, XP695, was
delivered on 16 January 1964. This particular
aircraft would take part in an interesting trial
that was the brain child of Wg Cdr Nicholls.
On his return from the Far East, where
Nicholls was involved with the ‘confrontation’
between Britain and Indonesia, he realised
that the piston powered fighters operated by
that country could prove to be quite difficult
to shoot down in a dogfight situation. The
Indonesian Air Force flew a large number of
North American P-51 Mustangs and
Binbrook was lucky enough to have a piston
engined fighter of its own on strength.
Former Battle of Britain Flight
Supermarine Spitfire PR.XIX PS853 was
supposed to be destined as a gate guard for
the station, but was competently being
maintained in airworthy condition. The
Spitfire’s performance was comparable with
the P-51 and the plan in February 1964 was to
conduct a trial between vintage piston power
and cutting edge supersonic power. Several
problems presented themselves to the jet
pilot; the most significant was that the piston
fighter offered only a very small target for
the Lightning’s infra-red missiles. If a clean
missile kill could not be achieved on the first
pass, then the Lightning would have to rely
on its twin 30mm Aden guns. However, the
closing speed between the two aircraft would
be extremely high and the chances of a gun-
only attack being successful were slim. If the
Lightning was to reduce speed and attempt to
shoot the piston aircraft down in a dogfight
situation, the smaller and more
manoeuvrable machine would definitely be
handed the advantage.
Eventually, an attack pattern evolved
where the superior power to weight ratio of
the Lightning was used to full effect.
Attacking from below, the Lightning would
“Serviceability was never
poor at Binbrook, thanks to
those engineers in their oil
drenched denims and
skinless knuckles!”
Lightning F2 XN726 belonging to the AFDS
taxies out for take-off in the summer of
climb from behind, exploiting the Spitfire 1963 at Binbrook.
pilot’s extensive blind spot, and hopefully
achieving complete surprise, would be
presented with a good view of the piston
fighter, giving the missile or guns the best
chance of hitting the target. The power and
phenomenal climb rate of the Lightning
would continue on upwards, past the piston
fighter, before it had any chance to bring its
own guns to bear. It is presumed that if the
enemy fighters were encountered at low- Lightning F6 (Interim) XR753 was the first
level, the Lightnings would not engage. In of the new breed and also the last aircraft
any case, the Indonesian confrontation soon to be evaluated by the AFDS at Binbrook.
passed and the potential encounter with a This aircraft enjoyed a long and varied
much slower enemy never came to fruition. career and survives today in excellent
In fact, the Lightning was destined never to condition at the Tangmere Museum.
be involved in any aerial combat during its
entire service with the RAF.
AFDS strength steadily increased through
1964 with the Lightning F3 becoming the
dominant mark, although there were never
more than four on the unit. Trials continued
at a good rate and, during the year beginning
March 1964, 689 Lightning sorties were
flown by the AFDS. The final and ultimate
mark of Lightning was received by the AFDS
on 16 November 1965. Lightning F6 (Interim, Two-seat T5 XS451 was the first Lightning to
often initially referred to as the F3A, F3* and serve with 5 Squadron, arriving at
F3 ER) XR753 was to be the last aircraft Binbrook on 19 November 1965. This was
evaluated by the AFDS before the CFE was another airframe that had a very long
disbanded on 1 February 1966. XR753 flying career, becoming one of just a
possibly served at Binbrook longer than any handful to end up on the civilian register.
other aircraft and was one of the last to leave Purchased by Barry Pover and given the
the airfield on 25 May 1988. registration G-LTNG, the CAA put the stops
In the meantime, Binbrook’s resident on it flying in United Kingdom airspace.
squadron was joined by 85 Squadron, Sold on to Thunder City, the T5 was
bringing the back the Canberra. No.85 transported to South Africa and re-
Squadron arrived from West Raynham on 25 registered as ZU-BEX where it continued
April 1963 with the task of carrying out target another nine years of flying. Sadly on 14
towing for air-to-air and radar interceptions. November 2009 the Lightning crashed,
The squadron also flew the Gloster Meteor, killing test pilot Dave Stock.
but it was the Canberra that was the
dominant type with over 20 on strength at its
peak. Both 64 Squadron and the CFE took
full advantage of this in-house facility and 85
Squadron continued in this role at Binbrook
until it returned to West Raynham on 28
January 1972.
From September 1964, 64 Squadron had
been deploying their Javelins to the Far East
to reinforce the FEAF in Malaysia. By early
1965, it was clear that the squadron was No.11 Squadron’s F6 XS920 shows the
better employed in this theatre and, on 29 unique overwing tank system that could
March 1965, the entire flying element of " be fitted to this mark of Lightning.
EE Lightning 57
the unit departed for Tengah. A large
proportion of squadron personnel remained
at Binbrook to be absorbed into the station
strength with others forming a short-lived
Javelin Servicing Flight.
The AFDS did not fully disband when the
CFE was wound up in early 1966, but was
renamed the Fighter Command Trials Unit
(FCTU). The FCTU continued trials on the
new Lightning F6 using XR752 and XR753. It
was also responsible for establishing another
new Lightning unit known as the Target
Facilities Flight (TFF) when the FCTU was
established on 1 February 1966. The need for
target aircraft capable of reaching supersonic
speeds was obvious since the introduction of
the Lightning. As the older F1 and F1A marks
were becoming surplus to requirements,
several would go on to serve as target aircraft
for the front line squadrons. Having already
served with 74 Squadron and 226 OCU,
Lightning F1 XM164 was the first of many to
enjoy a new lease of life with the TFF. When
the FCTU disbanded on 30 June 1967, the
TFF became an autonomous unit, briefly
serving with 5 Squadron during 1970 before
being disbanded on 31 December 1973.
FIRST LIGHTNING
SQUADRON ARRIVES
During July 1965, resurfacing work took
place on the main runway and the ASP was
made even larger to accommodate at least
two squadron lines. Binbrook was about to
become the birthplace to a new front line
Lightning squadron.
No.5 Squadron was an experienced fighter
unit with an extensive World War One and
Two history. It entered the jet age in 1950 in
West Germany with the DH Vampire,
followed by the DH Venom, Meteor and
Javelin. The first personnel arrived at
Binbrook on 7 October 1965 from
Geilenkirchen having left their Javelin FAW9s
behind. Under the command of Sqn Ldr LJ
Hargreaves, the squadron was well aware that
they were about to receive the Lightning F6.
However, it must have come as something of
a disappointment when their first aircraft,
Hunter T7A WV318, arrived on 8 November.
Fitted with Lightning instrumentation, the
Hunter allowed training to begin before the
unit’s first Lightning, T5 XS451, arrived just
11 days later. The flow of Lightnings was
painfully slow, with just three F6s on strength
(the first RAF Squadron to receive this mark)
before the year was out. It was not until
March 1966 that the squadron could boast a
full complement of aircraft and it was some
time before the unit could be declared fully
operational on the type but, once it was, it
was destined to become the longest serving
Lightning unit in RAF history.
Delays in becoming operational were
aggravated by the fact that the F6s the
squadron had received were the early interim
version. Once upgraded to full F6 standard,
one of the main features of the new mark was
its unique ability to carry over-wing fuel
tanks. Although the additional weight of
these achieved very little advantage, they
were useful on long range endurance flights.
58 aviationclassics.co.uk
Three-ship of 5 Squadron F6s wearing differing shades of air defence grey paintwork above
the clouds over the North Lincolnshire coastline in November 1987, just over a month before
the RAF’s longest serving Lightning unit re-equipped with Tornado F3s and made the short
move to Coningsby. Geoffrey Lee/Planefocus
Coupled with the ability to air-to-air refuel, it
was known for the Lightning F6 to stay
airborne for up to eight hours. In May 1968,
four of 5 Squadron’s Lightnings, with the help
of Handley Page Victor air-to-air refuelling
and the over-wing tanks, flew 4000 miles non-
stop direct to Bahrain in just eight hours.
Setting the standard for these record
breaking flights, the squadron carried out a
similar trip to Tengah in late 1969.
Operations from Binbrook soon settled
into a continuous round of Quick Reaction
Alerts (QRAs), intercept training, exercises
and detachments. No.5 Squadron quickly
became very comfortable with their
Lightnings, winning the Dacre Trophy,
awarded to the top UK fighter squadron in
weapons proficiency in 1968, 1970, 1971 and
1978. The squadron also won the Huddleston
Trophy, awarded to the best NATO
interceptor squadron, in 1970 and 1971.
In June 1970, the unit received a pair of
Lightning F1As which had been serving with
the TFF. Quickly painted in 5 Squadron
markings, the two aircraft continued their
original tasking of being supersonic targets,
before becoming autonomous again as the
TFF in September 1972. A month later, 5
Squadron began to receive the Lightning F3
as well, to carry out a similar role of the
F1As. They mainly served the squadron in
the Air Combat Training role and the vast
majority of them remained in service as long
as their F6 counterparts.
ALL LIGHTNING STATION
With 85 Squadron’s departure in early 1972,
the scene was now set for Binbrook to
receive its second Lightning squadron. Re-
formed with the Lightning F6 at Leuchars in
1967, 11 Squadron was already a fully
operational and experienced fighter unit
when it arrived at Binbrook on 28 March
1972. Side-by-side, the two squadrons flew
daily sorties from Binbrook as part of their
duty with the Southern QRA area. During the
tense days of the Cold War, it was more often
than not, that an unidentified blip on a
controller’s screen would turn out to be
another probing Tupolev Tu-95 Bear flight.
Views of a Lightning formating close to one
of these propeller driven reconnaissance
aircraft high above the North Sea, came to
symbolize the stand-off between ourselves
and the Soviets. Remarkably, unlike the
Lightning, the Bears continue to fly their
probing missions, but today are met by the
high-tech Typhoon – some from the current
incarnation of 11 Squadron.
No.11 grew in size from October 1972
when, like 5 Squadron, it began to receive
batches of Lightning F3s for Air Combat
Training and supersonic target practice.
Further arrivals continued through 1974
when change was afoot at Coltishall as its
Lightning days were drawing to a close. First
came the recently formed Lightning Special
Engineering Project Team (LSEPT), which
moved in on 29 April 1974 and was destined
to remain at Binbrook until at least
December 1978.
More aircraft arrived when 226 OCU was
disbanded at Coltishall in September 1974. The
disbandment of this unit, in many eyes, may
have seemed a little premature considering the
RAF was still operating eight Lightning
squadrons. However, the air defence role that
the Lightning had been carrying out for so
long was already being allocated to a new
fighter, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom. By
1977, only Binbrook’s 5 and 11 Squadrons
would continue to fly the Lightning.
Such was the influx of aircraft following
the OCU’s demise, 11 Squadron increased "
 Very nice study of RAF Binbrook circa
1976 taken by a Canberra PR9, unusually
for the period shot in colour. At least 21
Lightnings are visible including a single
machine taxying to the top end of the
7500ft main runway. Note that close to
the lower end of the runway in this view,
the Q-shed can be seen with its direct
access to the threshold.

Once again the Canberra PR9 provides
us with an unusual view of Binbrook
during its last few months as a war
reserve airfield. As can be seen,
emergency services were still available
and the control tower was still manned
when this was taken on 14 August 1991.
Binbrook’s former Q-shed remains in
good condition in the middle of
agricultural land. Jarrod Cotter
Below: The Lightning Association’s F6
XR724 wearing a 5 Squadron badge on
the former ASP at Binbrook, seen in late
June 2010 just before the area which has
been gifted for a heritage centre held its
first open day. Jarrod Cotter
from a traditional two flight unit to three. ‘C’
Flight was formed from September 1974,
effectively becoming an in-house conversion
unit flying three Lightning F3s and three T5s.
The new flight also provided refresher as well
as conversion training before a permanent
solution was found. By 1975, it was clear that
the Lightning was going to be around for
some years and, on 1 October, the Lightning
Training Flight (LTF) was formed to take
over the role of ‘C’ Flight.
Virtually every airworthy Lightning that
was available was now flown to Binbrook as
other squadrons converted to the Phantom.
Only the F2As operated by 19 and 92
Squadron in West Germany were scrapped
or relegated to decoy duties. Far more
aircraft than were actually needed to equip
the three units at Binbrook were stored in
one of the Type C hangars. To spread flying
hours, these extra aircraft were introduced
to 5, 11 and LTF service, effectively
extending the life of all three units by many
years. Not all made it back into the air
though; Lightning F3 XP748 was placed on a
pole on the main gate on 29 May 1977
alongside Spitfire F.22 PK664. Ironically,
XP748 never served with a Binbrook based
unit during its entire career, despite being
displayed in 5 Squadron markings.
The Lightning was now about to enter its
third decade of service with the RAF, and
despite the trend for the nation’s air defence
swinging towards the Phantom, consideration
was given to forming a third squadron. By
1979, over 70 airframes were still available in
flying condition and several former Lightning
pilots were being selected for a new unit. The
Instant Readiness Reserve Unit (IRRU) was
established as a refresher unit for ex-
Lightning pilots, who may have spent their
previous tours in ground posts. It has been
suggested that the IRRU had a war role
which would transform it into 46 (Reserve)
Squadron if needed but this was never
officially recognised. The IRRU was re-
formed into the Lightning Augmentation
Flight (LAF) in late 1981, still carrying out
the same role. Flying the Lightning F3 and
F6, the LAF had disbanded by 1982.
Before the decade was out, a grand 25th
anniversary of the first flight of the English
Electric P1A was planned at Binbrook, in
August 1979. Rows of Lightnings were
immaculately turned out and several were
decorated with the badges of those
squadrons and units no longer flying the
type. A 25-ship and nine-ship formation
flypast was planned but, sadly the weather
above the Wolds would not allow it. Despite
the conditions, a four-ship flypast and a single
aircraft display was carried out while a 200
strong party viewed it through one of the
hangar doors. Those attending the event
included ex-English Electric test pilots
Roland Beamont, Jimmy Dell and Don
Knight, plus many more ex-Lightning pilots.
THE FINAL DECADE
As the Lightning entered the 1980s, there
was certainly a feeling within aircrew circles
that those who were serving with 5 and 11
Squadron were very lucky indeed. Whether
this feeling was shared with the ground
engineers who had to work long shifts
keeping the machine flying was another
story. It was a complex aircraft which
involved the onerous task of removing the
Rolls-Royce Avons to fix just about every
technical problem that occurred.
Serviceability was never poor at Binbrook,
thanks to those engineers in their oil
drenched denims and skinless knuckles!
QRA tasks continued by both squadrons
with the same old foe being regularly met
over the North Sea. Missile Practice Camps
(MPCs) at Valley and Armament Practice
Camps (APCs) at Akrotiri were also carried
out, but it was obvious to all in the RAF that
the Lightning’s days were finally coming to
an end. In practical terms, the Phantom,
which had been introduced to replace the
Lightning, was expected to be replaced by
the new fighter version of the Panavia
Tornado, the ill-fated F2 which led to the
more successful F3. The Lightning
squadrons were an expensive commodity to
maintain and with airframe hours dwindling,
a final Lightning show was organised at
Binbrook on 22 August 1987. Once again
though, the weather put paid to much of the
flying programme, but at least 11 aircraft did
get airborne to perform a memorable display.
With a cloud base of just 4000ft and the
heavens steadily emptying their contents, a
nine-ship formation was formed over
Mablethorpe, turning north towards
Immingham before flying immaculately over
a drenched Binbrook. The remaining two
aircraft performed and a fast low-level pass
over the airfield, the moisture they created as
they passed shrouded both aircraft in an
eerie mist.
The airshow was well attended by all of
the RAF’s current front line aircraft ranging
from the Victor, which had served alongside
the Lightning for so many years, through to
the Tornado F3 which would continue the
UK’s air defence well into the 21st Century.
Of all the RAF types attending that day, only
the Hawk, VC-10 and of course the Tornado
are still in service. As the weather improved
hangar doors were opened to the general
public to reveal 34 Lightnings which when
added to those ‘alive’ or ‘dead’ on the airfield
still totalled 70 airframes. Only 11 of these at
the time were classed as not being airworthy.
The Lightning F3s of 11 Squadron had
already bowed out by May 1986, most of
them having used up their airframe hours
during vigorous final airshow flying displays.
Likewise, the F3s of 5 Squadron had all been
grounded by September 1987; many of them
stripped of all useful spares and
unceremoniously parked on the other side of
the airfield to await the axe.
The work of the LTF was ended on 30
April 1987 and the RAF’s longest serving
Lightning squadron finally disbanded on 31
December 1987. Remaining in Lincolnshire,
the unit reformed the following day at
Coningsby, re-equipping with the Tornado F3.
Remarkably, rather than prepare for
disbandment themselves, 11 Squadron
remained operational during early 1988 and
maintained its QRA commitment, still
managing to squeeze a final MPC in. One
interesting final task the squadron carried
out was when several aircraft joined a British
Aerospace trial to assess the Foxhunter radar
fitted in the Tornado F3. By the end of April
1988, all operational commitments were
relinquished and, on 30 April 1988, the
squadron was also disbanded. The end was
not clinical though, as several pilots remained
at Binbrook, tasked with ferrying various
aircraft away to private collectors and
museums. XP748 was removed from the
main gate on 27 June 1988 for weapons trials
with the RAE, while the last aircraft left
Binbrook over the coming days, bound for
Cranfield in Bedfordshire, to become part of
the short-lived Arnold Glass collection. No.11
Squadron was also quickly re-formed as a
Tornado F3 unit at Leeming, Yorkshire, in
August 1988.
One of the hangars has been treated to a 5 Squadron badge as applied during the RAF
Lightning times, along with a suitable tribute highlighting that there is still a strong feeling
about the site’s heritage. Jarrod Cotter
SILENCE FALLS
Having started its days as a bomber station,
the now quiet Binbrook was chosen as the
flying location for the ‘fiction based on fact’
film Memphis Belle in the summer of 1989.
Several surviving Boeing B-17G Flying
Fortresses (made to look like B-17Fs for the
film) descended upon the airfield including
Sally B from Duxford. The spectacle was only
marred when one of the B-17s aborted its
take-off and crashed in flames beyond the
end of the main runway on 25 July. Luckily,
the crew all escaped serious injury.
The airfield was systematically sold off by
the MoD during the early 1990s although four
of the hangars and the flying field were
retained until it was finally declared surplus to
requirements on 2 July 1992. Three weeks
later, for many who still pined for the
Lightning years, a revelation occurred. On 23
July 1992, the sound of a pair of Rolls-Royce
Avon 301Rs was heard over the airfield once
again. Thanks to the efforts of the locally-
based Lightning Association, F6 XR724 was
delivered by British Aerospace test pilot Peter
Gordon-Johnson and was maintained in
running condition. XR724 was originally built
as a F3 in 1965 before being converted to F6
specification two years later, then moving onto
11 Squadron on 16 June 1967. The aircraft
also served with 5 Squadron and the LTF
before being used by the British Aerospace
Trials Flight at Warton. Today XR724, which
was originally stored inside one of the
hangars, resides out in the open – most
appropriately on the original ASP.
Further aviation-related activities arrived
at Binbrook in 1994, when Global Aviation set
up shop in the Type C hangar formerly used
by 5 Squadron. The main operations centered
on the refurbishment of ex-RAF Jet Provosts
which had recently been removed from
service. The company would eventually
purchase 65 Jet Provosts during its tenure at
the airfield. By 1997, Global also moved in
several ex-Botswana Air Force Strikemaster
Mk.87s, all of which were refurbished and
sold on to the civilian market.
Part of the MoD sell-off in the 1990s saw
the married quarters become the core of a new
village now known as Brookenby. The airfield,
although recognizable from the air, has since
had its runways virtually all removed although
the ASP and much of the perimeter track still
remains. The Type C hangars are all in use and
remnants of the Lightning years can still be
made out as 5 Squadron’s badge has been
replicated on one hangar. The vast majority of
the technical buildings have been put to good
use as an industrial estate, while the
accommodation blocks and messes are in a
sorry state although all remain standing. One
surprising survivor is the QRA shed which still
stands defiantly, now out in the middle of
cornfields rather than near the main runway
which no longer exists. Rather than housing a
pair of fully armed and fuelled Lightnings
ready to scramble, the shed finds a new use as
a store for farm equipment. The extensive and
well equipped control tower, which was
developed from the original World War Two
building, was unceremoniously reduced to
rubble during the mid-1990s.
Today only its foundations remain but
from these, there is hope, that the
establishment of a new Binbrook Heritage
Centre will rise from its remains. Work has
already begun on an area of approximately
one acre of land centering on the spot were
the control tower once stood. Thanks to this
land being donated by Winchester Marine,
the memory of Binbrook will hopefully be
preserved. On a recent visit to Binbrook,
myself and the editor met Ray Whiteley who
is the curator of LINCAIR (Lincolnshire
Aircraft Preservation Trust). His enthusiasm
will carry this important project along and
hopefully see XR724 under cover, although
her condition, despite having spent so long
exposed to the Wolds weather, is
considerably better than you might think.
Another Lightning, T5 XS457, also resides
at Binbrook although only the forward
fuselage is original. Eventually this will be
mated to the body of T55 ZF595 and the
wings of F53 ZF577. Also within the LINCAIR
area is another memorial to 460 Squadron,
while the original can still be seen within
Binbrook village. The later memorial was
dedicated in 1999 and has been positioned in
front of the airfield’s signals square (or Ident
Square) and is surrounded by benches and
freshly planted trees. We wish Ray and
LINCAIR every success for the future.
Binbrook will always remain one of the
country’s great airfield memories and while
enthusiasm for the Lightning remains as
strong as ever, this status will certainly be
maintained. It was an anachronism that will
never be repeated in an age where now, the
accountant rules, and defence cuts continue
to chop the RAF to the core. !
EE Lightning 61
 live on!
Lightnings

Richard Norris details the origins and current activities of the Lightning
Preser vation Group, which keeps two F6s in ground-running condition and
now most aptly housed in the former Wattisham Q-shed.

I
f 1987 was a depressing year for
Lightning enthusiasts, then 1988
seemed like the end of the world. We
all knew the inevitable had to happen,
but hope against hope, the Lightning
had enjoyed so many stays of execution. You
just prayed there would be a further delay
into service of its replacement, the Tornado
F3. This time it wasn’t to be and we all faced
the depressing double whammy of no more
Lightnings, and no more Binbrook. Not only
was this iconic aircraft finally to be put out to
grass, Fighter Town UK, as RAF Binbrook
had come to be known, was going to close.
The mood of foreboding intensified for the
Lightning’s final curtain call. During the
summer of 1987 two F3s were made available
for the ‘aeros’ season, and piloted by Flt Lt
Jon Fynes, the Lightning strutted its stuff on
the air show circuit for its last full year, with
retirement looming on 30 April 1988. On 22
August 1987 the ‘Last, Last Lightning Show’
was held at Binbrook; the end was nigh. As
an aside, fortunately an F6 and T5 made the
Mildenhall show in early May 1988 and
together closed the event with mind blowing
take-offs, circuits and high speed passes
along the crowd line followed by their famous
vertical climb outs.
As 1987 progressed and various air shows
were attended it became clear, and a concern,
that preservation of a Lightning appeared to
be a low order, apart from Stewart Scott and
John Jackson’s Lincolnshire Lightning
Preservation Society. They removed their
prize, F3 XP706, to the former RAF Strubby,
towed on the public highway by a tractor, in
December 1987. Many drivers scratched their
heads! Apart from this we had heard that an
F6 would be going to the RAF Museum at
Hendon, which in the event displaced the
unique and very historic P1B XA847; the first
British aircraft to reach Mach 2 in level flight.
FORMED AT CRASH GATE 3
With this low level of preservation activity it
was decided to form the Lightning
Preservation Group (LPG) at the highly
appropriate Binbrook crash gate 3 in the
summer of 1987. This embryonic gathering
initially comprised my brother Chris and I,
and had grown to all of six members by early
1988! We eventually totalled 12 by June 1988
and as of June 2010 we are at a dizzy 18. "

62 aviationclassics.co.uk
 The LPG’s newly-completed Q-shed at
Bruntingthorpe not only provides its two F6s with
vital protection from the elements, but is a historic
building in its own right and provides a most
appropriate Lightning museum environment. It is
seen in June 2010. Jarrod Cotter

Keith Hartley in
Lightning XS904
throwing up the
spray at the LPG’s
10th Anniversary
event in 1998.
Hugh Trevor

EE Lightning 63
 LPG’s XS904 while in service with
11 Squadron carries out a break
at Binbrook with fellow Lightning
F6 XS898. Dave Drummond
With the ventral tank removed, XS904’s No.1
engine highlights the complex nature of
maintaining Lightnings by a private
volunteer organisation. Jarrod Cotter

Both LPG Lightnings

prepare to launch for
a paired fast taxi run at
Bruntingthorpe in 2006.
Hugh Trevor

64 aviationclassics.co.uk
 As most readers know the Lightning was
the UK’s front line fighter during the Cold
War and served the RAF for almost 30 years.
The prototype, known as the English Electric
P1, carried out its maiden flight on 4 August
1954, and following massive development and
testing programmes over the following six
years, it entered RAF squadron service as the
Lightning F1 at RAF Coltishall in 1960. Its role
to defend UK airspace from any threat, was
carried out without missing a beat, until 1988
when it was finally put out to grass. Just to
take a moment to reflect, this was the aircraft
“What a strange feeling to see
a supersonic jet fighter fly
over at tremendous speed,
carry out an unofficial display,
and a few minutes later, it
lands, and ownership is
transferred from the MoD
to a bunch of civvies!”
that stood at constant readiness, 24/7, against
the threat of a Russian attack, whilst the UK
population slept safely in their beds. In reality
we probably all faced instant annihilation.
You might well ask “why did the LPG wish
to preserve a Lightning?” The answers are
many and varied. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, it
appeared that hardly any Lightnings were due
to be preserved on RAF retirement at the end
of April 1988. It was an all-British design and as
such is the only ‘home grown’ supersonic
aircraft to have served with the RAF.
It boasted unique features such as two
Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets, vertically stacked
within its slab sided fuselage, and wings
swept of some 60 degrees, giving it an arrow
head profile when viewed in plan form. The
aircraft introduced what is known as an
‘integrated weapons system’, where its
Ferranti radar and weapon system are linked.
Phenomenal performance with a rate of
climb of 50,000ft per minute, an operational
service ceiling of 60,000ft (over 11 miles;
88,000ft, 17 miles actually recorded!) and a
top speed of Mach 2.3 which in motoring
parlance converts to 1500mph. On retirement
from RAF service after 28 years in 1988,
there were still very few aircraft that could
match the Lightning’s performance. Reasons
enough I think as all this equals charisma
with a capital C.
So why retire it? After such a long
RAF service life the airframes were
stressed, and what is known as ‘airframe
fatigue life’ exhausted, the radar and weapons
systems, although once state of the art, were
now outdated.
HOW DO WE BUY A LIGHTNING?
During the summer of 1987 the LPG made
enquiries along the lines of “how do we buy a
Lightning?” Well, as in all these things, you
quickly learn the ropes and the modus
operandi of how you go about it.
You have to apply to the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) and ask to be registered on
their tender system which involves an amount
of paperwork (there’s a surprise). Thereafter
you are sent details of military hardware that
you can tender for with sealed bids.
After a viewing day at RAF Binbrook, we
sent our bid to the MoD. Being ‘new kids "
EE Lightning 65
1. 2.

3. 4.

on the block’ we didn’t think we stood a Following an

chance of obtaining an airframe, as on the engine run LPG
viewing day some 30 different groups and members discuss
museums were present. It therefore came as its success.
massive surprise when we were informed Jarrod Cotter
that our bid for one of the seven airframes on
the tender had been successful. We were now
going to be the owners of our own jet fighter
which would be flown from Binbrook.
And where do you take your Lightning?
Fortunately we had been introduced to the
Walton family, the owners of Bruntingthorpe
airfield, Leicestershire. We had briefed them of
our plans and they gave our project their
blessing. A perfect solution and the LPG would
not exist without the Walton family’s support.
The MoD requirement of a safe and
useable runway was met in full with 10,000ft
available. Reality suddenly kicked in and we
quickly had to become expert at making such
arrangements for air traffic control and the
fire service to attend the arrival of the
aircraft. So on 24 June 1988, a fine summer’s
day, Lightning F6 XR728, made its
spectacular arrival at Bruntingthorpe. What a
strange feeling to see a supersonic jet fighter
fly over at tremendous speed, carry out an
unofficial display, and a few minutes later, it
lands, and ownership is transferred from the
MoD to a bunch of civvies!
Initially the engines, two Rolls-Royce Avon
turbojets, were to be recovered, but three
days before delivery the RAF offered us the
opportunity to keep them; yes please! So now
we we’re into a completely new era with a
supersonic jet fighter with engines intact. So
we took advice and asked:
“What’s the best way to preserve a
Lightning?” Answer: “run the engines every
28 days.”
And that’s what we’ve been doing for the
past 22 years. It’s not quite as easy as it "

66 aviationclassics.co.uk
 5.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE Q-SHED

1. Two 11 Squadron Lightnings on Southern 6.
QRA inside RAF Binbrook’s Q-shed in 1987.
2. The LPG’s Q-shed kit of parts, April 2005.
3. Vertical supports in place, May 2005.
4. Andy Bonsell, Richard Norris, Roly Elliott,
Bob Tuck and Dave Bonsell painting the
Q-shed, June 2005.
5. Door frames in place, June 2005.
6. Roof supports erected, August 2005.
All Hugh Trevor
7. All cladding fitted, concertina type doors in
place, jets inside, front doors pulled open –
job done! June 2010. Jarrod Cotter
7.

Lightnings were at constant readiness in Q-sheds on the vanguard of the

RAF’s defence of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, during the
No.11 Squadron Lightning F6 XR758 BF on ‘Southern Q’ at RAF Cold War. Both of the LPG’s jets represent this as they stand in the LPG’s
Binbrook in July 1987. Hugh Trevor recently-completed Q-shed at Bruntingthorpe. Jarrod Cotter

Binbrook Station Commander

Gp Capt John Spencer’s
personal jet was F6 XR728,
which went on to become the
LPG’s first preserved Lightning.
Via François Prins

EE Lightning 67

A heat haze is emitted from the exhaust pipe of XS904’s No.2 engine after a test. Jarrod Cotter
sounds as the Lightning’s maintenance level
in RAF service equated to 20 hours
maintenance to 1 hour’s flying, and that’s
with highly trained technicians. As with many
other museums we are all volunteers without
the necessary skills, but we adopted a steep
learning curve with Roly Elliott and Pete
O’Callaghan, two ex-RAF chief technicians,
who subsequently joined our ranks, showing
us the complicated ropes. Fortunately, Jim
Featherby, our Engineering Manager’s day
job in industry has provided him with the
skills required to lead our dedicated team in
dealing with our complex machinery. Until
recently, all this has been carried out in the
middle of a windswept airfield.
NOT ONE, BUT TWO
And so we move to chapter two of our story
when the LPG decided to acquire a second
Lightning. After the RAF had stood the
aircraft down in 1988 three aircraft went
back to their birthplace, Warton airfield
in Lancashire which, through the
years, had English Electric,
68 aviationclassics.co.uk
View from the cockpit as XS904 is pushed
back into the Q-shed. Jarrod Cotter
“It’s not quite as easy as it sounds as the Lightning’s maintenance
level in RAF service equated to 20 hours maintenance to 1 hour’s
flying, and that’s with highly trained technicians.”
British Aircraft Corporation, British Many people ask “will they ever fly in UK
Aerospace and now BAE as its owners. The air space again?” The answer is that due to
Panavia Tornado F3 was in production and the vast amount of money required, the lack
the Lightnings were to act as high speed of spares, and Civil Aviation Authority’s
targets so the Tornados could test their refusal to allow an aircraft, faster than
Foxhunter radars. A wonderful and Concorde, to fly on the civil register, the
unexpected stay of execution until late 1992 answer is an emphatic “no”. We do, however,
when the programme was completed. do the next best thing by travelling down
Again we entered the tender system and Bruntingthorpe’s two mile runway up to
success repeated itself with our bid being 175mph with both afterburners lit.
accepted and XS904 made the world’s last
military flight of a Lightning when it flew Q-SHED
from Warton to Bruntingthorpe on The third part of the Lightning story
21 January 1993. concerns a rare artefact from the Cold War
The maintenance headache was now that housed two Lightnings at constant
compounded, but we have soldiered on and readiness against the threat of attack from
tackled the many and varied tasks to keep the Eastern Bloc. The normal layout of an
both aircraft in fully functional condition – RAF airfield would mean that at the point of
just! As an example we have recently the alert being raised to scramble, an aircraft
changed XS904’s No.2 (top) engine. might have to taxi up to two miles from the "
Typical scene during an LPG working day –
even the former RAF Transit van conjures up
memories of the 1980s! Jarrod Cotter
Above: Below the panels lies
more complex mechanical
components crammed into
a tight space. Jarrod Cotter

With a replacement No.2

engine newly-installed, XS904
is taken out of the Q-shed for
a test run. Jarrod Cotter

EE Lightning 69
XR728 looking for all
its worth as though it
could still hold its own
on ‘Southern QRA’.
Jarrod Cotter

70 aviationclassics.co.uk
 LPG members replace
the ventral tank on
XS904. Jarrod Cotter

hangar apron to the runway threshold. Wattisham Q-shed was to be demolished in Construction, they donated the hangar to the
Every moment is vital and to avoid this order that a new search and rescue hanger LPG in early 1994. It’s a fairly substantial
delay three front line RAF airfields had could be constructed. We were quickly on the building being 70ft deep, 110ft wide and 30ft
purpose-built hangars constructed adjacent case as the possibility of housing our two high – so this ‘gift’ was generous indeed. It took
to the runway threshold. Lightnings in their purpose-built hangar had much detailed work to dismantle the structure
These buildings, known as Quick Reaction been a long term dream of the LPG. so that it would be in a fit state to rebuild with,
Alert hangars, or shortened in RAF parlance The acquisition of the hangar would fulfil for instance, the steel upright footings having to
to Q-sheds, were in the vanguard of the RAF’s three objectives: firstly the building is be drilled out of toughened concrete to a depth
defence of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 historic and unique in its own right; secondly of 18 inches. Next, we had to hire five 40ft
days a year. As the threat was from the East, it provides vital cover for both aircraft; and trailers to bring all the assorted steel, cladding
these Q-sheds were based bordering the thirdly it serves as a museum of the Cold War and folding doors to Bruntingthorpe.
North Sea at Leuchars in Scotland, Binbrook period, and the Lightning in particular. Again our hosts at Bruntingthorpe, the
in Lincolnshire and Wattisham in Suffolk. In After much begging and presenting our Walton family, fully appreciated the historic
late 1993 we were made aware that the case to the MoD and Trafalgar House importance of the Q-shed and allocated a
suitable plot of land for reconstruction. We
“These buildings, known as Quick Reaction Alert hangars, or then applied for planning permission, which
shortened in RAF parlance to Q-sheds, were in the vanguard of the thankfully attracted much support
nationwide, thus ensuring the approval was
RAF’s defence of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” easier than we anticipated.

XS904 on a fast taxi

BUILT ON GENEROSITY
It was all looking very positive until we
run in wet conditions
received reconstruction estimates of around
with both engines on
£250,000 from recognized building
reheat making a
companies. This was way out of our reach, so
dramatic scene. LPG
the Heritage Lottery Fund was approached as
we appeared to tick all the boxes. There is no
doubt that we did qualify on all fronts, but as a
lease wasn’t available for the land we were to
occupy, we couldn’t pursue this route.
A massive fundraising campaign was then
planned, the kingpin of the scheme being
your name recorded on a ‘Donors Board’ for
a minimum £50 contribution. Very similar to
‘buy a brick’ with other schemes, it has
worked incredibly well with over £130,000
being raised to date. By careful planning and
‘begging’ the building, as of June 2010, is "

EE Lightning 71
 XR728 in the
Q-shed at night in
November 2008.
Hugh Trevor

now complete. Inevitably there will always be
maintenance of the building to attend to, so
fund raising continues.
It’s been a long but satisfying haul and our
18 members have proved just what civvies
(apologies to our three ex-RAF members)
can achieve if they have the will and
determination. The completed Q-shed and
two live Lightnings are testament to our
combined efforts.
Just as an aside, in the mid-1960s the
Royal Saudi Air Force purchased some 42
Lightnings, that, at the time, was the largest
export order the UK had ever received. This
project continued into the 1980s with the
Tornado contract and is now current with the
Eurofighter Typhoon. The Royal Kuwait Air
Force also purchased 14 Lightnings.
Just as a further aside, I would like to
quote Sir Frederick Page’s final assessment
of the Saudi Lightning programme from
Stewart Scott’s Lightning book: ‘The great
thing is that the project was so successful in
spite of all the obstacles, and BAE is today
still earning money from the Al Yamanah
project as a direct fall-out from BAC’s
presence in Saudi Arabia due to the ‘Lighting the pipes’ of XS904 on a dark wet
Lightning and other associated projects.’ ! day has dramatic results. LPG

GET ‘UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL’

WITH THE LIGHTNINGS
To contact the LPG write to: Richard Norris,
2 Springhill, Little Staughton, Bedfordshire,
MK44 2BS. Tel: 01234 378827.
If you wish to view the group’s progress
visit its website: www.lightnings.org.uk –
there is a link to the message board where
you will find the Q-shed rebuild story under
‘update on current project status’.
The Bruntingthorpe Cold War Collection
is open on Sundays from 10:00 to 16:00hrs.
LPG members also tend to be on site most
Saturdays, but please contact them before
you intend to visit. This is supplemented
with three public open days per annum,
so there are plenty of opportunities to ‘get
up close and personal’ with the Lightnings.

Right: Both LPG Lightnings return from a

paired fast taxi run in 2006. Hugh Trevor

72 aviationclassics.co.uk
Thunder
City Over the past twelve years
the world’s only remaining
flying Lightnings have been
operated in South Africa.

XR773 rolls on
reheat over the
South African
countryside.
All Ian Black
unless noted

74 aviationclassics.co.uk
 Former BAe Lightning F6
XP693 (ZU-BEY) hurtles
into the wild blue
yonder with reheat lit.

A
fter valiant attempts by British
engineers over several years to
get permission for privately-
owned Lightnings to fly the
UK, it wasn’t until four were
bought by Mike Beachy Head of Thunder
City, Cape Town, South Africa, that the
mighty jet returned to the sky. Mike’s first
aircraft to fly was T5 XS452, which by then
registered as ZU-BBD carried out its post-
restoration maiden flight on 18 March 1998.
This was followed by a second two-seat T5,
XS451 (ZU-BEX) a year or so later.
Then, in November 2001, F6 XR773
(ZU-BEW) took to the skies again offering
the sight of the classic jet fighter in its single-
seat form flying at airshows. Last to fly was
former BAe test aircraft XP693 (ZU-BEY),
which returned to the air in 2006. At that
year’s trade day at the South African "

XS451 (ZU-BEX) seen off the coast near Cape

Thunder City’s Lightning pilots caught in a happy moment after the four-ship formation. From Town. Sadly Dave Stock was lost with this T5
left to right: Dave Stock, Ian Black, Mike Beachy Head and Keith Hartley. Via Ian Black on 14 November 2009.

EE Lightning 75
 Dramatic shot from
on board T5 ZU-BEX at
the back of the
Thunder City four-ship
Lightning formation in
September 2006.

View out of T5
ZU-BEX while
in formation
with F6 XR773
(ZU-BEY).

76 aviationclassics.co.uk
Aerospace Defence week on 21 September
2006 at Ysterplaat, the clear blue Cape sky
was shattered by the roar of eight Rolls-
Royce Avons in afterburner. In diamond
formation, the four privately-owned
supersonic jets stole the show in front of a
70,000-strong audience.
Thunder City also operates Hawker
Hunters and HS Buccaneers, in which it
offers passenger flights. So it was that the
two-seat Lightning T5s were made available
for this, thus realising an otherwise
impossible dream for many enthusiasts who
had admired the RAF jet fighter throughout
their lives.
After an impeccable safety record over the
previous 11 years, while flying an airshow
display at the SAAF’s TFDC Bredasdorp on
F6 XP693 caught
above the clouds
from a most
unusual viewpoint.
ZU-BBD framed
perfectly over Cape
Town, with the flat top
of Table Mountain
particularly prominent.
14 November 2009 ZU-BEX crashed and pilot
Dave Stock sadly died. Mike Beachy Head
commented: “Dave has been involved with
Thunder City for the past 10 years and his
loss is immeasurable and he is irreplaceable.
We will greatly miss his dry sense of humour,
camaraderie and his extraordinary
knowledge of flying. He was a mild
mannered, confident and highly skilled pilot,
who was a true gentleman of the skies.
“We salute his courage and determination
to survive until the end. We remember Dave
as ‘one of the few’, who flew the Lightning to
the lofty heights on the edge of the
stratosphere, where the deep blue of space
arches above while the curvature of the earth
can be seen below. He will always be
remembered with deep respect and
admiration by all at Thunder City.” !
We dedicate Ian Black’s stunning photos of the
Thunder City Lightnings presented here to the
memory of Dave Stock.
www.thundercity.com
EE Lightning 77
F3 XR749 goes vertical
wearing its special paint
scheme to mark the 10th
anniversary of the
Lightning Training Flight.
All author unless noted
A Lightning
LifeIan Black recalls the Lightning Training Flight
syllabus and describes his feelings during early
flights in the supersonic jet fighter.
D
riving up that steep hill to
historic RAF Binbrook in
Lincolnshire on a cold grey
February day over 25 years
ago is still etched firmly in my
mind. I had just finished what was probably
the longest and most circuitous route to get
to fly the Lightning that any pilot had to
endure – 27 years to be exact, of dreaming
and wishing to one day be given the keys to a
boyhood dream.
It had started a little after my birth when
my father had been posted to a very shiny
supersonic fighter recently christened
‘Lightning’ when he joined 74 ‘Tiger’
Squadron and later went on to command two
operational squadrons (111 and 5) as well as
being the Chief Flying Instructor on the
Operational Conversion Unit – it was going to
be a hard act to follow! I had left school
hankering to be a fighter pilot, but dabbled
with a stint in the Army followed by a brief
affair as a back seater flying the legendary
F-4 Phantom before gaining my wings and
moving into the front seat.
The period was the mid-1980s and the
RAF was changing at a rapid rate. The Cold
War was thawing and the tension between
the West and East easing at a fast pace.
Change was so rapid it was hard to keep up –
aircraft had been toned down, once painted
camouflage they had now gone dull grey in
the space of a decade. The RAF had lost its
‘flyboy’ debonair image and gone into
overdrive as a war machine in waiting.
The emphasis was on training for real and
the days of massed flypasts and formation
aerobatics were long gone. This was a period
where the peacetime RAF was honed to a fine
point ready to strike at short notice.
Ironically, history would prove that the
emphasis on Cold War ops was short-sighted
and future conflicts would be long-range
operations much further afield.
My allegiance to the Lightning was
obvious. My father had become ‘Mr
Lightning’ and just as every young boy
wanted to emulate his father, on completion
of tactical weapons training my wish was
granted and I was posted to RAF Binbrook –
the Lightning’s last lair. I was no stranger to
the base as I had spent time there as a boy
when my father was OC 5 Squadron. I knew
its history and was under no illusions how
foreboding the place was.
Steeped in history, it had been a World War
Two bomber base – in fact little of the
infrastructure had altered. It still held a certain
mystic about it, almost bordering on the
paranormal. I knew how many aircrew had
made the ultimate sacrifice from this airfield
and my respect for them was huge. The layout
of the base was typical of the period. The
entrance was flanked by an austere building
know as the main guardroom. No guards
though, just drive in and register your vehicle –
unthinkable today. To the left a more modern
building which serviced the Lightning radars,
otherwise little had changed from 1945.
LIGHTNING’S ‘LAST LAIR’
The hangars were typical of the period, five in
a crescent shape all full with English
Electric’s finest crammed in like shiny
sardines. With the rundown of every other
Lightning unit, Binbrook held over 70
airframes – from a total of around 350 built.
The rest had been scrapped or written off.
The majority were the long range F6s, but a
few early lightweight F3s also clung on to life.
Sadly for me, the two seat T5 was also in
presence. The days of being given a set of
pilot’s notes and then a blindfolded check
round the cockpit were history. Frankly,
however, even now with 2500 hours fighter
time and a total flying time of 14,000 hours I
would be extremely nervous to undertake a
first solo in such a style! "
EE Lightning 79
 Day one of any RAF course is always fairly
daunting – normal procedure is to get
bombarded with briefs, handouts,
presentations and end up in the bar the same
evening totally confused as to what lies
ahead. The Lightning conversion procedure
had undergone some fairly major changes
over the years. As alluded to earlier, before
the advent of trainer aircraft it was all done
with single seat variants, but this changed
with the arrival of the T4 and early F1s
initially at RAF Middleton St George, then a
period of stability followed as the OCU
became 145 Squadron at Coltishall with a mix
of F1As, T4s and T5s.
As the Lightning force ran down a few
Mk.3s arrived to supplement the retired F1s,
however with the run down a decision was
made to pool all the RAF’s remaining
Lightnings at RAF Binbrook – which was to
become the Lightning’s ‘Last Lair’. When I
went through the Tactical Weapons Unit
course at RAF Brawdy, it was looking likely
I’d just miss out on the legendary Lightning
and end up going back to the Phantom – not
where I wanted to be at all and I also had no
desire to fly ground-attack – in fact I think I’d
rather have flown helicopters! The mere
thought of spending my life with my hair on
fire rushing round at 250ft in bad weather
with everyone trying to shoot me down was
not my idea of fun.
The life of a ‘real’ fighter pilot held a
certain mystic to a young man – dashing
deeds of British airman, the Battle of Britain
spirit, carefree flying, air combat and the
thrill of the chase. Of course the old saying of
“you’re only as good as your last flight” was
never truer than flying fighters in the RAF.
Having flown the dwarf like Hawk
obviously to some degree of skill, and been
selected to fly the Lightning, I was now in no
doubt that I was nowhere near being a fighter
pilot! In fact, I actually felt like I was learning
to fly – a walk around the Lightning Training
Flight (LTF) left me with a certain sense of
foreboding. Could I really master the
Lightning or would I end up like so many
A pair of Lightning F6s
with XR728 leading
taxy out at RAF
Binbrook, October
1987. Hugh Trevor
80 aviationclassics.co.uk
XR773 glints in a winter Lincolnshire sunset at Binbrook.
fledgling pilots before me, with a small hand-
drawn axe above my head on the obligatory
course photo – ‘chopped’. Having come this
far there was no way I was ever going to end
up axed – the prospect of being sent to the
Canberra, even older than the Lightning,
didn’t bear thinking about.
As there were normally only two to three
students per course, life was pretty sedate
initially. A week’s ground school followed by a
week in the simulator. The Lightning aircraft
systems are fairly straightforward, with no
high tech devices fitted, so it’s pretty much an
airframe, two big engines, some hydraulics to
power the flying controls (no manual back up)
and some crude electrics. Add to this some
ancillary stuff like oxygen supplies, ejection
seats and fuel systems and that’s it. The
weapon systems briefs came in part two of the
course, once you’d passed the flying tests.
For anyone unfamiliar in 2010 of what the
Lightning was like as an aircraft, it’s perhaps
worth running through a few facts and
figures. Over 50 feet long and with a wingspan
of 34 feet, the Lighting is a big fighter – with a
weight of 27,000lbs and 40,000lbs for a fully
loaded F6 it’s also quite heavy. Of major
concern is the height at 19 feet, with a cockpit
that sits some 12 feet up in the air.
WALK ROUND AND STRAPPING-IN
With the ground school phase complete (two
weeks) it was time to return to the LTF to
start the flying phase proper. Standard format
was five dual sorties of around 30 minutes
each followed by a solo sortie. In the old days
at RAF Coltishall, the first solo was often
completed in a two-seater to allow familiarity
with type. However, the LTF had moved on
and the first solo was always done in a single
seat F3. With hindsight the Hawk was not a
great lead-in aircraft to fly the Lightning. A
product of the late 1970s the BAe Hawk was
very nimble, had a roomy cockpit and
handled with very few vices. The Hunter,
which had preceded it, was much better
suited as an ab inito trainer to the Lightning,
but sadly they were no longer used.
My first training flight (I had actually had
a couple of flights prior to this to satisfy my
curiosity!) was in XS419 along with my
instructor Flt Lt John Fynes. The history of
the aircraft I knew well. Built in 1964, it had
served pretty much exclusively with the OCU
apart from a short spell with 23 Squadron at
RAF Leuchars. Having gone from silver to
camouflage, it was now a very dirty light grey
and nearing the end of its life. By co-
incidence it was also the last aircraft I flew on
the LTF just days before it ran out of fatigue
life. Having been briefed to death about every
aspect of what we were about to do on
conversion (Convex CVX1), it was with some
trepidation that I walked out to the line hut
on a cold October morning for my first flight
in anger. Unlike the rest of the RAF in the
late 1980s Binbrook still had a flight line,
although unlike pristine versions elsewhere
Binbrook’s was awash with fuel and oil, left
by leaking Lightnings. Ask anyone who’s
been up close to a Lightning and they’ll tell
you it’s an awesome beast – purposeful and
full of character waiting to be flown.
Having read the Form 700 – the aircraft’s
logbook – and signed for the jet the first job
is to look in the cockpit and check the aircraft
is safe for flight. General airmanship dictates
that the parking brake is on or at least the
aircraft is chocked, any armament switches
are in the guarded safe position and most
importantly the ejection seat is pinned safe.
On trip one your instructor walks around
the aircraft and shows you what to check
pre-flight. The Lightning is a bit special on
the walk round side, as most people would
probably decide not to fly it having inspected
it! Primarily the reason for this is the
constant leaking of fuel – not normal on
other aircraft types. The secret is to know
where the leak is coming from. If it’s from a
drain mast or vent that’s fine, anywhere else,
for example in between a panel or under the
engine, is cause for concern. Down the back
of the airframe are a series of small gauges
telling you the various system pressures,
though now barely readable due to some
scruffy paintwork.
Moving up the left side of the aircraft
taking care not to smash your head on any
dangling panels like the gear doors, it’s a
good idea to check the tyres have plenty of
tread, as I was quickly to learn bursting a tyre
on landing was enough to spoil your
day! For this reason I always
put my ‘bone dome’ on
despite being told
in training not to do
it as “that’s what Soviet pilots do” – it at least
stops me gouging my skull. Back to the
cockpit and the tricky part starts – getting in!
Obviously when the designers at Warton
thought about building the Lightning they
gave little thought about how to get the pilot
in the cockpit. Ironically this was the talking
point in the LTF crew room in 1986. Twenty
miles south of Binbrook the RAF was just
introducing to service its replacement fighter,
the sleek Mach 2 Tornado ADV or so the
brochure said. In truth the ADV under-
performed the venerable Lightning in
virtually every respect.
However, the crux of the joke was getting
into the ADV, just like the Lightning and
Above: With everything down, F6 XR728
tucks in close ready for a pairs let down
back through the ‘murk’ into Binbrook.
Below: A wash of heat haze is left
behind as a Lightning lifts off.
unlike every US fighter it lacked an internal
ladder. It seemed the lessons of 1954 had
already been forgotten. To make matters
worse it was discovered the purpose-built
ladder for the ADV cost the tax payer
somewhere in the region of £55,000 each!
And so it was decided on the LTF that to save
costs the RAF should purchase a fleet of
Rolls-Royce cars and park them next to the
new ADV and just let its pilots climb on the
roof and into their new jets as a cheaper
alternative than the step ladders!
But back to the Lightning, it had an
equally Heath Robinson style of ladder to
gain access to the cockpit. Twisted and bent
the pilot negotiated the lance like a refuelling
probe then eased himself under the canopy
and into his seat. If that was awkward enough
the Martin-Baker ejection seat was also a
blast from the past and a far cry from the
simple Mk.10 seat I had just been using in
the Hawk. A myriad of different coloured
webbing straps all had to be laced through
buckles like some ancient form of origami
finally ending up in a central metal box that
acted as both a restraint and a quick release
mechanism. By the time the student had
strapped himself into the mighty Lightning
the instructor was already seated, strapped-
in with his arms folded
impatient to get on
with the task in
hand.
One of the drawbacks of the side-by-side
seating arrangement is the instructor can
monitor your every move – in fact in the twin-
seat Lightning you sit so close it’s
uncomfortable with frequent tactile touches
to put the young fighter pilot on edge!
Running through the left to right checks out
loud so the instructor can pick you up on any
omissions, it seems to take an age to ensure
all dials and levers are in the correct place.
How the operational pilots get airborne in
just a few minutes to me at this stage is a
mystery – how will I ever cope?
START-UP
With the cockpit now set up the critical phase
of the sortie is about to happen – engine
start. Like no other, the Lightning possesses
a pretty unusual starting method. The "
EE Lightning 81
Rolls-Royce Avons are huge and starting an engine change on a Lightning is a major
them is no mean feat. For reasons best known job, so caution is needed. With one engine
to English Electric and Plessey, they have running it’s time to signal to the ground crew
devised a system where a starter unit is fixed to disconnect the external power, bring the
to the front of the engine and into a chamber aircraft electrics on line and start No.2. At
is pumped under pressure a solution called this stage it’s apparent the Lightning also has
isopropyl nitrate, or NATO code name a unique electrical system called an air
AVPIN! This is nasty stuff – it’s corrosive, it turbine gearbox. Basically it uses air from the
makes your eyes sting, smells dreadful, oh, engine to drive a turbine that provides AC
and doesn’t need oxygen to burn! power, all very clever apart from the need to
I take the plunge, wave one finger in the keep one engine at ‘fast idle’ to keep the
air to let the ground crew know electrical supply on line. With
that I’m about to start No.1 “Ask anyone both engines running the flaps
engine, then pull up the rapid who’s been up and air brakes are checked, the
start gang bar – open the No.1 canopy is closed and the taxi light
HP fuel cock and gently press a close to a selected on.
small round button labelled Lightning and The whole start sequence has
‘Start 1’. Visions in my head run taken about two minutes, helped
riot of grainy black and white they’ll tell you in part by the aged design of the
films showing German Luftwaffe it’s an awesome aircraft with no modern avionics
pilots strapped to rocket to warm up. Releasing the stick
fighters, their eyes filled with beast – mounted brake the aircraft
impending doom as leather clad purposeful and surges forward. If you have ever
mechanics fill their tiny wooden
fighters with volatile chemicals
full of character seen a small child trying to take a
Doberman for a walk unsure who
called D stoff and T stoff, all waiting to is walking who, that pretty much
highly explosive. In a similar sums up the Lightning – grossly
fashion the Lightning ground
be flown.” overpowered on the ground for
crew are suitably attired with leather bibs the novice it’s a real challenge just taxying in
and leather gauntlets ready to extinguish a straight line. The technique is
any fire or uncontainable explosion. straightforward – squeeze the brake lever
As the starter button is pushed a high which in turn applies brakes and move your
pitch squeal emits from the spine where the foot forward in the direction you want to
Avpin tank sits – a gallon is sucked out and turn; simple enough but at first it’s an
fed into the combustion chamber. Instantly acquired skill.
the No.1 Avon starts turning indicated by the Trying to keep in a straight line it’s time to
RPM – lifting a small latch and opening the get on with the pre take-off checks, again
No.1 throttle allows fuel into the engine and pretty straightforward. At this stage of the
light up occurs. Now the most important dial syllabus the radar is turned on but not used,
is the JPT gauge, which rises rapidly. Within so the weapon checks are left till later on.
a couple of seconds temperatures can easily Depending on the type of take-off dictates
reach 800 degrees C, so it’s a bit of an art whether or not the flaps are selected down.
trying to gauge if the rate of rise is Reheat isn’t needed on the early sorties so
acceptable. If it looks like it’s going to over the flaps stay up. By now you’re approaching
temp then the HP cock is selected off. the holding point and several things have
With no modern protection systems in happened, firstly most of the fuel in the
place it’s up to the pilot to look after the ventral tank has been burnt giving you an
engines. An over temp is pretty serious and idea of how thirsty a jet this is. It does at least
allow you to know that the ventral is feeding
prior to take-off. A cursory glance around
your surroundings lets you know just how
cramped the cockpit is, especially in the
winter months when all fast-jet pilots are
wearing the full rubber one piece exposure
suits, otherwise known as ‘goon bags’. Now
it’s also very apparent just how poor the
lookout is with side-by-side seating. In fact
you can’t see out at all to the right!
82 aviationclassics.co.uk
TAKE-OFF
As you call for take-off extreme care is
needed turning onto the runway. The white
piano keys which mark the threshold are
extremely slippery when wet and the thin
high pressure tyres on the Lightning can
make you skid and slide all over the place,
not great on a formation take-off. However,
on this dry day you find yourself lined up
looking ahead at 7000ft of black tarmac. With
the ventral tank gauge dropping faster than a
stone the only option now is to get airborne.
A last chance check that the canopy is down
and locked, controls are full and free and all
pins removed, the throttles are slowly walked
forward to the max dry power range.
As you pass 92% the brakes are released
as the power is too much to hold and the
tyres will creep. On sorties 1 to 5 things
happen too quickly to take anything in. As
you reach max dry power, the nozzles move
and a check of the standby airspeed
instrument against the main strip speed
instrument shows you accelerating past 100
knots. With no capacity to look, in a brief
pause the Lightning is at 135 knots. Trying to
stay ahead of the game, a firm pull back on
the stick gradually brings the nose wheel off
the ground, then a light pull at about 150
knots gets the main wheels off the runway.
It’s important now to keep the rearwards
pressure on the stick as the aircraft seems to
sink and sit tail heavy. Trying not to look
inside, a quick feel for the undercarriage
lever and pull it up as the aircraft quickly
accelerates past 200 knots. A quick check in
the cockpit ensures three green lights go red,
then extinguish indicating the gear is up and
locked. Trying desperately to keep pulling
Two Lightnings blast
away from Binbrook,
with a single-seater
leading followed by a
two-seat ‘Tub’.
the nose up the Lightning is accelerating fast
and we hit 450 knots in the blink of an eye.
Sadly, the satisfaction of knowing you’ve
finally reached your goal of handling the
most charismatic jet fighter ever built is
missed – concentration is too intense and
your mind squeezed into your brilliant white
‘bone dome’ is totally pre-occupied with flying
this once silver machine.
With no exaggeration, a million impulses
are flooding your brain; a heady mix of fear,
excitement, trepidation and satisfaction all
rolled up into a pint sized glass of pure
adrenalin. Things are happening at alarming
speed, it’s hard to comprehend on Convex
(conversion) sortie 1 where to allocate
your priorities.
‘Heads in’ it takes precious extra seconds
to focus on the gauges that really matter –
three to be exact. The wing fuel tanks, and
the now empty underbody ventral. Initially
the early Lightings were clean, but it was
quickly apparent when the thirsty Avons
were fitted to production aircraft that extra
range and endurance would be essential if
the aircraft was to reach its full potential.
With its 60 degree swept wings and
symmetrically retracted wing gear, under
wing fuel tanks could not be fitted. This left
two options – the ventral tank and uniquely
British overwing subsonic ferry tanks fitted
to the big wing single seaters.
At this stage of a novice pilot’s training
fuel readings were pretty unintelligible. To
clarify, only through experience did one
appreciate that actually the gauges were
falling at an alarming rate and any other
aircraft would be showing the symptoms of a
serious fuel leak! Coupled to your ongoing
task of keeping ahead of the Lightning, it’s
more than a little distracting to have your
instructor constantly talking to you trying to
overload your now pea sized grey matter.
It was a well known fact that Lightning
instructors took no prisoners... and rightly
so. This was an aircraft that could get you
into serious trouble and kill you without you
trying too hard.
After the LTF syllabus had been completed, the steep learning curve continued for Lightning
pilots as squadron life held many more challenges including air-to-air refuelling.
The Lightning’s low-level hunting ground was over the North Sea south of Flamborough Head.
This superb image was taken from a C-130 Hercules.
GENERAL HANDLING
Climbing up to medium level, approximately
25,000ft, it’s time to level off. With at least
1000ft of anticipation the nose is lowered
(early flights dictate that rolling inverted
and pulling to level is not de rigueur!). Once
level there is no time for idle chat and the
pre-flight briefing has allowed us to get
straight on to the task in hand – handling
the Lightning.
Part of the aircraft’s unique design
characteristics are the vertically mounted
twin jets as well as a highly swept wings.
Both these features lead to a unique set of
flying characteristics. The vertically mounted
twin jets mean little or no asymmetric
problem in the event of an engine loss and
the acutely swept wings mean careful
handling at speeds below 300 knots.
In the early 1950s the concept of leading
edge auto deployable flaps and slats was a
thing of the future and all Lightnings were,
in Phantom speak, ‘Hard Wing’ aircraft. So
on Convex 1 the first task was to get a feel of
how to turn the Lightning. Applying power
and easing back the stick it was plain to see
that a fair amount of back stick was needed
to get it moving – also apparent was the rate
of speed decay as the angle of attack rose. In
short, pilots needed to be conscious that any
hard turning would lead to speed bleeding
quickly and a rapid rise in drag. With no time
for repeating the exercise it was time to
move on.
It now seems quite ironic that this was an
everyday occurrence flying this legendary
fighter around the sky at 300 knots with its
swept wings. At the same time the RAF was
accepting the high tech swing-wing Tornado
ADV, where the thought of flying about in a
wing sweep of 67 degrees (maximum) was a
no no. The aim of the early convex missions
was to get the new pilot up to ‘solo’ standard
in around five trips, or frighteningly around
2 hours and 30 minutes!
Next on the menu was a demonstration of
swept wing stall characteristics. As just
mentioned, the aim of the early sorties was to
achieve solo standard in five flights so the
emphasis was placed on exposing the
fledgling pilot to all the potential pitfalls of
any vices the aircraft had, particularly in the
circuit environment. Logically, stalling was
the next event and this is where the
Lightning could bite the unwary. Unlike
straight wing aircraft that display standard
stall characteristics of light buffet
approaching the stall to heavy buffet then
wing drop, the mighty Lightning was
somewhat different. With its highly swept
wing the light buffet or burble was quite
normal in cornering, coupled to the fact the
engines were so powerful it was quite easy to
mask any stall symptoms with power.
With a datum speed of 250 knots power is
reduced on both engines and the nose "
EE Lightning 83
slowly rises – lots of events happen
simultaneously and it’s hard to try and
recognise each one. As the stick becomes
lighter the nose keeps rising and light buffet
is felt. The stick keeps coming back as you
try to keep up with trimming the aircraft,
which has a very slow but effective stick-
mounted trimmer. Now with the stick almost
fully aft and the aircraft in deep buffet it’s
time to recover before control is lost, easing
the stick forward and pushing the throttles
up however quickly regains control.
With the stall symptoms demonstrated in
level flight (all flown by the student as there
is no time for the traditional instructor demo
then student fly scenario), it’s time to look at
simulating a finals turn which goes wrong, ie
flying through the runway centre line. Now a
third dimension takes place, as the buffet
rises the lift decreases in the turn which is
hard to detect at altitude but at lower, circuit
levels, is felt with an upwards rushing of the
ground like being in a sinking elevator with
the ground rushing up around your
shoulders. The lesson here is applying
enough power during the turn to keep the
rate of turn and lift appropriate, but vitally
reducing the power as the bank
comes off to peg the speed “Full dry
before it runs away.
and Britain’s finest to lose before the piano keys.
TIME TO LAND roars off down the The secret now is to maintain
With around 15 minutes
airborne time and fuel runway sending windscreen of the correct
disappearing, a recovery is another fledgling runway aspect. A quick final
initiated to get back to the
circuit. On the first sortie a fighter pilot into locked and the flaps are
‘punchy’ fighter style break is the blue.”
deemed too much, so a radar
recovery is performed to get you in the right
location. Overshooting and joining the circuit,
it’s still hard work as the side-by-side seating
doesn’t allow you to see the runway. So
accurate headings and tracks are flown to
parallel what is now fast becoming a tiny patch
of black tarmac. Flying downwind running
through your memorised checklist, a glance at
the fuel gauges shows only enough for one
possibly two further circuits.
Setting yourself up at the final turn point
and rolling in at around 190 to 200 knots,
kicking in a generous boot of rudder to get
the nose pointing the right way the stick
needs a good ‘yug’ to get it back into the pit of
Once through the ‘clag’ XR728 climbs to altitude through the blue skies.
84 aviationclassics.co.uk
Camouflaged F3 XP741 above the clouds over the North Sea on an LTF training sortie.
your stomach. The aircraft is now flying
round finals with air brakes out and flaps
down, a swept wing approach like no other!
Trying desperately to get onto the centre line,
subconsciously your right thumb is glued to
the trim switch and constantly trimming back
as the speed reduces.
Now the Lightning is in its ‘classic’
landing approach, nose high, dirty and
making odd seagull like squawking noises as
the engines gasp for air through tiny
auxiliary air doors on the
power fuselage. At around 300ft the
speed is 175 knots with 15 knots
the ‘picture’ through the front
check that the gear is down and
extended as you hold that
collision course with terra firma
– and we decide to overshoot about 6 inches
from the deck. Simultaneously full power is
applied and air brakes are selected to ‘in’.
Back into the circuit you run through the
whole procedure again, only this time you
land and pull the chute. A firm tug indicates
the chute is out and now it’s a mad scramble
around the cockpit, having tried not to look in
to pull the chute handle. As the throttles are
retarded the aircraft electrics which are air
driven drop off line setting off the aural
attention getters, squeezing the stick-
mounted brake lever at the same time as
pulling the stick back allows more weight
onto the wheels improving braking efficiency.
The aircraft comes to a walking pace, the
runway is vacated and the brake parachute is
jettisoned clear of the taxiway as you shut
down an engine to reduce residual thrust,
and on a fine day the canopy is cracked open
and the ejection seat pins replaced.
Taxying back to the flight line the
enormity of what you have just achieved
slowly begins to sink in. On early sorties your
entire flying suit is drenched in sweat from
the mental and physical exertion you’ve just
gone through. On chocks it’s time to climb
out and face the dreaded LTF debrief!
Often a sortie that lasted 30 to 40 minutes
can take double that to debrief as the critic is
intense. No one finds it easy at first, the
Lightning is an aircraft that needs to be flown
and doesn’t suffer fools – the lasting
impression after Convex 1 is the huge amount
of excess power the aircraft has, but on the
downside the fuel consumption is frightening.
The next four conversion sorties re-cap
the circuit flying and add aerobatics – 450
knots and 5g for a loop – along with some
basic emergency handling, flap-less circuits
and heavy weight approaches, both non
events. The critical day comes when you are
cleared solo. Unlike other types a Group
requirement is that you must have flown dual
on the same day to keep continuity, so often
the weather means a slight delay in achieving
your first solo on type.
GOING SOLO
Savouring the moment, my first solo was in
F3 XR713, an aircraft I had probably sat in as
a 7-year-old as it had formerly served with
111 Squadron as C during my father’s era.
Lining up on Runway 21 early in the evening
it was pretty jaw dropping to glance over
both shoulders and just see one thing behind
you – ‘wing’! No instructor to nag, but
critically no one to hold your hand. Full dry
power and Britain’s finest roars off down the
runway sending another fledgling fighter
pilot into the blue.
Having survived the first solo, there is no
let up in workload and the learning curve is
steeper than Everest. Still to come is
formation flying, instrument flying, max rate
turns, low-level navigation and tail chasing.
Then and only then are you deemed
competent to even start the radar phase.
With 25 to 30 sorties under your G-suit the
total hours you’ve amassed is probably 15 to
18 and all by day. Having mastered the basic
View from the left seat of
a T5 at high altitude, with
an F6 visible leaving
contrails ahead.
phase of the course it was time for more
ground school with long briefings on the
radar/weapons systems.
Given that this was the late 1980s and
NATO was in the middle of ‘F-sixteenising’
the central plain, the Lightning was fairly
much pre-historic as a weapons platform.
Many hours were expended on radar theory
and intercept philosophy with emphasis on
the Lightning’s peacetime role of Quick
Reaction Alert – intercepting Soviet bombers.
Luckily, perhaps, the simulator was pretty
good at teaching students the basics of radar
work and to that end each radar sortie was
completed in the simulator before the student
took to the air.
Any illusions you had that flying the
Lightning was a walk in the park were firmly
squashed after Convex 1 on the radar phase.
Forty minutes strapped to XS417 with Flt Lt
R Heath my logbook states 180 intercepts
(that means the target is on an opposite
heading to yourself). Followed by another 33
The Lightning was an all-weather fighter, as highlighted by F6 XR728 as it throws up the spray
with reheats lit on a particularly wet day. Hugh Trevor
radar sorties prior to course end. Initial
sorties were very basic with targets flying
known headings and speeds with no evasion
allowed. Quickly, however, the student would
be presented with a whole cocktail of
evading targets.
The main task of the Lightning in
peacetime was to identify targets unknown,
day or night, 365 days a year using a
technique known as the vis-ident (visual
identification). This procedure involved
closing on a target to within a mile (locked on
radar) and then gently closing to 300 yards
again on radar, possibly at night or in cloud,
to join in and identify the target – no mean
feat in a single-seat fighter. At mid course in
the radar phase a night dual check followed
by a night solo was programmed just to give
you a taste of flying the Lightning at night!
Having completed the radar phase and
weather permitting the fun part of the LTF
course began, with low-level evasion training
and like vs like ACT... air combat against
another Lightning. Having only flown the
Hawk the Lightning was in a league of its
own in both environments, with a staggering
amount of thrust one had to be extremely
careful not to over ‘G’ the aircraft or indeed
lose control. It was very easy to go
supersonic at low-level and unlike the low
speed scenario where your ‘seat of the pants’
sensations were pretty big clues as to your
energy levels, at high speed the aircraft could
easily slip past the Mach... into supersonic...
with expensive results.
Fighting in the Lightning at low-level was
back to the 1950s style radar off and look out
of the window, trying to sky line your target.
Now more than ever ab initio pilots needed to
be sharper than sharpened pins at knowing
where you were, how to get home and how
much fuel you had. Very often the Lightning
had so much extra energy that the easiest
way to convert it was to simply reef the
aircraft into the vertical and try and drop
back down onto your target.
As the LTF syllabus came to an end the
final detail was known as an OPEVAL
(Operational Evaluation), where all the skills
learnt during the previous 40 hours/70
sorties could be concertinaed into one
complex mission – perhaps a scramble to an
unknown target, interception, visual
identification followed by a close formation
recovery to a pairs landing. All after just six
months of training. However complex you felt
the training flight programme had been it
was merely just the tip of the iceberg and
squadron life held many more challenges.
Air-to-air refuelling, air-to-air gunnery,
electronic warfare and dissimilar air combat
to name but a few. However, having
undertaken three other Operational
Conversion courses, nothing came close to
half a year with the Lightning... Nothing... !
EE Lightning 85
“Mayday,
Mayday”
Frank Barnett-Jones describes the miraculous escape of
Jimmy Dell and Graham Elkington from T5 XM966. Jimmy Dell in the cockpit of a Lightning.

T
he first two-seat Lightning T5
started life as a T4, XM967, and
was converted at the BAC plant
in Filton. The aircraft never
actually flew as a T4, but was
transported to Filton on a lorry for conversion
and first flew as a T5 in March 1962. This
became the benchmark for T5 production,
which eventually began at Samlesbury. The
second development T5 also began life as a
T4, but was flown to Filton for conversion.
As Jimmy Dell was to carry out the initial
flight trials on this aircraft, it meant having to
fly down to Filton, do a number of ‘shake
down’ flights and then fly the aircraft up to
Warton. It was in one of these converted
Lightning T4s, XM966, that Jimmy had a
nasty experience during July 1965, which
nearly claimed his life and that of his flight
observer, Graham Elkington.
Since 1962, when the first T5 had flown,
development had continued toward service
release without major problems. Part of the
trials had been focused on the roll/inertia
characteristics of the aircraft and in July 1965,
Jimmy, together with Graham Elkington,
were on test sortie number 263, to extend the
flight envelope of that particular
characteristic under specific conditions. Roll
Coupling was a phenomenon first
encountered in the United States, but on the
Lightning tests it had proved far more acute
than anything in the USA, which was mainly
attributable to the Lightning’s thrust to
weight ratio.
Having attained the test altitude of
35,000ft and accelerated to M1.82, Jimmy
Dell rolled the aircraft into a 3g turn to port,
extended the rocket pack and applied full
aileron to starboard whilst maintaining 3g. At
first the aircraft continued a smooth roll
before an expected side-slip occurred which
reduced the roll rate. With wings level and
the nose slightly high, the roll rate reduced
to zero. Suddenly there was a loud crack and
the aircraft veered violently to port. It was
evident from the suddenness and severity of
the manoeuvre that the aircraft had suffered
a major structural failure.
Unsure exactly what had happened,
Elkington immediately ejected. Jimmy,
coming to from a ‘black-out’, hung loosely
in his ejector seat, vaguely aware of being
able to see the windscreen from the outside
over the frame. The aircraft had become
inverted and even though Dell had ensured
the seat harness was tight before he began
the sortie, the violence of the manoeuvre
had somehow slackened the belt. Under
these circumstances it was clear he would

Two scenes from the recovery

of the remains of XM966 from
the bottom of the Irish Sea.
Both John Waite Collection

86 aviationclassics.co.uk

sustain severe back injury from an ejection
as he was unable to achieve the correct
ejection posture. At the same time he was
vaguely aware of Killard Point Radar
repeating his call-sign, ‘Tarnish 6’, but
initially he was unable to reach the
radio transmit button on the throttle.
Struggling, he eventually managed to put out
a Mayday call before pulling the secondary
ejector handle.
The seat itself was fitted with a barostat
automatically releasing the pilot from the
seat below 10,000ft. As this had occurred
straight away, Jimmy concluded he was
below this height. The after effects of the
incident had left him with a detached
feeling and now he had a struggle to
concentrate on the forthcoming plunge into
the Irish Sea. He took his helmet off
intending to drop it as a guide to his height,
but both he and the helmet hit the sea
together. He inflated his Mae West and even
though the parachute lines had become
entangled, managed to inflate the dinghy
and eased himself aboard before operating
the Sarbe locator beacon.
During this whole sequence Jimmy had
given little time to reflect on the state of his
colleague, but the thought that Elkington
may not have survived, given that at the test
altitude where he left the aircraft the
temperature was -72ºC and the speed, Mach
1.8. He was therefore both surprised and
delighted when he saw Elkington, in his
dinghy, some 300 yards away. It was later
established that due to the initial violent
departure both crew members blacked out
and the aircraft decelerated rapidly. However,
Elkington probably still ejected at M1.00 plus.
Within the hour both crew members, by
now suffering from severe hypothermia,
were recovered by helicopter from Valley and
taken to Whitehaven Hospital in the Lake
District. As for the T5, it was eventually
established that the fin had failed;
circumstances very similar to an incident six
years earlier when Company Chief
Production test pilot Johnny Squire had to
leave a Lightning T4.
When the test instrumentation was
recovered from the wreckage, analysis
showed that the two crew members had been
subjected to extremely high ‘g’ forces and
had subsequently blacked out during the
rapid deceleration. The actual descent of the
Lightning had been very oscillatory with the
aircraft being inverted. Jimmy described
being able to see North Wales, the Isle of
Man, Southern Scotland and then the Lake
District in rotation and then in reverse.
INTENSIVE CARE
Graham had been the first to eject from the
Lightning at a height of 35,000ft and an
outside temperature of -72ºC. The problems
Jimmy had in escaping were aggravated by
the seat harness becoming loose. Being
inverted, his body was some three to four
inches from the seat and even the newly
introduced ‘Y’ strap for negative g-restraint
had become slack. At one stage, Jimmy had
briefly considered undoing the seat harness
and making a free fall drop from the aircraft,
but quickly dismissed the idea.
Whitehaven was a new hospital and luckily
for both aircrew had many new facilities that
could adequately treat the injuries they had
sustained. Suffering from severe
hypothermia, they were placed in an intensive
care unit in order to raise their temperatures
to something like normal before the hospital
could begin treatment. Having achieved that,
Jimmy was put in a wheelchair and taken to
the X-ray department still suffering a great
deal of pain. As he was coming away, the
young doctor who had taken him for the X-
rays mentioned something to Jimmy that he
did not quite catch, but sounded like, “It
doesn’t look too good.” Jimmy’s wife Marjorie
had been brought to the hospital and
provided with a room and was now listening
to what the doctor had to say. He was
explaining, just outside of Jimmy’s hearing
that he had really damaged his back and that
it did not look good at all.
Word must have eventually got back to
the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at the
hospital, because the young doctor in
question was severely reprimanded for
speaking out of hand when, it was claimed,
he was not in full possession of the facts.
Having simply looked at the X-rays it was
The recovery of components from
XM966 was extensive, as can be seen
here on the hangar floor at Warton.
F Barnett-Jones Collection
This article has been
extracted with kind
permission from
Tarnish 6 - The
Biography of Test
Pilot Jimmy Dell by
Frank Barnett-Jones
and published by Old
Forge Publishing
(ISBN 978-1-
906183-02-8). www.oldforgepublishing.org
felt that there was no way he could have
accurately diagnosed the problems.
The incident had been monitored by the
Institute of Aviation Medicine, who attended
the hospital and took various photographs of
his eyes and back. Some ten days later, the
hospital’s CMO deemed Jimmy fit enough to
return home, even though Jimmy himself
was in a great deal of pain and was still black
with bruising from the middle of his back to
the back of his knees. The company had sent
a car with a chauffeur and the Publicity
Manager, to accompany Jimmy and Marjorie
on the journey home.
It was a journey he will never forget.
Throughout the trip he was in considerable
pain and every so often would ask the driver
to stop the car to let him out to stretch his
back. It did not matter what he did, there was
no way to relieve the terrible discomfort.
Having been home for a few days, Jimmy
was standing at the window, looking out
over the garden, when the telephone rang.
On the line was a friend of the family, Ken
Wright, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
at the Victoria Hospital. He enquired what
Jimmy was doing and when Marjorie
explained, Ken immediately told her to get
him on his back, that he was not to move
and that there would be an ambulance over
within the next 20 minutes.
The X-rays had been sent to Jimmy’s GP,
who, as a matter of course had passed them on
to Ken Wright. Ken had studied the X-rays
from the hospital and had diagnosed that
Jimmy had three compression-fractured
vertebrae and another three that were cracked.
Within the hour he was back in hospital, and
in plaster. Under the circumstances, there was
no knowing what damage he might have done
had he continued to amble around in such
condition and was forever grateful to his
friend Ken for his keenness and ability in
diagnosing the damage. Within days of the
RAF hearing of the consultant’s diagnosis, they
took over and transferred Jimmy to the RAF
hospital at Halton. Here they removed the
plaster, which at first felt very strange. Shortly
after, Jimmy was moved to Headley Court
where he spent six months undergoing a
rigorous recovery programme. !
EE Lightning 87
SAVE £12 WHEN YOU
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Get 6 issues of Aviation Classics when
you subscribe for just £30 a year (UK/ROI)
Although still in its infancy, Aviation Classics’ innovative
and fresh style of approach to focusing on the world’s
greatest aircraft, the events in which they played vital
roles along with those who flew, maintained and
supported them, is earning it an enviable reputation in
the marketplace. By subscribing to Aviation Classics
you'll receive each copy as soon as it's published That’s just

£5
as well as getting amazing value for money at just
£5 per issue! But don't take our word for it, here's
just a few of our reader comments about the first
per issue
four issues:

! ‘Allow me to congratulate you on your absolutely

best in class aviation journal, Aviation Classics!’
! ‘I personally feel it is a perfectly
balanced publication.’
! ‘was amazed at the fantastic job you have done!
Just a collector’s dream!’
! ‘Stupendous! The articles are varied, well
researched and splendidly written - and the visuals,
especially the colour photography, is brilliant.’
! ‘Having read many aviation magazines, may I say
it is one of the best, if not the best.’

Free audio CD with

every subscription

! 01507 529529 # www.aviationclassics.co.uk

 Missed an issue?
SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND START WITH ISSUE 6 – BATTLE OF BRITAIN As a subsriber you can
purchase single issues for
In the next issue of Aviation only £5.00. Call 01507 529529
Classics we’ll pay tribute to ‘The and quote your subscriber
Few’ in a very special Battle of number or visit
Britain 70th anniversary issue. www.aviationclassics.co.uk
Aviation Classics will look at for more details
various aspects of this most
famous aerial conflict which took
place in the summer of 1940, when
the RAF fought off the Luftwaffe
preventing it from gaining aerial
supremacy – thus saving Britain
which was on the brink of invasion
and bringing about a turning point
in World War Two.

! Photo: Geoffrey Lee/Planefocus

SUBSCRIPTION FORM ISSUE 5

To subscribe to Aviation Classics simply complete the form below and return to: Payment method
AC Subscriptions, Mortons Media Group Ltd, Freepost DC113,
Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6BR
1. ! CHEQUE I enclose a cheque made payable to Mortons Media Group
I wish to subscribe to Aviation Classics, starting with issue 6: 2. ! CREDIT CARD
! £30 (UK) ! £38 (EU) ! £44 (Rest of World) Please debit my: ! Visa ! Mastercard ! Switch/Maestro
I wish to subscribe by: ! Cheque ! Credit Card ! Direct Debit
Card number:

Payer’s details (must be completed)

Start date / / Expiry date / /
Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms (please delete)
3 digit verification code Switch issue number
Initials Surname

Address

Signature Date

3. ! DIRECT DEBIT
Postcode

Telephone Instruction to Bank/Building Society to pay by Direct Debit:

I would like to change/take out a subscription for £30.00 per annum (UK/ROI only)
Mobile

Email Account in the name of

Photocopies of this form are also acceptable.

Delivery details (if different to above) Account number Sort code

Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms (please delete) Name of Bank/Building Society

Initials Surname
Address
Address

Postcode
Postcode
Please pay Mortons Media Group Ltd direct debits from the account detailed in the instructions,
On occasion Mortons Media Group Ltd may decide to contact you by post/ phone regarding information relating to subject to the safeguards of the Direct Debit Guarantee. I understand that this instruction may
current offers of products or services (including discounted subscription offers) which we believe may be of interest to our
readers. If you do not wish to receive such offers please tick this box ! remain with Mortons Media Group and, if so, details will be passed electronically to my
On occasion Mortons Media Group Ltd may decide to email/fax you regarding information relating to current offers of Bank/Building Society. Originator’s ID number: 8 3 0 3 9 0
products or services(including discounted subscription offers) which we believe may be of interest to our readers. If you
wish to receive such offers, please tick this box !
On occasion Mortons Media Group Ltd may permit 3rd parties, that we deem to be reputable, to contact you by post/
phone/ fax/emailregarding information relating to current offers of products or services which we believe may be of interest
to our readers. If you wish to receive such offers please tick this box !
Signature Date
Reference number (office use only)
Scramble!
For many years, Lightnings stood at constant readiness, 24/7, guarding against
the threat of a Soviet attack during the Cold War while people of the UK slept
safely in their beds. This pictorial tribute to the crews that manned the Q-sheds
gives an idea of what a night-time Lightning scramble looked like.

Above: A dramatic MoD photo of a 5(F)

Squadron Lightning ‘QRA Alert’ at night.
Aircrew were billeted in an
accommodation block immediately
adjacent to the ‘Q’ aircraft in their
Q-sheds close to the main runway.
Hugh Trevor Collection

Left: A night-time take-off caught during a

5 Squadron Air Defence Exercise (ADEX)
scramble at Malta. The bright line running
along the runway and into the black sky
was created by the Lightning’s
afterburners being caught by a timed
exposure. www.lightningpilots.com
EE Lightning 91
‘Brass Monkeys,
Battle Flight
and Low-Level’
Sqn Ldr Clive Rowley MBE RAF Ret’d tells the stor y of
the Lightning F2A in Germany, one of the least known
aspects from the type’s 28 years of RAF ser vice.
Left: Lightning F2A XN786
M makes a very low
approach to Gütersloh’s
runway over the Emms
canal. The Lightning
always drew a crowd.
Erich Westersoetebier

F
rom 1965 up to early 1977, during
the height of the Cold War, there
were two RAF Lightning units
based in Germany, Numbers 19
and 92 Squadrons. From 1968,
these squadrons operated the Lightning F2A;
only 31 examples of this mark of Lightning
were produced from upgraded F2s. The
concept of operations for the Germany
Lightning squadrons were significantly
different from that for the employment of the
Lightning in the UK and elsewhere.
Speaking personally, I was delighted when
I learned that I was to be posted from the
Lightning conversion unit at RAF Coltishall to
19 Squadron at RAF Gütersloh in January 1974
as a young Flying Officer first-tourist Lightning
pilot. I already knew something of the
employment of the Lightning in Germany and it
was apparent that the dark green camouflage
scheme applied to the upper surfaces of the
F2As was partly due to their low-level role. The
prospect of this type of flying appealed to me
greatly and I also knew that, in Cold War terms,
these aircraft were operating on the front line.
The Lightning F2As were produced from
F2s by adding the large ventral fuel tank and
the cranked and cambered wings of the
Lightning F6, modifications which significantly
increased the aircraft’s operational
effectiveness. They were also fitted with the
larger, square-cut fin and an arrestor hook.
Many Lightning pilots who, like me, have
flown all marks of the aircraft believe that the
F2A was the best to fly operationally, as it was
the ideal compromise. It carried the most
internal fuel (10,300lbs) because, unlike the
F6 in which some fuel capacity was lost when
the gun pack was fitted in the front portion of
the ventral fuel tank, the F2A retained the
nose-mounted cannons of the earlier marks.
The Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.211R engines
endowed the aircraft with more than
sufficient power, but were more economical
than the later marks of engine fitted to the F3
and F6. The F2A did not possess the Airpass
AI23 radar, which offered improved detection
range, and could not carry Red Top missiles.
However, the advantages that this later
weapon system offered were not significant in
the low-level, overland environment of
Germany. In fact, the F2A’s older system
offered some positive benefits, especially the
gun sight (the ‘Pilot Attack Sight’), which was
almost a mini head-up-display providing
weapon aiming displays and, when available,
radar range and closure rate.
During the period when the Lightning F2A
was operational, its performance and weapon
system were generally superior to, or at least
a match for, any other aircraft that it was
likely to tangle with either in training or "

EE Lightning 93
‘for real’. Its pilots were therefore able to feel
confident about their ability to do the job
asked of them. Most of the fighter and
fighter-bomber types at that time were either
gun-armed only or, if fitted with air-to-air
missiles, they had a capability no better than
the Lightning and its Firestreak ‘heat-
seeking’ missiles. (The Firestreak was
essentially a pursuit weapon that had to be
fired from within a 30 degree sector either
side of the target’s tail).
The only exception to this status quo at
that time was the McDonnell Douglas F-4
Phantom with its pulse-doppler radar and
semi-active missiles. This advanced weapon The ‘Shed’ – Battle Flight hangar at RAF Gütersloh in 1975 with two Lightning F2As on alert
system provided the F-4 with a Beyond Visual and the front and rear doors open ready to launch. Clive Rowley
Range (BVR) capability that could provide
the Lightning pilot with some difficulties in
surviving to the visual merge. In a visual fight
with an F-4, however, the Lightning pilot
would fancy his chances, as he did with all
the other potential opponents, as long as he
fought to his aircraft’s strengths. For an
aircraft designed as an interceptor, the
Lightning proved to have excellent ‘dog-
fighting’, air combat manoeuvring (ACM)
capabilities with a good turn rate and an
excess of power. As an indication of the
power available, it was possible to set the
aircraft into a +5G turn at 450 knots at low
level and then with full reheat selected, fly a
climbing +5G spiral, maintaining speed and G
up to 15,000ft – quite impressive for that era.
In the latter stages of the Lightning’s
service with the RAF, during the 1980s, its
pilots found themselves working against
aircraft equipped with all-aspect missiles,
such as the Sidewinder AIM-9L, as well as Lightning F2A of 19 Squadron on readiness in the Battle Flight hangar – note the piece of wood
BVR semi-active missiles. Opponent aircraft holding the canopy open and the numerous drip cans to collect all the leaks. Clive Rowley
were also equipped with defensive-aids,
including flares, which could decoy the “The Lightning pilots, therefore, needed to be able to maintain
Lightning’s ‘heat-seeking’ IR missiles. The
Lightning’s development did not keep up with high situational awareness in multiple-aircraft fights, perhaps
these advances and in those later years it was whilst engaging a specific target of their own and at the same
more difficult for Lightning pilots to feel ‘top
of the tree’. time co-ordinating other fighters using the radio.”

Green and silver 19 Squadron Lightning F2As

XN781 B and XN735 A photographed in 1972
during the time when the Gütersloh Lightnings’
natural metal finish was over-painted green
on the upper surfaces. Erich Westersoetebier

94 aviationclassics.co.uk
QRA READINESS
Based at Gütersloh the two RAF Germany
Lightning squadrons were located only 68
miles from the border with East Germany
and the vast military might of the Soviet Bloc
forces behind it. A ‘Buffer Zone’ had been
imposed on our side of the border; a strip of
airspace which the authorities had applied to
charts to prevent inadvertent incursions by
‘Western’ military or civilian aircraft into East
German/Soviet airspace. In earlier years the
dire consequences of such incursions had
been demonstrated as unarmed ‘Western’
aircraft had been fired at or even shot down
by Soviet fighter aircraft.
Flight in the Buffer Zone was prohibited
for all ‘Western’ aircraft without special
permission. If any aircraft were observed
entering the Buffer Zone without permission,
a “Brass Monkey” call was made by the
ground controllers on the international
distress frequencies and other commonly
used radio frequencies. All aircraft hearing
this call were supposed to turn onto a
Westerly heading whilst confirming that they
had not inadvertently strayed into the Buffer
Zone and that they were not the cause of the
“Brass Monkey” warning.
The Gütersloh Lightning squadrons
provided a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) force,
called ‘Battle Flight’ in 2 Allied Tactical Air
Force (ATAF), with two aircraft always
available on a high alert state. Due to the
proximity of the border, Battle Flight aircraft
were maintained on a 5-minute readiness
state rather than the 10-minute alert state
held by UK QRA fighters. Battle Flight was
manned at Gütersloh 24 hours a day, every
day of the year, with two pilots and their
Lightning F2A XN793 H of 19
Squadron. Erich Westersoetebier
ground crew always able to launch one, or if
necessary both, fully-armed aircraft within
the 5-minute requirement.
This was not an easy obligation for the
pilots to meet, particularly if a scramble was
ordered when the pilots were sleeping
overnight or at other inopportune moments
during a 24-hour shift of duty in the ‘Shed’,
the nature of which can be left to the reader’s
imagination! Overnight, pilots had to attempt
to sleep in full flying kit including anti-g suit
and boots but without their life jackets, which
would be left hanging up at a convenient
location on the run to the aircraft, possibly on
the Lightning’s pitot tube or on one of the
aircraft’s missiles. The pilots’ helmets would
already be plugged into the aircraft and
balanced on the top of the windscreens. As far
as I know the 5-minute reaction time was
never exceeded and this was a source of pride
amongst the Gütersloh Lightning pilots; no-
one wanted to be the first to spoil the record.
It would be fair to say that, in order to
meet the 5-minute state, reaction to the
scramble bell had to be instant and rapid.
Woe betide anyone who got in the way of
the stampeding pilots and ground crew on
their run to the aircraft located in the Battle
Flight hangars attached directly to the
domestic accommodation. For some years
after I finished my Germany Lightning tour
the sound of a bell the same as the Battle
Flight scramble alarm would have me leaping
about instinctively, adrenalin rushing,
before I realised that I was not in fact
required to react!
After running to their aircraft and
climbing the ladders to the cockpits, the pilots
would pull on their helmets and strap-in
rapidly, assisted by a member of the ground
crew. This was normally accomplished
within about 1 minute 30 seconds of the
bell first sounding. Most pilots found that to
save time they had to leave their "

Lightning F2A on readiness in the

Battle Flight hangar – note the
pilot’s flying helmet, plugged in
and balanced on the windscreen,
and his lifejacket on the port
Firestreak missile. Clive Rowley

EE Lightning 95

Silver F2As of 19 Squadron.
Erich Westersotebier
Lightning guns ‘kill’ against the rear of a
pair of Jaguars. This gun sight film frame
shows the ‘pipper’ on the cockpit and the
stadiametric ranging diamonds matching
the wingspan. Via Clive Rowley
“Vector 070, climb Angels 25, call ‘Bandbox’
on stud 15, Scramble, Scramble, Scramble”
Lightning guns ‘kill’ against
an F-4 Phantom at low-level.
Via Clive Rowley
ejection seat leg restraints undone until
airborne, not connecting them until at the top
of the climb; usually their flying gloves would
be left on the cockpit coaming to be donned
when time permitted.
After checking in with the Wing
Operations Centre using the secure telebrief
landline, the scramble message would be
broadcast by the Ops Controller and
acknowledged by the pilot. This gave details
of climb-out direction and height (“angels”),
who to call on the radio and on what
frequency, for example: “Vector 070, climb
Angels 25, call ‘Bandbox’ on stud 15,
Scramble, Scramble, Scramble”. Normally
only one fighter would be scrambled, but
very occasionally both would be launched
together. This tended to cause anxiety
amongst watchers, as this was the reaction
that could be expected to a genuine
infringement of West German airspace by
Soviet Bloc aircraft, either with hostile intent
or perhaps one wishing to defect.
SCRAMBLES
The Lightning was extremely well designed
for fast ‘scramble’ starts – in fact this was
one of its ‘fortes’ – and it could be ready to
taxi within seconds of initiating the start
sequence. One slight ‘gotcha’ at this stage
was that the Lightning had to be left on
state with the parking brake selected off to
prevent the wheel brakes from sticking on.
It was therefore essential that the pilot
remembered to put the parking brake on
before starting the engines or, as the
aircraft was not ‘chocked’, it would roll
forward as the engines developed thrust
during the start-up.
As he taxied out of the ‘Shed’, the pilot
had to knock out the piece of red-painted
wood which had been holding the canopy up
whilst the aircraft was on state. It always
seemed incongruous to me that jet-age
machinery required such a basic piece of
apparatus to function effectively. The fact of
the matter was though, that the canopy of the
Lightning would sag down and eventually
close if left for a significant period of time
without the engines (and hydraulic pumps)
running, as the canopy accumulator pressure
would gradually exhaust. The wooden strut
was therefore essential to hold the canopy
open to allow immediate access to the
cockpit, the only alternative being time-
consuming pumping by the ground crew with
the hand pump.
At Gütersloh, the Battle Flight ‘Shed’ was
located a short distance from the runway and
it took about 1½ minutes to taxi at high speed
to the runway for take-off. Most pilots found
that they were unable to complete the full pre
take-off checks in this condensed time and
simply used an informal check list, “Hood,
Pumps, Pins” (canopy closed and locked,
fuel pumps on and ejection seat pins removed
and stowed).
Battle Flight scrambles obviously took
priority over any other aircraft and the take-
off would usually begin from a rolling start. A
reheat climb to altitude was the norm even if,
subsequently, a descent to low-level was
required for the intercept. With the
Lightning’s fantastic time-to-height
performance a pilot could easily find himself
levelling off at altitude just over 6 minutes
after the initiation of the scramble, when he
had been sitting comfortably in the crew
room, perhaps halfway through his dinner or,
even worse, asleep in bed. It was a strange
feeling on a no-notice scramble to catch up
with events at 30-odd thousand feet, realising
that up until then one had been running on
some sort of personal ‘autopilot’.
‘Live’ Battle Flight scrambles were not LIGHTNING F2A
particularly common, but did sometimes LEADING PARTICULARS
occur and were normally ordered to
intercept aircraft flying in the Buffer Type: Single-seat fighter (F2
Zone without permission. If the interloper upgraded to near F6
turned out to be a civilian light aircraft, as standard with larger
was usually the case, the Lightning pilot was square cut fin, cranked
required to intercept, identify and then relay & cambered wing,
the aircraft’s registration letters to the enlarged ventral fuel
ground controllers. If necessary, the aircraft tank & arrestor hook).
could be directed back into safe airspace Total of 31 converted
using the standard, internationally from F2
recognised intercept signals. Any pilot In Service: March 1968 to April 1977
intercepted in the Buffer Zone without Dimensions: Wingspan 34ft 10in;
permission was likely to lose his pilot’s Length 55ft 3in;
licence; in a way, therefore, the Battle Flight Height 19ft 7in
Lightnings were like airborne traffic police! Poweplants: Two RR Avon 211R
Practice scrambles were initiated Turbojets; Thrust
regularly, often with no-notice, to test the 14,430lbs each with
response time. Once airborne, the pilot reheat (total 28,860lbs).
would usually be tasked with a ‘Border Weights: Empty 27,500lbs
Patrol’, which involved patrolling up and Full 39,700lbs.
down the border inside the Buffer Zone, Performance: Climb rate, initial 50,000ft
showing a presence. Sometimes a Soviet Bloc per min then 30,000ft per
aircraft on their side of the border would min; Time to height,
mirror this activity and if the patrol height brakes off to 36,000ft in
matched the contrail band it was sometimes 2mins 30secs; Speed
possible to observe your opposite number 1,500mph Mach 2.2
doing his job and shadowing your activity on approx (normal limit
a parallel track some miles to the East. M1.7/650kts); G Limit
On these practice scramble sorties, +6g/-3g; Service Ceiling
Lightning pilots were expected to eke out 60,000ft +; Endurance
their fuel and stay up for as long as possible approx 2 hrs
to ‘balance the books’ on average sortie Armament: 2x 30mm Aden
lengths against the much shorter ACM Cannons (130 rounds
sorties. My log book records that I generally each) and 2x DH
flew over 1½ hours un-refuelled on practice Firestreak IR missiles
Battle Flight scramble sorties, even with a
reheat climb to height, demonstrating that Below: Lightning F2A XN774 F of 92
the Lightning, at least the F2A version, was Squadron landing with brake parachute
not necessarily as ‘short-legged’ as many in 1973. The white Firestreak missile is a
seem to think. " live round. Erich Westersoetebier

Lightning guns ‘kill’ against a hard-
turning Harrier at low-level filmed
through the gun sight on the left and
from the G90 nose intake camera on
the right. Via Clive Rowley
98 aviationclassics.co.uk
ALL-WEATHER, DAY OR NIGHT
Some routine training flying for the Germany-
based Lightning squadrons was directed at
maintaining the skills required for Battle
Flight sorties. Pilots had to be able intercept
and visually identify (VID) targets at all
heights and speeds, in all-weather, by day or
night and, if necessary, shadow them or
shepherd them out of the Buffer Zone or to
an airfield. The training also included the
handling of airborne ‘defectors’.
Much of the Germany Lightning
squadrons’ routine training, however, was
orientated towards their wartime role. In
common with Lightning squadrons in other
theatres there was a requirement in 2 ATAF
to be able to conduct all-weather intercepts
and engagements under close, limited, loose
or broadcast control from a fighter controller
on the ground, including against high flying
and/or supersonic targets. These events
were routinely practised, with intercepts
against targets at speeds up to M1.6 and
high-flying targets up to 56,000ft conducted
The author’s usual aircraft was 19 Squadron Lightning F2A XN790 L, photographed by him
from another Lightning. Clive Rowley
in a special corridor, which was cleared for
supersonic flying overland above 36,000ft.
We also practised engagements against
radar ‘jamming’ targets, often at night, with
the Canberra T17s of 360 Squadron providing
the ‘jamming’. All this was common to
Lightning operators in other theatres, but in
Germany the nature of the potential threat
and the integrated nature of the NATO
defences resulted in some significant
differences in the concept of operations.
The airborne threat was principally
made up of Soviet Bloc fighter or fighter-
bomber aircraft rather than the heavy
bomber threat that faced UK Lightning
squadrons. It was, therefore, essential that
Germany-based Lightning pilots were
trained to a high standard in fighter-v-fighter
air combat manoeuvring. Most engagements
were expected to occur at low-level, as
enemy aircraft would probably attempt to
use terrain masking to avoid radar detection
and engagement by the numerous NATO
SAM sites.
No.19 Squadron Lightning F2A
XN793 H low overshoot, armed
with a live (white) Firestreak
missile. Erich Westersoetebier
 In addition, manned fighter aircraft were
only a part of the overall NATO integrated air
defence system. In a ‘shooting war’ NATO air
defence fighters would have had to operate in
Fighter Engagement Zones (FEZs) from the
surface up to a specified altitude. The FEZs
were surrounded to the East, West and above
by Missile Engagement Zones (MEZs), in
which the SAM batteries would have freedom
to engage and pursuit of targets by fighters
would normally have to be broken off.
Therefore, Germany-based Lightning pilots
had to become expert at engaging targets at
low-level overland.

‘MARK ONE EYEBALL’

The Lightning’s pulse-only radar was
effectively useless against low-level targets
overland due to the ground clutter swamping
the target returns and, because assistance
from ground-based radars was also limited,
detection of targets had to be principally
achieved by visual means – the ‘Mark One
Eyeball’. This requirement led to the setting
up of a system of Low Level Search Patterns
(LLSPs) within the FEZ. The LLSPs were
racetrack shaped combat air patrols (CAPs)
flown at 90 degrees to the expected threat
direction (since this was from the East, the
racetracks were orientated North/South).
Each racetrack pattern was about 8 miles long No.19 Squadron’s Lightnings were replaced by Phantom FGR2s at the end of 1977. Here one
to permit a straight leg of 1 minute flown at of each type bearing the unit’s markings fly in formation in late 1977. Via Geoff Parselle
360 knots in each direction with a 2G/60
degree-banked turn at each end. Each search became extremely proficient and confident at Sometimes, when other Lightnings were
pattern was identified by a number and each manoeuvring their aircraft aggressively at in adjacent patterns, the first pilots to detect
adjoined another forming an unbroken chain low levels and thought nothing of being and engage targets would call these other
running North/South through the FEZ. There inverted at perhaps 1,500ft as they flew ‘lag fighters into the mêlée as reinforcements. If
were actually two parallel lines of LLSPs, one pursuit’ barrel rolls to re-position their there were multiple targets, for example a
line some distance west of the other. aircraft to maintain the tactical advantage. six-ship of fighter-bombers such as Harriers,
In order to provide cross cover as well as All navigation for Lightning pilots at low- these engagements could get quite large and
to concentrate firepower, the Lightnings level over Germany was by map and complicated. The Lightning pilots, therefore,
normally operated with a stopwatch with no modern needed to be able to maintain high situational
pair of fighters manning a navigation aids; familiarity awareness in multiple-aircraft fights, perhaps
LLSP and with other pairs
“The Gütersloh with the LLSP operating whilst engaging a specific target of their own
on adjoining CAPs. A pair of Lightning pilots area assisted greatly with and at the same time co-ordinating other
Lightnings on a LLSP would this. Even so, it could be fighters using the radio. This essential skill
fly in standard ‘battle’
became extremely tricky to find one’s way was practised and honed not only in the
formation, line abreast at proficient and confident back to a particular LLSP LLSPs but also in multi-aircraft air combat
approximately 11⁄2 miles after a prolonged running training (ACT) at medium levels.
spacing, and would fly
at manoeuvring their fight against determined, It would be fair to say that the Gütersloh
‘inwards turnabouts’ at the aircraft aggressively at evading opposition, which Lightning pilots feared no-one and believed
ends of the patterns,
turning towards each other
low levels, and thought was the sort of fight you
might perhaps find yourself
that the combination of their aircraft’s
performance and their own skills was a
to provide the maximum nothing of being involved in, for example, match for any opponent. The era of the
cross cover. against formations of F2A in Germany was in many ways the
To optimise the visual
inverted at perhaps RAF Buccaneers. heyday of the Lightning. The pilots felt that
detection of targets it was 1,500ft as they flew My own technique was they were flying an aircraft that was truly
necessary to fly as low as
was legally acceptable in
‘lag pursuit’ barrel rolls to re-start the stopwatch on
commencing the chase and
capable of the job required of it if it ever
came to a ‘shooting war’ and they were able
order to skyline other to re-position their to average out my mean to hold their heads high in the international
aircraft. When manning aircraft to maintain the heading and speed during military aviation community.
LLSPs for training we were the pursuit. Then on its This was borne out by the Tactical
permitted to engage any tactical advantage.” conclusion, hopefully with Evaluation (TACEVAL) results that RAF
military aircraft that we film of valid ‘kills’, I would Gütersloh and its Lightning squadrons
detected. As these engagements were retrace my steps on a reciprocal heading at achieved; these TACEVALS were a severe
effectively unplanned and un-briefed there the average speed for the same time until I test of a Wing’s operational capability. When
was not supposed to be any evasive recognised where I was again. This might the Gütersloh Lightning Wing finally stood
manoeuvring involved. As far as we were sound rather ‘clumsy’, but it seemed to work down in 1977 the Chief of Air Staff wrote to
concerned though, that was up to the targets and close attention to navigational detail was the Station Commander saying “…..you
not us, and some interesting low-level, hard- rather beyond me when I was concentrating chose the right way to finish the Lightning
turning and running fights sometimes on achieving ‘kills’ and staying alive against era, with the best TACEVAL results for an Air
developed. The Gütersloh Lightning pilots skilfully flown very low-level targets. Defence Wing in NATO history.” ■

EE Lightning 99
Lightning F1A XM182 M of 56 Squadron, c1963. This was the aircraft
of OC 56 Squadron and ‘Firebirds’ team leader Sqn Ldr David
Seward. Artwork © 2010 Juanita Franzi/Aero Illustrations

Group Captain David Seward AFC RAF Ret’d spoke to Jarrod Cotter
about 56 Squadron’s Lightning aerobatic team of 1963.

I
n 1963, while flying Lightning F1As
from RAF Wattisham in Suffolk,
56 Squadron became the RAF’s lead
aerobatic team. It was to take over
from 74 Squadron ‘Tigers’, which had
famously flown the type as a nine-ship.
During 1962, 56 Squadron had been working
up on air-to-air refuelling with detachments to
Cyprus. Group Captain David Seward
explains how the team came to be:
“As the second Cyprus detachment came to a
close we began to pick up rumours that 74
Squadron was starting air-to-air refuelling,
and 56 Squadron was to become the next
RAF formation aerobatic team. This was
confirmed a week later.
“The first thing was to get ourselves a
name – we chose ‘Firebirds’ because of the
56 Squadron badge with a phoenix rising
from the ashes, and we devised a paint
scheme. We painted the spine and fin red –
74 had painted theirs black – and we rounded
this off with the leading edges of the wings
and tailplane also red.
“We started with the leaders doing
individual aerobatics, and in choosing the
leaders and deputy leaders I went purely on
seniority in the squadron. In other words I
was the formation leader, the A Flight
commander led the rear formation, the B
Flight commander was my deputy leader and
the deputy B Flight commander was the
deputy rear formation leader.
“About four of the squadron had
experience in formation aerobatics. The A
Flight commander had been on 111
Squadron in the Hunter days and two more
had been on 74 Squadron. I had dabbled in
the 50s in Meteors and in America while on
an exchange tour, but not really seriously.
“The only guidance we were given was
that the main formation was to be a nine-ship,
and for the display we were to provide
continuous aerobatics so that something was
going on in front of the crowd all the time –
there were to be no gaps. We therefore
decided that we would start the show with a
stream take-off and very steep climb, then as
we joined up in formation a single Lightning
would perform solo aerobatics, clearing as
we came round in a diamond-nine to do the
odd roll and loop before splitting into two
formations of five. We had a tenth man
airborne to link up with the rear formation
after the first bomb-burst away from the nine.
We would then do manoeuvres in two
separate fives with the solo man interspersing
when a gap appeared, such as bomb bursts
and join ups.
“It was only an 11-minute show from start
to finish. We took 11 minutes from the leader
rolling to the last man touching down.”
SMOKE ON!
“We also devised a means of making smoke.
The Lightning had fuel in the flaps, and we
isolated the port flap tank, ran a pipe from the
tank along the fuselage to a small nozzle
above the bottom of the jet pipe and
connected an electric pump to the gun
trigger. We filled the flap tank with diesel fuel
and we had instant smoke. We did all this "

Pilots of the ‘Firebirds’ aerobatic team walk away from their

aircraft at Wattisham after a practice display in 1963.

100 aviationclassics.co.uk
A diamond-nine of 56
Squadron Lightning
F1As goes over the
top of a loop with
smoke on – the
‘Firebirds’! All
courtesy Gp Capt
David Seward
unless noted
Above: OC 56 Squadron Sqn Ldr David
Seward briefs his pilots. In order to work out
where they needed to position each aircraft,
they got nine Airfix models and laid them out
in a perfect diamond then looked along and
saw where the slot in the wing lined up. They
then went to the aeroplanes and put a mark
on the fuselage and when in flight lined that
up with the wing – and they would then be in
the correct position for the formation.

Right: The team leader’s F1A XM182 pulls up

in a loop. Time Line Images

ourselves by self help at very little cost, but I

got a telling off from Fighter Command
engineers for being too enthusiastic.
“We had 15 pilots on the squadron, with 10
in the team plus an airborne reserve. The
solo man made 12, and with the
commentator/manager it only left two on the
squadron as spares. Before we really got
going the solo man was posted and
promoted, and we had an early mid-air
collision which meant that everyone was now
involved. But to ease the situation the 111
Squadron solo aerobatic pilot was attached to
us for the duration to make up numbers.
“So there we were; a name, a paint job,
smoke on demand and four of us reasonably
proficient in aerobatics. We then worked up in
pairs doing steep turns and wingovers, then
loops and rolls progressing to five-ship
formations doing all the various aerobatic
manoeuvres and formation changes. We used
to do these various changes during a roll,
loop, or wingover. We then worked up into the “But despite our protestations the powers “We did 11 shows that year and that was it.
full nine doing rolls, loops and wingovers.” that were would not lift the ban on We went to Paris and the weather was bad on
aerobatting the nine-ship, so we were the first day; everybody was grounded and we
DIAMOND-NINE LOOPS NO MORE restricted to level turns and formation couldn’t do anything. The second day was one
“Unfortunately we then hit a snag, when the changes with the nine formation before of those milky days, where you have cloud
fin tips started to work loose. The aerobatics splitting into the two five-ship formations. We cover coming in with a warm front and at the
were blamed and we were banned from then did semi synchronised manoeuvres with time we needed 5000ft to do a loop. We had
doing rolls or loops in the ‘Big 9’ formation, the two fives and the solo man, ending up three shows; the full show where you’ve got
so we had to step our line astern position with the lead five bomb bursting down and broken cloud and you could loop through it
down lower. I was suspicious from the start the other five bomb-bursting up through the with no problem, a flat show where instead of
as my aircraft, which had always been the smoke. We then joined up in a big vic doing loops we did a steepish wingover which
lead ship, was one of the ones to have a loose formation with the airborne reserve and the was quite good, plus we could do one with just
fin tip. By coincidence it was the one which solo man in as well for a simultaneous vic formation changes in the nine or in two fives.
had done the most flight refuelling in the peel-off and rapid landing, followed by a “When we came back we went back into
Valiant’s jet efflux. formation taxi in. the line for the summer exercises. In mid-

102 aviationclassics.co.uk
 Sqn Ldr David Seward at centre surrounded by the ‘Firebirds’ pilots.

“When you think about it, and you look at the Arrows today
where you go through a great selection procedure, all we
were was a squadron worth of chaps. But they all did it.”

Displays by the ‘Firebirds’

began with a mass taxi out
followed by streamed take-
offs, with the jets then going
straight into the vertical.

August we started to work up for the Battle of

Britain display. We did basically the same
show, finishing up with a bomb-burst coming
down and the other section pulling up. It was
quite spectacular.
“But then of course that was it. They said,
and it was common sense really, ‘we can’t
afford to have a front line fighter squadron to
come out like this’. The Yellowjacks took over
and of course they became the Red Arrows –
and that was it. The rest is history. While carrying out the
“When you think about it, and you look at display, pilots would
the Arrows today where you go through a set the throttles at
great selection procedure, all we were was a about 95% power and
squadron worth of chaps. But they all did it.” ! leave them there.

EE Lightning 103
Fighting the
Lightning
Douglas C ‘Disco’ Dildy, Colonel, USAF (Ret’d), and
Robert I ‘Scout’ Winebrenner, Lt Col, USAF (Ret’d), recall
a memorable air combat training encounter between their
F-15 Eagles and Lightning F6s from 5 Squadron.

View from inside an

F-15, a fourth
generation US
fighter. US Air Force
“
H
ey, Disco! You want to go
cross-country with me to
the UK this weekend? First
stop Binbrook, we’ll fight
the Lightnings on the way
in and on the way out.”
The voice was ‘Scout’s’ – a young, newly-
minted F-15 flight leader in the 53rd ‘NATO
Tigers’ Fighter Squadron. For me it was
another dreary winter’s day in the Eifel and
on this early January day (Tuesday the 3rd,
1984) I was trapped behind the duty desk
ticking off one weather cancel after another,
but ‘Scout’ was beaming with the enthusiasm
of having just discovered a new game.
“Sure, sound’s like a lot more fun than
this! Let me check with the home front and
I’ll get back with you...” Calling the ‘war
department’, I got a reluctantly-surrendered
‘kitchen pass’ from my lovely bride, Ann,
condemning her to another iced-in weekend
while I went gallivanting about the skies of
Europe enjoying sunshine and dogfights
where we found them. Calling ‘Scout’ back to
the duty desk I let him know I was 'in'.
He explained more of the details he’d
worked out with the scheduler at 5 Squadron
– the two of us against four of them, followed
by them launching a second wave, RTB
(return to base) Binbrook for debriefing and
gas, briefing another 2-v-2 and RON (remain
overnight) at Alconbury, fly to Torrejon on
Sunday, then RTB (to Bitburg) on Monday.
“OK, sounds great. You finish the flight
planning, I’ll get Intel to chase us up
something on the Lightning.”
Visiting the Tigers’ Intel Shop it became
readily apparent that while they kept good
(we hoped!) tabs on our potential adversaries,
they didn’t have a bit of useful information on
our ally’s Lightning F6. Resorting to my
‘personal intel library’ in my flight
commander office, I quickly learned that the
RAF still had on its order of battle some 40 of
the type in two squadrons, Nos.5 and 11, at
RAF Binbrook, near the Lincolnshire coast.
The F6 was the final version of the RAF’s
sole second-generation fighter: supersonic,
pulse radar, stern-only guided missiles. As
such it proved very similar to the current –
and iconic in its own way – Soviet second
generation fighter, the MiG-21MT Fishbed L.
With its round open-nose air intake and
wing planform, the Lightning was, at a
distance, visually similar to the highly-touted
Fishbed as well as proving to be an excellent
MiG-21 surrogate for our training. Both had
similar top-end dash speeds, acceleration and
climbing rates. The heavy Lightning F6 had a
wing loading of 86lb/sqft.
‘Scout’ and I could expect the Lightning to
arrive in the combat arena at very high speed,
and being a stern-only shooter would have to
‘turn at the merge’ in an effort to get to our
‘six o’clock’. With the 60º sweepback wing, we
knew that the initial turn would be very sharp
but that the energy bleed-off (airspeed decay)
caused by it would be exorbitant.
The aircraft’s ability to get its airspeed
back, or sustain its energy in the turning
fight, would depend largely on its thrust-to-
weight ratio. There the Lightnings would give
us a bit of a break with their relatively
laggardly 0.87:1 ratio, but the very clean
aerodynamic design made this figure
deceiving to the naïve.
Our McDonnell Douglas F-15Cs had a
wing loading of 58.14lb/sqft at combat weight
and a T/W ratio of 1.35:1. All things
considered we felt we should be able to
handle these guys in a ‘close-in knife fight’,
but we had to get there first.
JUDY, JUDY, JUDY
“Eastern radar, good morning. Talon 11,
approaching Mike Charlie 6.”
“Talon 11, Eastern, loud and clear, radar
control, squawk 4744.”
“Squawking. We’re inbound Wash ATA for
Neatishead, requesting direct routing.”
“Talon 11, radar contact. Come right now
330, on this heading cleared into the Wash
ATA, and contact Neatishead 347.2.” RAF
Neatishead, near Norwich, provided Ground
Control Intercept (GCI) vectors for training
missions in the Wash ATA, as well as being
one of the three ‘real world’ Sector Operations
Centres in the UK Air Defence Region.
“Thank you, Eastern. Talons – fence in,
go 347.2.”
“Talon, check.”
“Twoop.”
Simultaneously, at Binbrook four
Lightnings were standing by on cockpit alert,
and as soon as we checked in Neatishead
scrambled them using their normal air
defence communications network.
“Neatishead, Talon 11.”
“Talon 11 section, Neatishead, loud and
clear, have your bravo squawk 4747. Your
playmates have just been nodded on. Check
your weapons safe.”
“Roger, we’re weapons safe and ready
to play.”
The Lightnings were as quick as their name
and soon two pairs were airborne northbound
and both turned right into battle formations,
two-ships line abreast. As they turned towards
the ATA, Neatishead called them out.
“Talon, two targets bearing 275 degrees
for 72 miles, low.”
“Talon one, contact targets, sorted south.”
“Two’s sorted north.”
“Talon 11, Judy – Neatishead, thanks for
your help.”
‘Judy’ was the NATO codeword for a
fighter achieving its own radar lock, making
GCI control no longer necessary. ‘Scout’ was
the flight lead (Talon 11) and had positioned
me on his right (north side), line abreast
about a mile apart. He locked his Hughes
APG-63 pulse-doppler radar onto the
southern group, and I dutifully locked onto
the northern pair – this was ‘sorted’ by sides.
These would be our primary targeting
responsibilities beyond visual range (BVR).
Not that it mattered much. To ‘level the
playing field’ against the last of its line, ‘Scout’
had disallowed our use of BVR radar missiles
(AIM-7 Sparrows) and front-aspect heat-
seekers (AIM-9 Sidewinders), restricting us
to calling ‘kills’ only for those shots taken
behind their 3-9 lines (3 o’clock to 9 o’clock).
However, we still ‘took the shots’ for our own
BVR engagement training and using them
would count against our inventory available
for subsequent engagements.
FIGHT’S ON
“Talon, your opponents are ready to play now.
Range 45.”
“Copy. Fight’s on.”
At first the two sets of Lightnings came
straight at us, more or less line abreast about
two-to-three miles apart, doing the ‘speed of
heat’ and climbing as they approached. Inside
20 miles they angled apart, attempting to
envelop us in a pincer – called a ‘bracket’ – so
that if we turned towards one group, the
other would be able to engage us from
abeam, or better yet, from behind.
“Bandit, bandit, bandit.”
‘Scout’ had a positive electronic
identification of the Lightnings (via their IFF
code) and recognised the developing tactic.
He countered it by calling an offset left,
staying high and ‘up sun’, angling both of us
towards and ahead of his (the southern)
contact so that we wouldn’t get caught
between them. I maintained radar contact on
my group, watching for them to ‘turn hot’
towards us and waiting for the ‘in range’ cue
so I could begin shooting.
“Fox one, leader of the two-ship, 270 at 12,
hot at 18. Second Fox one.” ‘Scout’ had
sorted within his group to lock onto the
leader – bearing 270 degrees at 12 miles,
coming at us nose-on, climbing through
18,000ft – and simulated launching two
Sparrows. My contacts were still ‘cold’, trying
to outflank us to the north. At 10 miles they
turned hot.
“Northern group turning hot now, 300 at
10, 20,000, Fox one, Fox one.”
Headed as we were towards the southern
group, my targets were at the edge of my
radar scope and I had to angle away from
‘Scout’ – and towards them – to keep the
radar from hitting the gimbal limits and
breaking lock, thus trashing the shots. We
were just above 30,000ft descending – called
‘ramping down’ – with ‘Scout’ turning to put
his targets on his nose, and we came roaring
in at them just above the Mach, throttles back
near idle to ‘cool our jets’ and deny the front-
aspect IR shot. The Lightnings were also very
fast and staying together in pairs, their pincer
closing now with us just outside of it.
TALLY HO, TWO LIGHTNINGS!
“Tally ho, two Lightnings in trail, my nose,
four miles, low,” ‘Scout’ called.
Checking ‘Scout’ I saw he was banked up
on his right wing, nose dropping – and off his
nose emerging from the light grey haze
above the Wash was a dark grey dot. Looking
beyond it I spotted the second Lightning
about a mile behind, both pointing towards
‘Scout’.
“Tally two!” I chimed in that I saw both
targets. “Fox two the leader... Fox two,
trailer...” ‘Scout’ was blazing away like a
cowboy in a gunfight.
I had to make an instantaneous decision –
keep the lock on the northern group, or drop
them and engage one of ‘Scout’s’ pair? My "
EE Lightning 105
group was about eight miles out but closing
fast. ‘Scout’ was almost ‘merging’ with his
pair and I had both in sight. I broke lock.
“Talon’s passing the lead Lightning 180-
out... now! Engaging the trailer.”
“Visual, press! Two’s engaged with the
leader, he’s in a climbing left turn, no
threat...” Telling ‘Scout’ I had him – and both
bandits – in sight, he could press his attack
on the trailer while I took on the leader, who
was coming my way as if to ‘tie me up’ for the
other pair to enter for the kill.
The lead Lightning met ‘Scout’ in one of
the most impressive vertical lead turns either
of us had ever seen, then canted towards me
as ‘Scout’ went into afterburner and sliced
towards the ‘six’ of the trailing bandit. The
Lightnings had plenty of smash, but were
giving it away in the hard vertical turns and
soon were well below cornering speed, their
noses falling through the horizon as they
attempted to get their energy back. At this
point it was obvious that the lead Lightning
was intent on getting a stern shot on ‘Scout’.
Offering me his belly – and the intensely
hot IR plume from the two ‘over-under’ Rolls-
Royce Avon 302s in full reheat – I pulled him
to the nose, boresighted the radar and
Sidewinder, and shot: “Fox two, Fox two kill
the Lightning in the left-hand turn
descending through 240.”
“Guns, guns, guns. Guns kill the second
Lightning, left-hand turn at 250.”
“Talon one, come hard left to west – two’ll
be at your left three o’clock high.”
“One’s visual, check 30 [degrees of turn to
the] right”.
“Twoop. Second group [is at] our six,
about five miles.”
Now we were diving towards the thick
haze, our Pratt & Whitney F-100 turbofans
getting back the knots we’d shed in the brief
turning fight and I strained to look back
over my shoulders – to both sides – trying
to visually acquire the second pair. An RWR
(radar warning receiver) hit registered at
five-o’clock, mid-distance, and I called it out.
The authors flew their F-15 Eagles in a 2-v-4
air combat training encounter with
Lightnings from 5 Squadron. US Navy
106 aviationclassics.co.uk
We checked back to the left to put them
deep at six.
Now the surviving Lightnings had us
where they had an advantage. We were slow
but accelerating rapidly. They were fast,
coming downhill, and accelerating just as well,
closing on us relentlessly. Even checking to
put them ‘at deep six’ only delayed the
inevitable, but getting lower than they were
broke their radar locks (the Ferranti AI23D
Airpass had no real ‘look down’ capability) and
getting to high-Q (maximum aerodynamic
velocity) in the thicker air of lower altitudes
shortened the Red Top’s effective range
considerably. Plus the extended drag race with
‘burners cooking’ was rapidly draining the
Lightnings’ fuel tanks.
Finally they closed enough for ‘Scout’ to
get tally one and he called “Pitch back right!”
This was an in-place 180º turn with throttles
at idle, to both ‘cool our jets’ and deny a Red
Top shot, and to decelerate from 600+ knots
down to cornering velocity, around 425KIAS
(knots indicated airspeed). The Lightnings
were near line abreast and each seemed to
take the Eagle directly in front of them.
Clenching the abs down hard, straining
against the Gs and holding the lift-vector
(imaginary line out the top of the canopy) on
our respective bandits, we sustained the
7.3Gs for 180 degrees of turn, and met our
opponents ‘beak to beak’ and ‘canopy to
canopy’ in right hand turns.
“Talon’s engaged northern bandit!”
“Two’s engaged southern.”
The Lightnings tried using their
impressive ‘smash’ to take the fight vertical
and tighten their turning circles. Instantly I
saw that the first 90º of turn was indeed a
tight corner – forcing me to come off and go
vertical as well – but the Lightning was very
soon at a serious disadvantage to a fourth-
generation fighter. They valued mutual
support highly and ‘my bandit’ was turning
towards ‘Scout’, so I pulled the nose down
hard to get to the inside of his turn and bring
my weapons to bear as quickly as possible.
Vertical scan the radar to get the lock, thumb
to Sidewinder, a ‘growl’ in the headphones,
uncage the seeker, and let it fly (all this was
done with the hands-on-throttles-and-stick
[HOTAS] switches): “Fox two kill the
southern Lightning, right turn, 12,000,
turning through 030.”
Meanwhile ‘Scout’, as he says, “quickly
found myself in a very vertical rolling
scissors which I promptly won, since one
thing the Eagle does well is nose position.”
As ‘Scout’ considered of the Lightnings in
this encounter: “At slow speed it was
extremely difficult for them to hold their
nose on a manoeuvring target or track the
same. Because of the lack of HOTAS they
rarely if ever had a radar lock in a dynamic
dogfight environment, so that meant no
slaved missile, and to get a Red Top off the
rails, they needed to get nose-on target and
hold it there for a few seconds to get the
seeker locked. That was often too long – the
stab[ilator] authority was simply not
sufficient. Gun shots were similarly difficult
for the same reasons. Moreover, at higher
speeds with better pitch response,
appropriate lead on a high-G target would
frequently bury the target below the nose.
“These impressions were confirmed in the
flight I had in a T5. I experienced first-hand
how fast the aircraft was and how effortlessly
it accelerated. I was constantly ‘throttling
back’. It was pointed out to me that FUEL
featured prominently in the instrument cross-
check, such as it was, somewhere between
checking attitude and airspeed.”
“LET’S HAVE SOME MORE!”
As we extended out of this fight, we were
both worried that the first pair we’d engaged
had completed their 30-second ‘kill removal’
and would be engaging us from a blind side.
We needn’t have worried, the Lightning’s
limited fuel capacity worked in our favour.
“Talon 11, knock it off,” Neatishead called,
“Opponents are RTB.” We echoed the “knock
it off” and checked our own fuel state.
“Talon, take up easterly heading for
separation, another pair is launching now.
Understand you’ll be recovering Binbrook?”
“That’s affirmative, Neatishead. We’ll
follow this pair home.”
“Copy that, Talon. Binbrook is Green,
landing runway 02, the QFE is 963... that’s
29.60 in inches, pigeons 265 for 45.”
After a 2-v-4 with the Lightnings – which
‘Scout’ described as “I felt like I was being
pestered by a bunch of flies; they were
everywhere, and bothersome, but somehow
never became a real threat” – a 2-v-2 would
seem rather academic. So ‘Scout’ had devised
a different sort of dogfight: “For the second
fight, we did something unusual. We came in
low, in a single-side offset, and deliberately
fell into 3-mile lead-trail on the turn-in, sort of
a ‘shooter-eye’. [A lead/trail formation that
allows the leader to visually identify (the ‘eye’)
the target so the trailer can shoot before
reaching minimum range.] Nice guy that I
am, I pushed it up and met them close aboard,
they started turning, then saw my wingman,
changed their minds and reversed back, but
by that time, I was also turned around. They
split so I called the switch, and quickly found
myself in another very vertical rolling
scissors which I again very promptly won.
“Disco went two-circle but the Lightning
driver was lead-turning him repeatedly,
nullifying his turn rate advantage, at least
temporarily. They kill-removed a couple of
times, came back in after about 30 seconds,
and so it was more like a continuous
engagement. Sure was fun.”
Once again we ‘bingoed out’ [‘Bingo’ –
radio call sign indicating fuel is below a
critical level requiring RTB] the Lightnings
and this time fell into trail with them for RTB
to Binbrook. ‘Scout’ called, “Neatishead,
Talon 11’s RTB Binbrook. We’re visual the
Lightnings, and happy to push to their freq.”
“Roger, Talon... it appears your playmates
are already QSY [change of radio frequency] to
tower. You can join them there, frequency
288.5. Homeplate now Blue, runway 02 in use.”
“Wilco, Neatishead and thanks again for
your help. Talon, fence out, 288.5.”
“Twoop.”

We stayed in radar-trail until we were ‘feet
dry’ then ‘pushed it up’ – which took a while
because they were still doing the ‘speed of
stink’ – to join on their wing and came
overhead Binbrook in a loose four-ship
echelon for the ‘overhead break full stop’.
Even after flying 50-minutes from Bitburg to
the Wash and fighting six Lightnings we still
had fuel reserves to divert to RAF Alconbury
if need be. I logged a 1.5 hour flight.
Leaving our Eagles with the VAS (visiting
aircraft section) we took the short walk to 5
Squadron ops, where we were
enthusiastically welcomed. The debriefing
was short. Since the engagements were so
brief, there wasn’t much to reconstruct. They
had no gun camera film and no video
machines to play ours, so it was mostly a lot
of backslapping “That was great!” and “Let’s
have some more!” There were a few red-and-
blue spaghetti diagrams on the chalkboard
and a little orange squash in the crew room
and that was it. There were no safety issues,
training rule violations, or other such
unpleasantries to discuss.
As ‘Scout’ related: “For their part, the
Lightning pilots loved DACT [dissimilar air
combat training] with us, because we didn’t
rub it in, no one expected a different
outcome, it was an exciting break from their
daily routine, and there was the chance, just
maybe, of catching an Eagle on film.”
Debrief over, we briefed up with another
pair for a 2-v-2 on the way out – and other
than the fact it involved us ‘bracketing’ them
and getting into some rousing 1-v-1s as they
cycled in and out. It went pretty much like
the inbound sortie.
On Monday we two-hopped back via Gilze-
Rijen, then low-altitude intercepts against all
comers – mainly RAF Germany Phantom
FGR.2s (the RAF’s third generation fighter)
from Wildenrath in Low Fly 3 – before ‘RTB-
ing’ to Bitburg. Somehow, being at Bitburg was
like being at work – while the unforgettable
DACT cross-country to Binbrook was
experiencing a connection to aviation history.
Of nearly a thousand sorties in the Eagle, that
against the Lightnings is one of the few that
stands out as a distinct memory.
‘Scout’ concludes: “Fond memories of
Binbrook and the Lightnings. I miss those
guys and their jets.” !
LIGHTNING V F-15 – EDITORIAL COMMENT
For the first 20 years of the Lightning’s
front line service with the RAF, up to the
late 1970s, it was at least a match for all
other fighter aircraft of its era and in
many cases its performance and
weapons system were superior. Lighting
pilots of that time felt that they could
take on any Western fighter aircraft in air
combat training engagements on an
equal footing and most likely they would
win the fight. They also expected that, if
the worst ever happened and they had
to fight the MiGs and Sukhois of the
Warsaw Pact air forces, there was no
reason why their mounts and their
training should not give them the
advantage, although they knew that
they could well be outnumbered.
In a visual ‘dogfight’, Lightning pilots
were trained to fly either an ‘energy fight’
or an ‘angles fight’. In the first case the
Lightning needed to be flown as close as
possible to its best cornering speed
(about 360 knots), with any excess speed
being used in the vertical plane and with
the best performance being squeezed
from the aircraft with careful control of
the buffet – pulling too hard would
increase the buffet and briefly the turn
rate, but at the expense of energy as the
drag overcame the power. Not pulling
sufficiently hard to the buffet would waste
turn potential and allow the aircraft to
accelerate so that it became G limited.
Control of the buffet was down to feel;
there was no angle of attack indication
in the Lightning cockpit and the only
time it was worth pulling into deep buffet
was to take a shot.
The more skilful Lightning pilots might
opt for an ‘angles fight’, to force their
opponents into an error by appearing to
be winning on angles when actually they
did not have the energy to get into a
shooting position. Something that would
always take an opponent by surprise was
the Lightning’s ability to suddenly snap
into the vertical and stand on its tail at
low speed, as many airshow customers
saw the aircraft do in its famed ‘rotation’
takes-offs (the so-called ‘rote’). The
Four-ship of 5 Squadron
Lightnings. Geoffrey
Lee/Planefocus
tailplane pitch-up authority was
exceptional at low speed and this,
coupled with the massive power of its
engines, allowed a skilled Lightning pilot
to rotate the aircraft to the vertical from
speeds as low as 230 knots and then roll
over and behind the opponent. Many a
USAF F-5E Aggressor pilot has been
surprised by that manoeuvre. Making
use of the vertical plane upwards was a
widely used and very successful air
combat tactic for Lightning pilots, but
allowing the nose to become ‘buried’ in
too steep a dive needed to be avoided
as it was very hard to get it back up
again at higher speeds.
The Lightning’s rate of climb was
exceptional (50,000 feet per minute
initial rate). Compared to the Mirage III
with its 30,000fpm, the F-4 Phantom with
32,000fpm and the MiG-21 with
36,000fpm, the Lightning reigned
supreme. Its brakes-off to 36,000ft time
was 21⁄2 minutes, which was similar to
the F-15.
From the 1980s onwards, the lack of
development of the Lighting meant that
it was increasingly outclassed by its
opposition. The Lightning had proved
that it could hold its own in dissimilar air
combat training with the likes of the F-4
Phantom and the Harrier, but there was
no doubt that it was outclassed by the
newer generation of fighters like the F-16
and F-15. The F-15 was in a different
generation of fighter aircraft. It possessed
not only superior performance in every
respect, but also had a much greater
range and persistence capability as well
as a vastly superior radar and weapons
system, much more potent missiles and
excellent self defence systems, including
a RWR. When the Lightning was finally
phased out of service in the late 1980s,
all Lightning pilots without exception
wished that the British Government and
the MoD had purchased the F-15 as a
replacement rather than the Tornado F3.
This article shows why!
Sqn Ldr Clive Rowley
MBE RAF (Ret’d)
EE Lightning 107
 Eject!
Eject! The stor y behind a famous photograph
of an ejection from a Lightning.

T
he photograph opposite was
taken by Jim Meads on 13
September 1962. It was
published in newspapers all
around the world at the time
and, as it was so widely seen, it naturally
caught the attention of manufacturer
Martin-Baker.
At the time Jim lived next door to de
Havilland test pilot Bob Sowray in Hatfield,
Hertfordshire, and on this day both of their
wives had gone clothes shopping in London.
Bob had mentioned that he was due to fly a
Lightning that day, and later Jim’s children
asked if they could go to watch the flight.
Although Jim was a photographer, he
wouldn’t usually take his camera on an outing
like this. However, on this occasion he
decided he would get a picture of his
neighbour flying. The camera he took had
just two exposures on it.
The spectators found a good vantage point
close to the threshold of de Havilland’s
Hatfield airfield, and waited for the Lightning
to return. As XG332 came in on final
approach, at around 200ft high its nose
pitched up and the pilot ejected. The
Lightning had become uncontrollable after an
engine fire had weakened a tailplane actuator.
Jim took one photo soon after the
ejection, and as can be seen caught the
pilot inverted with his parachute still
unopened and the Lightning plummeting

earthwards close to him. The tractor driver
heard the bang of the ejection seat and is
seen after quickly turning around to look at
what was going on, no doubt very relieved
he wasn’t working further over in the field.
Jim’s one remaining picture recorded the
subsequent plume of thick black smoke after
the jet had crashed.
Fortunately the pilot survived after
coming down in a greenhouse full of
tomatoes. He suffered multiple breaks of his
limbs and cuts from the shower of glass that
rained down on him after going through the
roof of the greenhouse. However, it hadn’t
been Bob Sowray at the controls; he had
decided to let fellow test pilot George Aird
carry out the flight.
XG332 was one of 20 pre-production
Lightnings and first flew on 29 May 1959. It
was used throughout its flying life by BAC
and de Havilland for Firestreak and Red Top
trials, and its crash occurred while it was on
latter programme. ■
With many thanks to Jim Meads for kindly
supplying original prints of the images.

EE Lightning 109
Two 11 Squadron Lightnings
pictured in late 1987. Ian Black

Air defence
generations A former Lightning unit that remains on QRA duties now flying the Typhoon
is 11 Squadron, which in between also had the Tornado F3 on strength.

W
ith an already established
pedigree of flying jet
fighters such as the DH
Vampire, DH Venom,
Gloster Meteor and
Gloster Javelin, 11 Squadron’s lengthy period
flying the Lightning began in April 1967, when
the unit was reformed at Leuchars, Scotland. It
was equipped with F6s for UK air defence
duties in place of 74 Squadron, which was
shortly due to depart from the station for
Singapore. Leuchars’ air defence zone
received many intrusions from long-range
Soviet reconnaissance aircraft, and the
Lightnings on QRA there were kept very busy.
On 22 March 1972, 11 Squadron moved
south to RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire
where it joined 5 Squadron. On 30 April
1988 the unit was disbanded, but then
reformed at Leeming that July with the
RAF’s new air defence fighter, the Panavia
Tornado F3. In October 2005, the squadron
disbanded again.
However, that wasn’t to be the last of
11 Squadron, as it reformed at RAF
Coningsby, Lincolnshire, on 29 March 2007
as the second frontline Typhoon unit.
While the Typhoon was initially solely an
air defence fighter designated the F2, the
modern RAF requires more multi-role
operations and 11 was to be the lead
squadron for the development of the
Typhoon’s air-to-surface capability. Multi-
role Typhoons became FGR4s.
On 17 August 2007, the first live scramble
by Typhoons occurred when a Soviet
Tu-95MS Bear H was intercepted by F2s
from 3 and 11 Squadrons out of Coningsby.
In the more than 40 years since the
Lightning first arrived on 11 Squadron, while
the technology may have advanced
significantly over the three generations of
fighter illustrated here, the principals of
being on 24/7 QRA UK air defence duties
remain exactly the same. !

Old meets new, as two Lightning F6s wearing 11 Squadron markings greet their
replacement into service in the shape of Tornado F3 ZE784. Time Line Images

110 aviationclassics.co.uk
 The Lightning Preservation
Group’s XS904 still proudly
wears the markings of 11
Squadron. Jarrod Cotter

Lightning F6 XR753
is preserved as a
‘gate guard’
aircraft on the site
occupied by 11
Squadron on the
far side of RAF
Coningsby, On its tail XS904 has the squadron’s double
commemorating eagle badge. This was approved by King
the unit’s operation George VI in May 1937 and commemorates
of several the unit’s operation of two-seat fighter-
generations of air reconnaissance aircraft during World War
defence fighters. One, with eagles being chosen to symbolise
Mike Freer speed and strength. Jarrod Cotter

Typhoon FGR4s of 11
Squadron seen during
Exercise Green Flag over
the Nevada Desert in the
USA during early June 2008.
After successful completion
of this, the Typhoon was
declared combat ready in
the air-to-ground role
gaining its multi-role
operational status on 1 July.
Geoffrey Lee/Planefocus

EE Lightning 111
Lightning
112 aviationclassics.co.uk
sunset
Geoffrey Lee of Planefocus
caught some impressive
sights of Lightnings on film
in their twilight years,
many of which are
previously unpublished.

EE Lightning 113
114 aviationclassics.co.uk
 The last 5 Squadron diamond
nine-ship formation seen over
the North Lincolnshire coastline
in November 1987, just prior to
the unit’s disbandment at RAF
Binbrook, Lincolnshire. No.5
converted to the Panavia
Tornado F3 in 1988.

Lightning F6 XP693
in 65(R) Squadron
markings caught in
a dramatic angle at
left, as well as with a
Tornado F3 in this
view from May 1991.
The squadron
numberplate had
by then been
allocated to the
Tornado F3 OCU.

EE Lightning 115
Lightning F6 XS901 of
5 Squadron at altitude
above a solid cloud
base over the North
Sea in November 1987.

116 aviationclassics.co.uk
Above & Below: This series of photographs shows 56(F) Squadron Tornado F3 ZG770 from RAF
Coningsby, 56(F) Squadron McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2 XT897 from RAF Wattisham
and BAE Systems’ Lightning F6 XP693 this time painted in 56(F) Squadron markings.
Photographed over the Lincolnshire coastline in July 1992, this formation was put up to show
the past generations of fighters that the squadron had flown up to the entry of the Tornado F3
into service. XP693 now flies with Thunder City out of Cape Town, South Africa.

EE Lightning 117
Riding the
Magic Carpet
Martyn Chorlton describes
the Lightning’s ser vice with
the Royal Saudi and Kuwaiti
Air Forces.

T
he credit for establishing the
United Kingdom’s longest
defence contract can be traced to
ex-RAF Group Captain Geoffrey
Edwards. Thanks to sound advice
from his bank manager at the time, Edwards
set himself up as an agent in what was the
developing Saudi Arabia. Living in Jeddah, he
was perfectly placed to lay the building blocks
for BAC (which had been formed by the
merging of several companies including
English Electric) to sell the Lightning to Saudi,
who were not only in need of a new fighter but
also a complete air defence package.
From the moment when Jimmy Dell
enthusiastically displayed Lightning F2
XN730 (borrowed from 19 Squadron) in
front of the king on 4 July 1964, the Saudis
were hooked. To confirm the Lightning flew
as well as it looked, the Saudis sent a Lt
Hamdan to Warton to experience the
machine for himself. After a few conversion
sorties in a T4, Hamdan was let loose in F2
XN723 with an F3, on loan from the RAF,
flying as chase. It appears that Hamdan got a
little carried away and after pulling away
from the F3, he allegedly exceeded Mach
2.05 (in the region of 1400mph) although the
Saudi pilot was actually convinced that he
had reached Mach 2.5! This only served to
fuel the fact that the Saudis had chosen the
right aircraft and they were now impatient to
close the deal. On 21 December 1965, Saudi
Arabia officially announced that they had
chosen the Lightning for the RSAF and were
ordering 40 aircraft.
The first stage of supplying the RSAF was
given the name Operation Magic Palm and
this entailed the delivery of six Lightnings,
six Hunters and a single battery of
Thunderbird (the Army’s version of the
Bloodhound) surface-to-air missiles. The
Lightning part of the initial order was drawn
from ex-RAF F2s and a pair of T4s. These
were fully refurbished at Warton and were re-
designated as the F52 and T54 respectively.
Modifications were very subtle to this first
batch of aircraft, mainly centering around an
improvement in the cooling system.
Roland Beamont stands in the centre, flanked by Saudi delivery pilots (from the left)
Jimmy Dell, Peter Ginger, Tim Ferguson and Paul Millet. Via the late Jimmy Dell
Under the guise of Operation Magic
Carpet, the first aircraft to be delivered were
the T54s. Both left Warton on 6 June 1966
with Jimmy Dell flying 54-650 (formerly
XM989) and Don Knight at the controls of
54-651 (XN992). After making the short
flight, via Wattisham, to test the aircraft’s
refuelling system, both aircraft left for
Nicosia (owing to work being carried at
Akrotiri) arriving safely on 11 June. Two
days later, both aircraft set course for Riyadh
and, as planned, the two T54s rendezvoused
with a Valiant tanker in Jordanian airspace.
As both aircraft nuzzled under each wing of
the Valiant, Knight’s aircraft successfully
replenished its tanks while Dell’s aircraft
refused to take any. As 54-651 continued on
its way to Riyadh, Dell had no choice but to
divert to Amman in Jordan.
Escorted in by the Valiant, the arrival
caused quite a stir as the Lightning taxied to
a halt wearing RSAF markings. The problem
turned out to be a blown fuse and once
repaired, the Jordanians insisted that the duo
return to Cyprus rather than direct to Riyadh.
By 16 June, 54-650 finally made it to Saudi
and by 28 July, the remaining four F52s had
also been delivered, without incident, to 6
Squadron, RSAF and pilot training could now
seriously begin.
SHOW OF FORCE
One of the main reasons for the Saudis
purchasing the Lightning was to help deal
with the ongoing problem of insurgents along
the Yemen border and to carry out
interceptions of Egyptian aircraft which
would regularly overfly the country. The
arrival of its new airpower, despite being just
six aircraft, needed showing off to its friends
and foes alike and this became the priority
over training new pilots.
It was during one of these demonstrations
that the RSAF lost its first Lightning on 20
September 1966 at Riyadh. In the hands of
Airwork pilot Peter Hay, as F52 52-657
thundered down the runway, the aircraft
appeared to rotate too early and, moments
later, stalled and crashed. Hay managed to
eject safely but suffered spinal injuries as a
result of the accident which is believed to
have been caused by a control restriction
rather than pilot error. During May 1967, this
aircraft was replaced by another F52, 52-659,
delivered by Tim Ferguson to 6 Squadron,
which was still based at Riyadh at the time.
This was set to change in August 1967
when the Saudis decided to move their prized
Lightning force closer to the Yemen border.
No.6 Squadron’s new base was to be Khamis
Mushayt which, at nearly 7000ft above sea

118 aviationclassics.co.uk
Very nice study of F53s 1301 (53-667)
and 1302 (53-679) of 13 Squadron, RSAF,
over the desert coastline. Both aircraft
were extensively used by the RSAF, but
with only months left to serve, 1301
which was serving with 2 Squadron as
221 at the time was abandoned after
a reheat fire 28 miles north of Tabuk on
3 September 1985.
All Via Time Line Images unless noted

level and with a constant crosswind problem,

would create a whole new set of problems for
the Lightning. The two T54s and a single F52
arrived on 7 August 1967 but owing to those
crosswinds, the remainder could not get into
Khamis until a week later. The altitude played
havoc with the AVPIN starters and after only
a few weeks, the squadron ran out of LOX
(Liquid Oxygen). Both problems were
quickly resolved and on 13 November 1966,
6 Squadron was declared fully operational.
Tensions along the border grew during early
1967 but the Yemeni’s increased awareness of
the potential of 6 Squadron eventually eased
the situation.
In the meantime, back at Warton, the
contract continued to supply the RSAF with
its full complement of aircraft. This reached
another milestone when the first F53, ex-RAF
XR722 now registered as 53-666, took to the Lightning T55 55-715 nearest the camera was the first of its type to be delivered to the RSAF
air on 19 October 1966. Only weeks later, LCU at Dhahran in early 1969. It went on to serve with 2 and 6 Squadrons RSAF before
more encouraging news for BAC and the returning to Warton on 2 January 1986 having achieved over 2000 flying hours.
country as a whole was received when a
second contract was won to supply 14
Lightnings to Kuwait. Superb low flypast shot of F53 53-672 over
Warton with condenstation building nicely.
Via the late Jimmy Dell
VARIED WEAPONS FIT
The F53 was a formidable version of the
Lightning, with a capability that outstripped
the RAF’s single mission policy for its own
aircraft. It was effectively a ground attack
version of the standard F6, but rather than
being equipped with a pair of missiles, the
new mark could carry a multitude of
weaponry. The incredibly strong wing of the
Lightning lent itself perfectly for the addition
of pylons, both above and below. Those below
could carry a pair of Matra Type 155 SNEB
68mm rocket pods and a novel use for the "

EE Lightning 119
over wing pylon incorporated a JL100 pod in
the front of the overwing tank, which could
still carry an additional 50 gallons of fuel.
The pylons could also carry a pair of
1000lb bombs and a parachute-retarded
version could additionally be fitted to the
overwing pylon. This was delivered by an
explosive ejector mechanism to avoid
damaging the wing. The standard Red Top fit
could be replaced with a Microcell unguided
rocket pack or a day or night reconnaissance
tray. Day fit used five 70mm cameras while
the night fit used an infrared line scanner
which was illuminated by photoflashes
carried on the pylons. A pair of 30mm Aden
cannons were also fitted into the front of the
ventral tank, a design feature that was later
modified into the RAF’s own F6s. All this
made the F53 an exceptional all round
aircraft and the first of 34 aircraft was
delivered to the RSAF from July 1968.
The Saudis also ordered half a dozen
T55s, which in many people’s eyes was even
more capable an aircraft than the F53. With
the ability to carry the exact same weapon
loads in various configurations, the T55 had
the obvious added advantage of being able to
carry two crew, one of whom could act as a
weapons operator. The first T55, 55-710, took
to the air from Warton on 21 October 1966
only to be written off in a landing accident on
7 March 1967.
With Jimmy Dell instructing on behalf of
BAC and Airwork pilot Peter Williams, they
began the sortie with a strong wind blowing
across the runway, just within limits. They
had been informed by the Met office that the
wind would not only decrease, but change to
blow down the runway. When they returned
to Warton, the wind was still across the
airfield and Dell estimated it to be gusting
between 40 and 45 knots. With no chance of
diverting the Lightning, now with Jimmy at
the controls it slew down the runway with
tyres bursting and very little chance of
keeping the machine on track. Now on the
grass, the nose leg dug in, struck a concrete
plinth and, with the intake burying itself into
the ground, caused the forward fuselage to
partly break off at the pressure bulkhead
joint. Jimmy was still in his seat but Williams
was nowhere to be seen. He was eventually
120 aviationclassics.co.uk
“F53 53-697 was flying a
recce operation when, close
to the Yemeni border, the jet
was hit by ground fire…”
Kuwait Air Force Lightning F53K 53-415,
performing what would turn out to be a
rare sortie.
Right & far right: First flown from
Samlesbury by Dave Eagles on 25 April
1969, F53K G-AXEE is seen on display at
the Paris airshow that same year. The
incredible array of weaponry must
have impressed all who saw, but
unfortunately never encouraged any
more overseas operators.
found under the port wing, alive and still in operational on the Lightning.
his seat! The Yemen problem rumbled on into 1970
Under the banner of 226 OCU at and only a few days before peace was
Coltishall, the first batch of RSAF T55s declared, the Saudis lost their only Lightning
headed for Norfolk and it was here that the of the conflict. F53 53-697 was flying a recce
vast majority of future Saudi Lightning pilots operation when, close to the Yemeni border,
were trained. The first arrived in September the jet was hit by ground fire, forcing the
1967 and remained until they left for Saudi in pilot to eject. Only one F53, 53-690, was not
1969, destined to serve with the LCU delivered to Saudi owing to the fact that
(Lightning Conversion Unit) at Dhahran for J Cockburn had to eject from it after total
the rest of their careers. By mid-1969, all of control failure on 4 September 1968. Its
the F53s had been delivered and by now the replacement was 53-700 which arrived in
RSAF could boast 2, 6 and 13 Squadrons all Saudi on 4 September 1972, becoming the
last ever production Lightning built.
Left & right: Further highlighting
the variety of weapons fits possible
with the F53, these two views show
one jet fitted with SNEB pods and
ventral guns, and the other with
bombs and ventral rocket packs
plus overwing tanks.
SOWING THE SEEDS
FOR SUCCESS
The majority of the RSAF Lightnings enjoyed
long and healthy careers, accumulating many
thousands of hours between them. However,
18 would eventually be lost in accidents while
the remainder continued to serve into the
1980s. In January 1986, the RSAF withdrew the
Lightning from service and with plenty of oil
revenue to play with, went hunting for a
replacement. Eventually, another deal was
struck with BAe (the successor company of
BAC) to provide various aircraft and remove
the surviving Lightnings back to Warton. In an
operation reminiscent of Magic Carpet, 22
aircraft with Victor tanker support en route
returned to Lancashire during January and
February 1986. It was hoped that the jets could
be refurbished and offered either to Denmark
or Austria. Both deals fell through and all of
the aircraft were offered either to museums or
any other interested parties.
In contrast to the Saudis,
the marriage between the
Lightning and the Kuwaiti Air
Force (KAF) was not a happy
one. After receiving its order of a pair of T55Ks
and a dozen F53Ks, the first arriving in
December 1968, the aircraft were operated
from the country’s international airport.
Constant civilian operations often disrupted the
military flying and the Kuwaitis decided that
two brand new air bases should be built at
Ahmed al Jaber and Jakra. After the huge
expense of building these new airfields, neither
were found to be suitable for the Lightning,
both being poorly equipped and lacking the
infrastructure that this complicated aircraft
needed. After struggling to keep their small
force in the air, the Kuwaitis offered their
aircraft for sale in 1973. Only the Egyptians
showed an interest and this soon faded when
they were told how much it would cost to get
Lightnings back up to a decent standard of
serviceability. The KAF continued to fly the
Lightning until 1977 when they were all
grounded and replaced by the Mirage F1K.
Now down to just 11 surviving aircraft, these
languished at the airport until they were
further reduced when Iraq invaded in 1990 and
several were destroyed in at least one air raid.
Both in Saudi and Kuwait, several aircraft
have been preserved and thanks to that
influx into Warton in the late 1980s, several
more survive in the UK. While the Saudi
Lightning contract never yielded any great
profit for BAC at the time, future defence
projects have proved advantageous to the
UK economy and under the ‘Al Yamamah’
still continue to this day. The Lightning may
not have been an export success but, to
achieve such a lucrative and
long-lasting Middle Eastern
deal, can be considered as
success enough. !
EE Lightning 121
Last of the
Lightnings
Ian Black highlights his time flying with 11
Squadron during the RAF’s last year of operating
the classic all-British jet fighter.
W
hen I was asked to write
this article, the editor
gave me a brief of
describing a memorable
sortie. A glance through
my logbook searching for that ‘memorable’
flight brought back a host of memories, and
trying to choose just one proved impossible.
Therefore, in order to try and capture the
époque, I decided to give a ‘potpourri’
account of the last year on 11(F) Squadron –
the ‘Last of the Lightnings’.
After the joys of the Lightning Training
Flight (LTF), joining a front line squadron
was the culmination of three years plus of
hard work and at the time seemed like you
had finally reached the end of the tunnel –
only to find you had to keep digging.
Fortunately the LTF was located in the
adjacent hangar to the two front line units, 5
and 11 Squadrons. So unlike previous
postings that had required a full re-pack of all
your worldly goods followed by a trek across
mainland Britain to reach the next airfield on
the edge of the world, this was a breeze. By
the time I arrived in February 1987, the
writing was very much on the wall for the
withdrawal from front line service of the
mighty Lightning. First to go within a year
would be 5 Squadron, followed six months
later by 11.
For reasons unknown, the replacement
aircraft, the Panavia Tornado F3, had already
re-equipped 29 Squadron which was a
previous operator of the highly capable F-4
Phantom. The transition from all-british
Lightning to european swing-wing ADV was
not smooth. Having been developed from its
bomber variant, the ADV at this stage was
lacking in many areas. The radar was way
behind schedule and its promises of multi-
target track while scan capability was a long
way off. What it also lacked (apart from
charisma!) in comparison to the Lightning
was performance. Its tiny Rolls-Royce RB199
engines were small and compact and
excellent at low-level, but simply ran out of air
122 aviationclassics.co.uk
above 25,000ft – an area the Lightning
excelled in.
For these reasons and others, the delay of
introduction to service of the Tornado
prolonged the life of the Lightning by several
years. It was decided, and rightly so, to
maintain the Binbrook Wing at full strength
until the ADV was up and running, allowing a
few pilots (myself included) valuable single-
seat experience which could be used on the
‘next, next generation’ fighter, the Typhoon.
Having mastered everything the LTF
could throw at me and feeling pretty pleased,
my initial months on the squadron were
almost totally dedicated to perfecting the
medium level intercept. After the obligatory
arrival dual check, where I seemed to
manage to forget everything I’d learnt on the
LTF some two weeks prior, it was time to
sample the joys of the F6. A quick trip in the
simulator ran through the emergencies of
non-feeding ventral tanks, increased speeds
and sampled the delights of ‘unlimited’ fuel
reserves, then it was time to try the real
McCoy. My allotted aircraft was XR754,
which was always special having been the
first production F6 – it was the star of many
English Electric publicity shots with Wg Cdr
‘Bee’ Beaumont in cloth helmet cruising past
Blackpool Tower and over the Lake District
in what was then a brand new variant.
Now 22 years later after test pilot Don
Knight (one of three TSR-2 pilots) had taken
her aloft, it was my turn. Thoroughly briefed,
I duly signed the crisp ‘linen’ white
authorising sheets and ‘bagged up’. While not
planned to fly over the sea, it was still
prudent to put the full winter immersion suit
on as a pre-meditated ejection would have
forced me to the designated ejection area
somewhere off Grimsby docks – nice!
Walking out to the flight line was another of
those ‘engrained in grey matter’ moments.
When in the line hut I could sense the
ground crew watching the rookie pilot about
to blast into the unknown with not a huge
amount of confidence. "
 The ‘Last of the Lightnings’
caught in a fitting atmospheric
sunset in December 1992,
shortly before their retirement
by British Aerospace and the
sight of the classic all-british
supersonic jet fighter was
finally lost from UK skies. From
nearest the camera they are
XR773, XS904 and XP693.
All author unless noted
After a gunnery
sortie in Cyprus,
a formation of
Lightnings head
back to Akrotiri
for a flypast.
THE ‘BIG 6’
It was a typical early spring day; cold, wet,
cloudy, generally just not nice. Marked up as
BC my aircraft had the name of our Navy
exchange pilot CN Rae in small white letters
under the cockpit. No longer a highly
polished ‘Silver Machine’, it sat grey, dirty
and streaked with oil and grime – the life of a
Lightning etched onto its dull paintwork. One
of the few aircraft never to have served on an
overseas squadron, it was pretty much a
Binbrook flagship. My lasting memories of
flying the F6 on this occasion was how big
and bloated it looked. Unlike the F3, which
sat tall and proud, the F6 full of fuel seemed
to sit in a pregnant state, tail heavy with its
wings more cambered and under fuselage
tank scraping the tarmac.
Climbing aboard the only real difference
was the fuel gauges, which seemed to read
‘FULL’! Getting to the end of the runway was
straightforward, no different to the F3. On
take-off every flight was in full reheat with
124 aviationclassics.co.uk
flaps down. Plugging the burners in now
seemed more mundane as the heavy fighter
limped down the runway gathering speed,
unlike the F3 which was like a scalded cat.
My first flight on the ‘big 6’ was general
handling with a practice diversion to RAF
Marham. Now the range could be extended
and you didn’t feel as though you were
constantly watching the fuel gauges.
With my conversion to the F6 complete it
was time to hone many of the skills touched
on by the LTF. Month one saw me flying
formation practice, close and tactical,
including pairs approaches and landings. A
night dual check, night air-to-air refuelling
(the instructor kindly put me in the basket!)
and a night solo in XS904. Total flying just 17
hours in 18 sorties. Unlike modern fighters
that simply don’t go wrong, even in my first
month I had my share of emergencies.
After two weeks flying XR757 the spine
panel fell off during take-off and was found in
a farmer’s field the next morning. Then
alarmingly on my last sortie of the month in
XR756, as I rotated at night both JPT (jet pipe
temperature) gauges went off the clock to
900+ degrees, which had all the symptoms of
an in-flight fire. Fortunately it proved to be a
gauging fault. Adding to my grey hair
collection, a quick turn downwind for a
heavyweight landing ended that sortie sooner
than planned.
TANKING AND THE ‘TUB’
By month two (April 1987) I was current by
day at air-to-air refuelling. My log book doesn’t
show any dual instruction, all I recall is a quick
course at RAF Marham at the tanker school
then off with a senior pilot in another F6. My
memories are pretty clear of being vectored to
the tanker during a normal mission prior to
the course – never having refuelled before...
My leader quickly got on the radio and asked
me if I’d ever tanked before, “Negative” I
replied which was followed by a big pause.
“OK, here’s what you do...”
 No.11 Squadron’s
latter flagship XS903
BA was treated to a
traditional Lightning
full colour fin towards
the end of 1987.

XS904 on a ground
engine run with the
No.1 reheat lit.
Matt Jamieson

Showing its swept

wings to great
Suffice to say after 40 minutes and as effect F6 XS903
many misses I went home with my tail breaks from the
between my legs having failed to get in the cameraship.
basket! Once you knew the technique it was
pretty easy. The Lightning was a very stable
platform with one glitch – the refuelling
probe on the left side under the wing was not
visible when looking forward. The technique
was to run the standby compass up the hose
until you made contact trying not to look at
the probe, which invariably ended up in a
miss. In the end nearly every flight on the
Lightning was supplemented by tankers, so it
became more than routine to tank during
training flights.
Fortuitously my second month on the
squadron saw everyone getting ready to
deploy to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus for annual
gunnery training. This at least kept the
pressure off me as gunnery took precedence
over conversion flying.
Only six weeks after I’d left the LTF I was
back in their crew room guesting as photo "

EE Lightning 125
chase for the disbandment flypast. Sadly,
after I left the LTF the remaining three
student pilots were all ‘chopped’, making me
the last to qualify. Mid-April had me flying the
squadron T5 XS452 for a dual check (again!)
with weapons instructor Flt Lt Bob Bees. I
seemed at this early stage in my squadron
career never to be out of the ‘Tub’, the
nickname for the T5. My whole day would be
brightened up as I arrived at work to see the
‘Tub’ up on jacks, with panels off and engines
out knowing I’d be spared a dual check for at
least a few days – that of course changed
when the LTF disbanded and the surplus T5s
meant that Binbrook was awash with the
bloody things!
May came now with a total of 83.30
minutes on type. Having flown XS904
during the day of the 6th, I was up that
evening with Bob Bees again in our new T5
XV328 being taught night close formation –
now that was really scary at first. Formation
flying is pretty dangerous if you don’t stick
to a few basic rules, the main one being
always have an escape route. That’s to say
as you come into close don’t put yourself on
a collision course that won’t allow you to
break out safely.
The Lightning has often been quoted as
“a delight to fly in close formation” which is
true, but it did have some pitfalls. Primarily
the problem was its tiny air brakes that
weren’t very efficient. So it was particularly
important to control your overtake when
Hugely atmospheric
picture of a Lightning
F6 about to touch
down at Binbrook,
with wheels, flaps
and airbrakes all
visible down and out.
126 aviationclassics.co.uk
joining. Normally your leader would give
you some clue as to his speed. As you joined
he’d call “420 knots” which allowed you to
check your strip speed and watch how
much overtake you had. In a modern jet
fighter it’s easy to ‘overcook’ it and simply
slam the throttle shut and bang out the air
brakes. In the Lightning slamming the
throttle shut at 450 knots would have
promptly spat most of the blades out the
front – the engine was old school. So it
required a fair degree of skill to smoothly
get into close especially at night where all
your visual references have gone and
you’re trying to formate on a black shape
dimly lit by two tail lights that were often
not working!
Night check over it was back to air-to-air
refuelling with an exercise called AAR – X–
country. Led by my mentor Steve Hunt a
pair of Lightnings, with myself in XS925, set
off to find our Victor and be led round the
whole of the UK ‘plugging’ as we needed to
keep our tanks topped up. On the way home
(luckily it was gin clear) we sat on the
Victor wing for a close formation let down.
Having been impressed by the climb
performance of the old Victor, we were also
unimpressed as during the overhead he
came back to idle power and even with both
Avons at idle, full speed brake and gear
down, we performed an unimpressive
arrival sailing past our Victor leader, not,
shall we say, in total control!
FLYING ‘MR LIGHTNING’
Perhaps the highlight of my month was on
the 13th, a windy Friday when I had the
pleasure of taking my father flying in XS452.
After 30 years in the RAF it was to be his last
flight on retirement as an Air Vice Marshal. I
have to admit to being more than a tad
nervous, with 100 hours total my squadron
commander had bravely allowed me to take
my father flying. At this point it’s worth
mentioning my father had 1000 hours + on the
Lightning and had been known as ‘Mr
Lightning’ due to his expertise on type.
Airborne for 35 minutes it all went smoothly,
with the older Black proving he’d not lost any
of his skills and politely not commenting on
the younger Black’s lack of finesse!
Five days later I was back in ’452 for a 5
hour transit to Akrotiri. I lost count of how
many times we plugged into the VC-10,
though I do recall after about 3 hours we had
to stay plugged in as we simply had
insufficient fuel to reach any diversion!
Having completed my dual check against
a towed banner somewhere over the North
Sea, it was a whole new ball game flying over
the Med. The Lightning T5 was pretty good
as a training platform, but as a gunnery
trainer it was not great – it had no gun! Also it
only had a gun sight on the left side
(student), so it was very hard for the
instructor to teach and debrief. With a couple
of days rest and recovery it was straight into
the gunnery exercises.
 The gunnery pattern is outside the scope of
this article, but briefly the pattern is flown in
pairs with lots of head in the cockpit/head out
of the cockpit and a lot of hands flashing round
the cockpit making switches live and safe.
Being of the age it was, the Lightning had very
limited recording facilities – a small black and
white camera located under the radome above
the pitot probe. This made de-briefing very
difficult and the emphasis was really placed on
safety, i.e minimum range and not getting the
angle off too low, which would result in hitting
the Canberra target-tug. Flying twice a day it
wasn’t long before I had ‘ace’ qualified, which
meant getting a score of greater than 15% on
the banner. With three weeks left of the
detachment and my ‘ace’ qualification under
my belt, it was finally time to relax.
Normally the Lightning squadrons didn’t
take the T5 to Cyprus as it didn’t have a gun
and was desperately short of fuel, making the
5 hour transit rather fraught. However, as this
was the last Lightning APC (Armament
Practice Camp) it was decided to take the
‘Tub’. Now relegated to passenger flying, I
spent the last two weeks of my detachment
taking people for air experience flights! The
profile became routine – reheat take-off,
rotation climb, supersonic run, low-level over
the sea, pull up, aerobatics, back to the field
for a punchy 6g break, land... and get paid!
Then back to the mess for kebabs and medals.
By mid-June the honeymoon was over and
it was time to return back to Binbrook – a
long transit from the 25C + paradise to the
wind and rain of a Lincolnshire summer. The
latter part of June had me flying low-level
over the sea day and night perfecting my low
level techniques. Fast targets, slow targets,
some to engage some to ident – the
repertoire was getting bigger.
As July arrived and my low-level skills
were completed, it was on to supersonic
targets. With sortie times down to 40 minutes
Until in ran out of fatigue in late 1987, XR725 had been the CO’s personal mount with a black
tail. It is seen here on the flight line at Akrotiri surrounded by ammunition ready to be loaded
for gunnery practice. On the trolley at front left are painted rounds, while on the right are
loaded gun packs ready to be fitted.
fuel once again became an issue and tanking
become commonplace. By 13 July I’d flown 20
sorties in under two weeks and missions were
getting more complex. With the aid of AAR I
was now doing a mix of high/low/medium
level intercepts day and night. Some respite
from the rigours of intercept flying took place
mid way through the month when I took
XR759 to the RIAT Fairford airshow. A
nostalgic trip, as ’759 now BJ was once A of 5
Squadron with my father’s name on the side.
By the end of July, with 200 sorties under
my belt, the dreaded ECM (electronic counter
measures) phase was introduced. Flying
against a Canberra T17 it really was hard work
trying to make any sense of the tiny orange
radar screen, now full of chaff and noise.
Above: Despite a great age and
technology gap, the Lightning could still pull
a few punches when it ‘mixed it’ with the
high tech fly-by-wire American fighters
thanks to the highly honed skills of its RAF
pilots. Here XR754 accompanies two F-16s.
Left: With live Red Top missiles ready to be
fired near RAF Valley, 11 Squadron weapons
officer Flt Lt Bob Bees transits to North Wales.
Once again the confidence of my
superiors in my ability knew no bounds as I
took XR726 to RAF Leuchars for a 111
Squadron anniversary display. Too junior to
display the Lightning, I was asked to put on a
‘performance’ demo as I departed on the
Sunday. With the AOC (Air Officer
Commanding) watching, as well as my father
and a gathering of ex-Lightning pilots, the
temptation to exceed my limited abilities was
high – fortunately I managed to restrain my
high speed pass to 600 knots!
Now down to a few months left, the
squadron (part) deployed to French Air Force
base Rheims which had Mirage F1s. Due to a
lack of airframes I only flew a couple of sorties
against the French. As my conversion
continued it was time for another check ride in
XS452 – night visual identifications with lights
on. All this progression geared towards me
being able to sit QRA, which was still some way
off. By mid-August I volunteered to take the
spare ‘aeros’ aircraft to RAF Valley, flying XR716
once coded F on 111 Squadron when my father
was OC. By the end of August I still had a mere
175 hours on type, but the experiences gained
far outweighed the few hours recorded.
As the summer of 1987 drew to a close
September proved to be my busiest month.
Filling three pages of my log book showed I
flew 46 times in one month, including flights
in a Jet Provost T5 for spinning currency and
the back seat of an F-16 from 322 Squadron.
With the Dutch aircraft in residence for two
weeks, the opportunity was taken to fly
dissimilar air combat sorties against the F-16
which at the time was state-of-the-art in terms
of performance and capability. Naturally we
were outclassed by this agile fighter, but we
still managed to hold our own now and again.
Getting near the end of my conversion
course, new skills were still being developed
with ‘Saturn’ profiles introduced – if ever an
aircraft was capable of doing anything akin to
a Saturn rocket the Lightning was.
EE Lightning 127
 With a quick trip to the Finningley Battle of
Britain show in the still current XR773, it was
back to earth in the ‘Tub’ with an instrument
check allowing me to fly in weather normally
reserved for experienced pilots. This was a
‘get out’ which allowed junior pilots to sit QRA
in all weathers and make approaches in really
bad weather if operationally necessary.
Nearing the end of my conversion myself and
Bob Bees, the weapons instructor, took two
aircraft to RAF Wildenrath to play with the
Phantom FGR2s of 92 Squadron. It was a pure
nostalgia trip for me having flown 750 hours
out of Wildenrath in the back seat of
Phantoms just three years earlier. With
Lightning in our veins, a week of 2 ATAF low-
level combat was indeed the sport of kings.
COVETED QRA STATUS
October arrived and the pace of life got
quicker. Off to RAF Valley in Wales to fire live
missiles. Having been allocated our attack
profiles we all got to work rehearsing what we
were going to do. With an abundance of
missiles in stock, every pilot was going to get
a crack at firing one off – Red Tops and the
older Firestreaks. In the end I only got to fire
one – a Red Top probably 30 years old and
more dangerous than a Brock’s banger but it
worked. Low-level, I crept up behind the
Jindivik remote control target, the flare was lit
and I squeezed the trigger. A loud whoosh and
a bang and the Red Top left the rails; within
seconds I broke away as the missile exploded
in a cloud of inky black bang on target.
As the winter weather arrived we flew lots
of aborted missions to the range, sadly the
lure of a missile frenzy was not to be. With
the detachment over we were faced with the
excitement of flying back to Binbrook after
the worst storms the country had know in
100 years – looking down over the North Sea
which had turned white with spray gave me
goose pimples, as getting into a dinghy that
day was not an option!
In the last week of the month the
squadron had adopted T5 XS458 and I had
Ian Black was privileged to carry out his first sortie in an F6 in XR754 – the first production
example of the last variant. Star of many English Electric publicity shots, it is pictured here with
Wg Cdr ‘Bee’ Beaumont in a cloth helmet cruising past Blackpool Tower. This jet still remains at
Binbrook keeping the local Lightning story alive. North West Heritage Group
reached the end of phase one of my fatigue trying to shoot these nimble trainers
conversion. Forty minutes with the new boss, down. In fact we used up so much fatigue that
Wg Cdr Jake Jarron, and I was awarded my the engineers had to withdraw the squadron
coveted ‘operational’ status – after all this flagship (XR725) early as it ran out of life. The
hard work I could finally sit on QRA. last flight of the year had me doing a
As November arrived and the weather photoshoot with the Vulcan display aircraft
worsened the flying rate reduced with just 17 XH558, still flying today. After our photoshoot
hours flown. With an air-to-air photo sortie of was over a quick diversion to RAF Coningsby
XR728 JS for Station Commander Group to show them how a real aeroplane did
Captain John Spencer, the highlight of the circuits seemed the order of the day!
month occurred on 27 November in XS898.
This was my first ‘solo’ practice QRA launch. END IS NIGH
Having been training all year, it was As 1988 began it seemed there was no hope of
somewhat of a relief to run up the ladder, keeping the Lightning flying into the next
start-up and launch off on my own. decade. An ironic twist of fate had, however,
As the year drew to a close December was given a glimmer of hope. The Tornado was in
tinged with sadness as 5 Squadron disbanded deep trouble – so bad that at one stage it
and it was plain that there would be no more looked like it would be axed. Only the Nimrod
last minute reprieves for the Lightning force – AEW saved it as being even worse. At the
the end was nigh. As 5 Squadron gave up its eleventh hour it was decided to offer up the
aircraft the best low-houred, low fatigued Lightning as targets for the ADV radar trials.
airframes came to 11 Squadron and now the Deep in the hangars of Binbrook covered
engineers had the task of evening out the life in dust lay stockpiles of Lightning overwing
of the remaining jets. In December the Hawks tanks. Probably full of nasty things from the
arrived and we managed to eat up lots of Far East when they were routinely fitted to

XP693 pulls up into a

golden sunset over
Warton in 1992, just
before the type was
lost from UK skies.
Hugh Trevor

128 aviationclassics.co.uk

the Singapore based 74 Squadron Lightnings,
they had only been rarely seen fitted since.
Now once again the ‘over burgers’ were on. A
few aircraft, XR770, XR773, XS928 and XS923,
were re-fitted in the ‘upside down’ fit. It was
back to the simulator for more drills on how
to cope with even MORE fuel!
Once again the squadron was generous in
allowing every pilot the chance to fly the new
fit. With a quick final detachment to RAF
Gütersloh to fight the Harriers of 4 Squadron,
it was still a huge excitement flying this 25 year
old fighter. Rushing along the Osnabruck ridge
was huge fun – re-enacting the days of green
F2As from 19 and 92 Squadron. Naturally the
detachment had its moments – I managed to
overstress my own aircraft XR758 trying to gun
a Harrier, fortunately without damage apart
from to my wallet as I was obliged to buy the
engineers a crate of beer. We almost caused an
international incident when one of the German
ground-to-air missile operators raised the
alarm and hit the panic button, as he thought
they were being invaded by East German
Su-22 Fitters... He thought the Lightning had
been retired long ago and misidentified us!
February arrived with more excitement...
a first chance to fight the Tornado F3s of 29
Squadron. Suffice to say we won, but we did
restrict them to not using their radar missiles!
On 21 February I was over the North Sea
in XR728 intercepting a Piper Navaho lost
and out of ideas – I never knew the Lightning
could fly so slow and I swear the pilot of the
Navaho had eyes the size of saucers when he
saw me in the dim twilight.
With the need to fire off as many missiles
as possible myself and Bob Bees were
scrambled from QRA for a no-notice Red Top
firing. My aircraft was XS919 and on one of
its last flights.
With an end date set for June 1988, March
should have seen the squadron wind down
but the overwing tank programme was
ramping up and increasingly we were tasked
with supporting the Tornado ‘get well’
programme. Sortie lengths increased to 1.30-
1.45 unrefuelled and now we could fly around
at low-level for what seemed like an age.
Flying the Lightning with overwing tanks
caused no real handling issues, it just felt
heavier with the stick forces feeling lighter
and a need to be aware of engine loss on take-
off due to the extra weight. In fact the whole
of March was spent doing trials flights in and
out of Warton. Although it was good
experience, working with civilians who flew
the ADVs often proved difficult. New skills
were adopted as we flew air-to-air refuelling
with the Warton Buccaneer as well as lots of
flights with the seldom-seen silver XP693.
April was the official stand down date for
11 Squadron’s Lightnings, followed by two
months of run down. April thus became a
month of high activity with flypast after
flypast and photo sorties for the media.
Another landmark day was 11 April, when
my wingman ejected from XR769 due to a fire
– I never thought I’d witness a live ejection
from any aircraft, but watching my wingman
pull the handle and then follow his aircraft
through cloud and watch it crash into the sea
XR773 is still maintained in
airworthy condition at
Thunder City, Cape Town,
South Africa. It is seen here in
dramatic pose with
afterburners lit wearing its
civil registration ZU-BEW.
was fairly sobering. As April ended it seemed
every day we were flying diamond nine
formations and my camera seemed to be
working overtime.
With the Squadron officially disbanded, it
was simply a case of delivering aircraft to act
as gate guards or decoys. As the ground
engineers were posted away it became
increasingly difficult to service the aircraft,
so very often we flew away for the day doing
our own pilot servicing and trying to keep
the aircraft serviceable. In May I few XS929
to Cyprus and flew my last flight in mid-June,
an epic 7-v-4 DACT flight against F-15s and
F3 Tornados.
Reading through the article perhaps gives
the reader some idea of just how dynamic life
was on a Lightning unit – the daily adrenalin
rush, the momentous task of getting qualified
to hold QRA, plus the scope and complexity
of all the intercepts that had to be learnt from
memory. But above all I hope it highlights all
the shear thrill of flying what will always be
the most exhilarating man-machine interface
– the Lightning. !
F6 XR773 while in service with 11 Squadron.
EE Lightning 129
 NEXT
ISSUE www.aviationclassics.co.uk

Battle Britain of

ISSUE 6
will be on sale
24 September from
2010,
priced just
£6.99

Coming next from Aviation Classics…
We’ll pay tribute to ‘The Few’ in a special issue published to coincide
with the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Aviation Classics
will cover numerous aspects of the crucial aerial conflict which took
place in the summer of 1940, as well as looking at some of 2010’s
significant occurrences to mark the occasion in this milestone year.
For pre-ordering and subscription details
call 01507 529529 or go online at
www.aviationclassics.co.uk
On the Aviation Classics website you’ll find
historic aircraft and aviation heritage news
highlights, plus airshow and event listings.
There are also online articles and videos.
REAL WORKING
MODEL KITS
These working model kits are a fabulous
way to build and understand the two
major types of engine used by today’s
modern world. Both come in kit form
but with no gluing needed. All the major
components work as they do in the real
engine, so they’re a great way to learn
about how the real thing is contructed
and how it works.

A20005
JET ENGINE
With spinning turbo fans and a variable
speed control, this is a brilliant way to
understand the working features of the
jet engine. Coming in 50 parts this
working model is easily constructed
into a real fun item.

A42509
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
Coming with the start-up sound and
that of the engine firing as the spark
plugs “spark”, this fantastic engine is a
marvellous and fun way to learn all
about how an Internal Combustion
Engine works. Over 100 pieces to put
together makes all the details come
alive.
AIRFIX catalogue
out now!

www.airfix.com www.youtube.com/officialairfix
Join the AIRFIX Club

www.facebook.com/officialairfix
 PURE BREITLING

*RRP. Subject to change without notice.

P O W E R F U L. U N I Q U E. P U R E B R E I T L I N G
The Navitimer £ 3890*

For your nearest stockist in Great Britain and Ireland telephone 020 7637 5167

WWW.BREITLING.COM