English Electric Lightning 70 year old Mach 2 Interceptor

peanut

XS650 enthusiast & inveterate tinkerer
Top Contributor
Messages
4,054
Reaction score
2,828
Points
263
Location
England
came across this video on youtube and lost another hour of my life today to watching videos and getting nothing done. Still it makes a change from endless Wimbledon :)

What an awesome aircraft !... like being strapped to a rocket some said of it .
I wish that England still produced such incredible innovative technology today .:(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Lightning
 
Quite a few years ago I was probably 10/11 my dad took me to an air display at RAF Church Fenton, the one thing that stuck in my mind was the Lightening. It came along the runway right to left very very very low as it was going past there wasn’t any noise, then as the roar came the plane sat on its arse and went straight up until it disappeared. Left a lasting impression.
 
I live just outside Binbrook where the Lightnings were based ,most of Lincolnshire was on their flightpath ,you could here them coming miles away building up to a crescendo as they went over,always as it seemed as we had just got our first born to sleep 1982 to 83 .A chap in Binbrook has one in his front garden as a garden ornament.
 
Now that’s an interesting plane! I had no idea that they had built such a fast plane , so long ago!
no nor did I ... o_O:)
Quite a few years ago I was probably 10/11 my dad took me to an air display at RAF Church Fenton, the one thing that stuck in my mind was the Lightening. It came along the runway right to left very very very low as it was going past there wasn’t any noise, then as the roar came the plane sat on its arse and went straight up until it disappeared. Left a lasting impression.

You lucky wotsit to have a Dad that would take you to an air show. Mine would have taken me to the pub and sat me outside with a bag of crisps and lemonade . I'd have loved to have seen that .... it would leave a lasting impression on any young kid I should think.
I think all kids should have incredible experiences when the are young so that it inspires them to dream of great things:)
@ Yellowdog if you get the chance it would be good to see a picture of that especially if you can get it with your bike in front ;)
 
Now that’s an interesting plane! I had no idea that they had built such a fast plane , so long ago!

The Lightning was powered by two large Rolls Royce Avon afterburning turboject engines arranged one above the other in the fuselage. As a result of,the huge power of these engines, the Lightning was, for quite some time, the fastest climbing fighter aircraft in the world by quite a large margin.

I hope that you’ll forgive me if I introduce another large interceptor built in Canada in the late 1950’s: the AVRO Canada CF-105 Arrow.
upload_2019-7-3_19-33-22.jpeg

Five Arrow Mk-I prototypes were built and flown in the mid-late 50s and many experts felt that it was one of the most advanced aircraft in the world. The Mk-I prototypes were not armed but the Mk-II aircraft would have received the a similar radar and missile suite as the very advanced Convair F106 Delta Dart which entered service a short time after the Arrow would have become operational.

The Arrow had the first operational fly-by-wire system (i.e.fully computerized) aerodynamic control system installed on an aircraft and the Mk-II would have been powered by two Orenda Canada Iroquois afterburning turboject engines which had a thrust/weight ratio of more than 5:1. The five Mk-I prototypes had a top speed of M1.8 and were powered by Pratt & Whitney J75s which were very powerful in the day but with the two Iroquois, the Mk-II airplane would have had a thrust/weight ratio of more than 1:1 giving it sparkling vertical performance similar to that of the English Electric Lightning.

Unfortunately, the <incredibly stupid and irresponsible> government of the day ordered that the project be cancelled and all prototypes and materials be destroyed in 1958. Instead, we got the Boeing Bomarc guided missile system which never really work and eventually, the RCAF received some used McDonnell F-101 Voodoo interceptors which were only capable of M1.3-1.4 or so and only for a few minutes at a time because they ran out of fuel that quickly.

However, the Iroquois flew on a test airplane crafted from a Boeing B47 Stratojet medium bomber (see the photo below - the Iroquois is mounted near the tail of the B47). The B47 was loaned to Orenda by the USAF for the project. The flight tests showed the Iroquois was a very reliable powerplant and fully confirmed the predicted performance of the engine. Apparently, the Iroquois could fly the B47 at nearly its top speed even when the six earlier generation J47 engines were entirely shut down.
upload_2019-7-3_19-40-48.jpeg

If the Arrow Mk-II had been completed and made operational, it would have significantly boosted the air defence of North America at a time when the Soviets were continuously operating in a very threatening posture (not like today, of course, when they’re just a nation of quaint and slightly backward drunkards who are totally harmless and always behave in a very friendly and cooperative manner toward all of their neighbours....:wtf:).

Interestingly, after the Arrow was canned, a large number of the engineers who had worked on it and on the Iroquois project, were recruited by NASA and a number of US and UK aerospace companies. One of my closest friends went directly from Orenda in Toronto to Bristol Engines in the UK to work on the Bristol/RR Olympus 593 engine which powered the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner.

The Concorde, at one time, was estimated to have accumulated more supersonic flight time than all of the military fighters of all the airforces in the world combined. This was as a result of the facts that most military aircraft can only fly supersonic for a few minutes at a time (due to the outrageous fuel consumption above M1.0 while the Concorde fleet operated at M2.0 for hours on end on a daily basis for more than 20 years. The only other aircraft that could boast that type of capability was the Lockheed SR71 reconnaissance aircraft operated by the USAF.

Cheers,

Pete
 
Last edited:
The Lightning was powered by two large Rolls Royce Avon afterburning turboject engines arranged one above the other in the fuselage. As a result of,the huge power of these engines, the Lightning was, for quite some time, the fastest climbing fighter aircraft in the world by quite a large margin.
Pete

Actually the engines were arranged one behind the other Pete vertically staggered, and the outputs were ducted to the tail. Very innovative solution and when you consider it was designed in the late 40s even more amazing
 
Actually the engines were arranged one behind the other Pete vertically staggered, and the outputs were ducted to the tail. Very innovative solution and when you consider it was designed in the late 40s even more amazing

Correct and the only problem was the difficulty of servicing the engines due to that arrangement. Apparently, an engine change was really problematic.
 
There was another airoplane that made lasting impression, a few years ago I was at a warbirds event at Duxford, now you may think Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang, but no, it was a Vought Corsair. The sound of the big radial was just magic.
I love radials.
Supposed to be a bike forum this, what happened?
 
Yes. "The Lounge". Where we sit around a good fire (when it's not summer, and 100 freakin' degrees out), smoke a cigar, have some beers, and talk about whatever. Grumpy? That depends on what she was like today. Old? Maybe. Old just means we're not dead yet (naturally, or otherwise). Years ago, doctors came to the startling conclusion that living is the leading cause of death... :doh:
 
Back
Top