Warbird Information Exchange

Hadn't seen or heard a Lightning since 1988 so it was awesome to be this close to two of them with the afterburner lit
Sadly '904 blew two tyres which scuppered the night shots in the QRA shed, '713 was stuck behind, but XR713 filled the gap

Lightning F6 XR728 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F6 XR728 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F6 XR728 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR713 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr


Cold War Legendby stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR718 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR713 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR718 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR713 / XR718 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F3 XR713 / XR718 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr

Lightning F6 XS904 - Lightning Preservation Group Bruntingthorpe by stu norris, on Flickr


Thanks for looking, few more here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJsvipq

Lovely shots: I'll get up there one day for these runs. I wish I could recall the last time I saw a Lightning fly - probably about 1986. One day hopefully.....

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing here!

Oooohh! that must have been a tremendous bl%%dy racket!
How appropriate that "Empty your pockets" FOD protector is.
I'm sure you'd have to empty plenty of pockets to fund the fuel just for a ground run.
I'd take a wild guess and say that a twenty minute ground run with two - three minutes of "reheat" would be close to 5000 Lbs of fuel.
Am I seeing four different lightnings?
How did they deal with two blown tires? I guess you'd have to change them where they sit.
You might even have to rob bits from a parked machine just to tow it back home.

Thanks for the post.

Cracking shots......

Tks for sharing!!!!!

Did the lower engine have to come out to pull the upper engine?

No, only 3.

The F.3 is painted in two scheme's, 56 Sqn on one side, and 111 Sqn on the other side.

No, upper engine lifted in/out from the top, and the lower engine lifted in/out from underneath, and the engines were not sitting ontop of one another, they were staggered in arrangement.

Thanks Firebird