English Electric Lightning

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6 ай бұрын

English Electric Lightning (later BAC Lightning) - a British supersonic fighter aircraft from the 1960s, produced at English Electric (from 1960 British Aircraft Corporation) and 339 units built. It was the first British fighter capable of reaching twice the speed of sound (Mach 2)
Dimensions:
Length: 14.53 m (excluding Pitot tube)
Wingspan: 10.61 m
Height: 5.97 m
Wing Area: 44.08 m²
Weights:
Empty Weight: 14,061 kg
Normal Takeoff Weight: 18,117 kg
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 20,412 kg
Speeds:
Maximum Speed: 2,415 km/h (2.27 Mach)
Cruising Speed: 958 km/h
Performance:
Service Ceiling: 18,000 m
Range: 1,287 km (with underbelly tank)

Пікірлер: 192

@jonathangreenwood793 5 ай бұрын

Lightnings and Vulcans... my God we built some bloody good stuff back in the day. Up there with the Spitfire in the sound department too!

@GilbertdeClare0704 5 ай бұрын

Yep, WAY ahead of our cousins across the pond./...Until the 1964 LABOUR government got in and started cancelling everything. Wedgewood Benn even wanted to cancel the HARRIER. It crippled our aviation World Lead

@johnnyshinnichi1785 5 ай бұрын

That's our leaders for you, especially Labour. No foresight.@@GilbertdeClare0704

@richardpoynton4026 5 ай бұрын

The worst enemy this country has ever had has been its own government, on so many damn occasions!

@scopex2749 3 ай бұрын

I was proud to have served in the RAF as an airframe fitter when these were in service BEST jet fighter the UK EVER owned!

@user-ym1nl1fj2j 6 ай бұрын

Fantastic, remember these in my youth at airshows amazing aircraft. Please let loose and fly again, they need to be in the air not on the ground!

@user-ig1xo3om2x 5 ай бұрын

There's more; the "Frightning" could go supersonic in a vertical climb (requires a thrust to mass ratio greater than 1.0), and is one of the few types to successfully intercept an SR-71 "Blackbird" (and in international airspace at that).

@bobdillon1138 5 ай бұрын

Yeah right the sr71 max speed almost 3000 mph the lightning 1500 mph.

@user-ig1xo3om2x 5 ай бұрын

@@bobdillon1138 The RAF took photos from above and astern, and gave them to the USAF to prove the point. Oh and by the way Mach 3.0 is "only" 2_200 mph, not "almost 3_000".

@bobdillon1138 5 ай бұрын

@@user-ig1xo3om2x Mach 3.4 is almost 3000 mph and these photos would be where?The SR71 had an operating altitude of 80000ft and the lightning 65000ft so sorry to burst your bubble but not likely a U2 maybe.

@nlo114 6 ай бұрын

The music of my childhood, Lightnings and Vulcans. 🤩

@johnearle1 5 ай бұрын

One of the few planes that could keep pace with a Concorde.

@andrewbranch4075 6 ай бұрын

It was mod airspace where I lived as a kid. Northumberland. Used to see these beauties all the time. I also saw Vulcans, Shakletons, Buccaneers and Gannets. We used to watch the exercises, it was awesome. Nothing like seeing a Lightning go vertical the noise was amazing 👍✌️☮️

@carltonwittland1300 5 ай бұрын

I remember also in the mid 1970s in Northumberland all those aircraft. So many different kinds and from different countries when exercises were being held. Around the Alnwick area was like being at an airshow 😊 All I see now is Hawks , the odd Typhoon and occasional F15 .

@davidpeters6536 5 ай бұрын

If only they could fly again! I used to go to the airshows with my (ex-RAF) dad in the 1960s to watch them display. It was WONDERFUL.

@vernongoodey5096 5 ай бұрын

Yep RAF Abingdon Battle of Britain days pure nostalgia

@GilbertdeClare0704 5 ай бұрын

Do you still remember how they would come over low, then go STRAIGHT UP with BOTH afterburners on, right over the crowd, and the GROUND would shake under that beautiful thunderous ROAR as they disappeared straight up vertically into the clouds ? I can still SEE it after all these years, and used to LOVE watching them take off from Coltishall

@Adrian-jk4kx 5 ай бұрын

Think they told us Air cadets at Binbrook 1983 it was 80 gallons a minute at full re heat..!

@GilbertdeClare0704 5 ай бұрын

@@Adrian-jk4kx We were told something like that too. Did you ever get a trip in the T4 or T5 at Binbrook ? I never went to Binbrook on camp, but a friend of mine did and the lucky b**ger got a short trip in a T4 and NEVER stopped talking about it afterwards. Can't say I blame him as I was exactly the same when I got a flight in a MkIII Shackleton from St Mawgan out over the Torrey Canyon that had been sunk. Frigging f***ing AWESOME

@gazzertrn 5 ай бұрын

Me too , these things scared the crap out of a 7yr old .So loud and fast . Wish i could turn back time and live that day again . Along with Folland gnats (red arrows ) , Vampires , hunters , Buccaneers ,Jet Provost . All really nearly gone , and no health and safety in those days , they flew over the crowds !

@roycuyler 5 ай бұрын

I was with the Canadian Airborne Regiment serving in UNFCYP, 1974. Let me tell you we were very glad of the presence the the Lightnings. They kept "things" from escalating. Thank you, RAF.

@16blockheads 5 ай бұрын

My dad built these aircraft at warton, remember going to a employees day in 1966, I was 10 years old, there was an assortment of aircraft flying including Canberra. On that day they had 3 lightning flying in formation by the BAC test pilots, amazing to see and the the noise was tremendous. I Believe the RAF had a display team in the 60's called the black diamonds which consisted of 9 aircraft.

@PsilocybinCocktail 5 ай бұрын

My dad worked at Warton, Freckleton, Strand Road and Samlesbury. I used to see Lightnings flying over our house en route occasionally, or over Freckleton marshes. A cockpit strapped to a brace of engines!

@Graham-lj6en 5 ай бұрын

Yep, more or less the same, my dad worked at Strand Road, and I got to go to the same open day, pretty sure it was 1966. I remember two lightnings flying up and down the runway, according to the PA system commentator doing about 600 knots. Very very loud. I also recall a static TSR2 on the apron, about which someone from the design office reckoned was going to be the subject of target practise the day after, very sad.

@user-sq6hs1hz9u 6 ай бұрын

An absolute brute of an aircraft, had an uncle in the RAF who reckoned he clocked one doing well over Mach 2

@user-eq3qk7vv9h 6 ай бұрын

The days of growing up at lakenheath and mildenhall...lightnings, vulcans, victors, f104s, i was at the runways edge with my camera and building models every day! memories of England

@aussie807 5 ай бұрын

What a beautiful aircraft.

@josephbalitza6857 5 ай бұрын

Still have pictures of this plane from a 1965 RAF Bentwaters air show!

@StephenPickett-hc3qd 6 ай бұрын

As a kid,The Lightning always reminded me of Thunderbird 1

@user-eq3qk7vv9h 6 ай бұрын

Old thunderbird show? Brains here...

@davidpeters6536 5 ай бұрын

The Lightning came first, so Brains was copying Teddy Petter.

@StephenPickett-hc3qd 5 ай бұрын

FAB

@local56 5 ай бұрын

Sky Diver from UFO TV series is definitely modelled on it.

@ghengiscant538 5 ай бұрын

Loved it`s R.A.F. nickname , " The Frightning "

@local56 5 ай бұрын

Watched one of these flying at Finningley air show in the late 60s as a kid. It flew incredibly low down the runway and then went ballistic, it climbed so fast you couldn't believe your eyes, I'd never heard a noise like it and I've loved this plane ever since. Brute force, stunning looks and sounds like nothing else.

@stuartlast8156 6 ай бұрын

Used to stand at the end of the runway at RAF coltishall and watch them take off, heaven !!

@we-are-electric1445 6 ай бұрын

It was beaten to Mach 2 by the Mirage by a couple of months I think. It is incredible when you think the development of the Lightning was started only a few years after WW2. Pity the video doesn't show them fully taking off.

@BazingaTing 6 ай бұрын

Yes, but the Lightening could hit mach 1 vertically ,No Mirage could do that.....

@we-are-electric1445 6 ай бұрын

@@BazingaTing The problem with the lightning was, of course, fuel consumption. Otherwise it may have sold far more than it did. It was a specific solution to a UK specific problem - getting up high as fast as it could to take down soviet nuclear armed bombers. Otherwise it was pretty compromised. I love watching it take off though !

@AlienPsyTing1 6 ай бұрын

my thoughts entirely

@we-are-electric1445 6 ай бұрын

@@AlienPsyTing1 😊

@user-ig1xo3om2x 5 ай бұрын

The Committee Against Aviation (CAA) won't allow them to fly in the UK any more.

@MrAvant123 6 ай бұрын

Roughly speaking the engines fitted to these can easily power a moderate sized airliner WITHOUT reheat - so this tells you the power to weight situation here !

@dartmoordave 5 ай бұрын

Farnborough Air Show in the 60's, doing standing start take off and climb out. Shattering windows in houses and making old ladies faint.

@user-jp5ru8sl6t 5 ай бұрын

Oh happy days we lived adjacent to the main runway

@andiross8898 5 ай бұрын

I was privileged,as a child; to have witnessed the deployment of 74 squadron to Singapore. Then to have been based at Tengah while they operated alongside javelins and hunters. Never to be fprgotten ,the vertically unrestricted climb from 100 feet to 50,000 in a minute Nothing else could touch it

@well-blazeredman6187 5 ай бұрын

There's three good-looking planes!

@OneFlyingLap 6 ай бұрын

I remember the last time we saw one fly in U.K., the two seat trainer, think it went to thunder city Cape Town. Anyway, absolutely incredible 💪👍

@andrewbarrett2685 5 ай бұрын

Just pull the stick back and take the beauties up.😊

@navnig 6 ай бұрын

The only reason they had wings was to keep the wingtip lights apart....

@FredWilbury 6 ай бұрын

Actually to keep the nav lights apart , sorry no offence intended 😊

@Biketunerfy 5 ай бұрын

Crazy interceptor that. I rember seeing one in an air show in the 80s and it took off sat on its back like a rocket and just blasted off into the clouds at 90° pointed straight up. I wish they would do a fighter jet with engines stacked on top of each other because it has very good handling characteristics I’m told.

@andypandywalters 6 ай бұрын

Arguably, the Lightning had the highest initial rate of climb on any fighter in history......so I've been told?

@davidcarr4991 6 ай бұрын

Awesome! Shame the camera didn't pan round to follow them on the fast taxi!

@bobcannell7603 6 ай бұрын

Viciously difficult all on or nothing flying. Commit or fail. A technician doing taxiing trials once accidentally took off in Lightning. Amazingly he managed to fly it round and land it and survived.

@4crevis 6 ай бұрын

Imagine being strapped to two rocket engines, what a ride!!

@andrewallan6802 6 ай бұрын

They’re jet engines.

@anthonywilson4873 5 ай бұрын

They are Rolls Royce Avons with wings attacked and a place to sit.

@anthonywilson4873 5 ай бұрын

The TSR2 was even faster MACH III, a Lightening chase plane had to use two afterburners to keep up when testing one afterburner on the TSR2. Mismanagements and Government interference killed a World Leading plane. US and Russia did not want it, the Russians where scared of it and the US where pushing the F111, which overran and cost far more than predicted. UK Labour Party with the blessings of Mother Russia and America scrapped it.

@deanhondared 5 ай бұрын

Part of my childhood, frequently watching them fly overhead from Leconfield, sometimes we were treated to a ride out to watch them land, awesome plane……

@theodavies8754 6 ай бұрын

Going vertical sounded like tearing the sky apart. The crackling sound that went with the thunder. Scary times.

@kevincrowley6991 5 ай бұрын

Rolls Royce Avons brilliant engines

@theboatcheat1204 5 ай бұрын

While in the circuit at Dishforth in a JP, a Lightning shot an approach. As I was downwind he called on the overshoot (go-around these days) that he was departing. Asked for his departure heading he replied coolly, “no departure heading, this is the vertical twin” and he accelerated straight up to flight level ridiculous right over the threshold.

@brentwestbrook 5 ай бұрын

I remember my birthday coincided with the airshow at RAF Benson. I was 10 years old and witnessed an EE Lightning going vertical. Something I'll never forget.

@arthurduncan5999 2 ай бұрын

They used to buzz us at RAF North Coates (25 SAM Sqn) to warn us of approaching USSR aircraft 1968-70

@markpriestley7884 5 ай бұрын

Great days Great country no more

@bluetooth2000 6 ай бұрын

What a beast!!

@mothmagic1 5 ай бұрын

The aircraft that introduced the term Super cruise to the English language.

@jaywalker3087 5 ай бұрын

I probably worked on these two as Binbrook was my first posting..

@Planespotter518 5 ай бұрын

Awesome aircraft, great video 👍👍👍

@kerad43 5 ай бұрын

Thank you

@michaelleslie2913 5 ай бұрын

Glad it isn't just me 😂

@deanc.5984 6 ай бұрын

Nice filming the crowd instead of the rare beautiful once in a lifetime lightning right in front of you😅🙄

@shauny2285 5 ай бұрын

Yes, I too was hoping to see the takeoffs. C'est la vie.

@NotALot-xm6gz 6 ай бұрын

Britain’s 1950s F-15 Eagle.

@user-xw3zu1gm4q 5 ай бұрын

Lived near RAF Wattisham as a child, one day when out with my mum I saw a huge V shaped plane surrounded by 4 or 5 smaller ones. She told me it was a bomber and they were very bad things. Worried me sick! Later I realised it was a Vulcan and lightnings. The image is etched.

@mattaikay925 6 ай бұрын

one amazing airplane

@MSM4U2POM 6 ай бұрын

I seem to remember this is about the loudest aircraft I have ever heard. Even noisier than the Starfighter, and that's saying something!

@fw1421 5 ай бұрын

You should have heard an A-6 Intruder! Unbelievably loud.

@johnearle1 5 ай бұрын

@@fw1421I was at an air show standing about 300 feet away from an Intruder. It was warming up. It smelt like a charcoal barbecue. Chunks of carbon were flying out like flankers from a burning pile of paper. It was loud. Tornadoes were louder though.

@fw1421 5 ай бұрын

@@johnearle1 I used to have to drive to the coast in North Carolina in the 1980’s on business and would stop to call the office just outside of Cherry Point Naval Air Station. Almost every time I was on the phone an A-6 would conveniently be taking off,going right overhead. The windows of the phone booth would almost break from the noise. It’s amazing how loud military planes can be. Regardless,I love military aircraft from the 1950’s -1980’s.

@johnearle1 5 ай бұрын

@@fw1421 F-101 Voodoos used to stop in my hometown. They rattled the windows.

@vernongoodey5096 5 ай бұрын

Britain’s only supersonic fighter ever built 100% British made

@HereticBREAKINGPOINT 5 ай бұрын

Beeindruckendes Kampfflugzeug aus England ist zwar schon alt aber das ist das einzige Kampfflugzeug dass die zwei Triebwerke nicht nebeneinander sondern übereinander hat, und das ist soweit ich weiß das einzige Kampfflugzeug wo diese Triebwerke so angeordnet sind!

@stewsretroreviews 5 ай бұрын

Seen these with my son a few yrs back, wish they were still doing this instead of a bloody car park!!

@kevinbutters5964 6 ай бұрын

Fabulous video. Beauty meets purpose………or does purpose meet beauty?

@newton18311 5 ай бұрын

I was lucky enough to live near Binbrook, We use to bike out as kids and watch these beasts take off and disappear over the North Sea.

@lewistaylor1965 5 ай бұрын

Anybody know what was in the bulge underneath the fuselage?

@MDGollings 5 ай бұрын

A upgrade from earlier versions for additional fuel storage to extend extend flight time

@dodgeboy9052 5 ай бұрын

English Electric lightning... P1B ... Hucknall. aerodrome in the late 50s..

@petersmith6794 6 ай бұрын

What beasts they were .....is that at Bruntingthorpe?

@stevebroughton4787 6 ай бұрын

Yes......or was. Now just a massive car park, no flying at all takes place.

@markhepworth 6 ай бұрын

@@stevebroughton4787Yep,aircraft rotting away...it’s a crime.

@kellyjune1931 5 ай бұрын

How long ago was this please?

@karlforman936 5 ай бұрын

A guy filming with a laptop must be 2000s

@lazyoldmanathome7699 5 ай бұрын

There are very few modern fighters today that can match the performance of this 1960's aircraft.

@steven9562 6 ай бұрын

I used to watch these at raf binbrook in lincolnshire

@Malc643 6 ай бұрын

Me too when we did our 2 week training stint with the ROC.

@mjones7319 5 ай бұрын

I spent a week there in 1984 or 5, on cadet camp. They had 2 in the QRA shed. Live missiles on base and everything. Incredible. They leaked fuel like sieves though. The flight simulator was ancient. A room full of valves just to simulate the radar picture.

@mistofoles 5 ай бұрын

So are they going to actually take off or just race each other up and down the runway ?

@michaelmacdonell4834 5 ай бұрын

I think it's still the only aeroplane that climbs vertically, while still accelerating.

@simonlunt353 5 ай бұрын

Still one of my favourite aircraft’s 😊

@briangriffin2905 5 ай бұрын

This thing was well named .

@jerrymail 5 ай бұрын

I didn't know there are Lightning still flying ! 😲

@michaelleslie2913 5 ай бұрын

They aren't, but they are aloud to do fast ground runs , although I believe there are some flying in South Africa .

@wyverncoch4430 5 ай бұрын

@@michaelleslie2913 Ironically they are not allowed to fly in UK, because of their Advanced (for the time) flight control sytsem, which the CCA classifies as complex. In the Lightning the flying controls were entirely hydraulically powered with no manual back-up. If both hydraulic systems fail, the controls lock up.The CAA also class the EE Lightning to have a high pressurse fuel system, an engine, maintanance regime which all individually would be enough forthe classification 'complex to be used

@ИльяРахманов 5 ай бұрын

Fantastic "British made"!) One of most interesting fighters of the world. After MiG-25, of course)

@alanmole7292 5 ай бұрын

Yes but we got more than one Lightning to fly at a time🧐.

@MENSA.lady2 5 ай бұрын

NEVER stand downwind of a Lightning during engine start. The fumes from the AVPIN starter are highly toxic.

@Avgeek1564 6 ай бұрын

Why didn't the camera follow them on the fast run?

@kerad43 6 ай бұрын

Because I was taking photos

@blackshuckthe3rd879 5 ай бұрын

Lightning possible the best aircraft ever built with the Vulcan. Before the UK went down the pan.

@longi625 5 ай бұрын

When was this footage taken? I didn't think there were any left running.

@kerad43 5 ай бұрын

2019

@kevinbutters5964 6 ай бұрын

Wildenrath?

@godin136 5 ай бұрын

Did they ever lift

@johndavid5618 5 ай бұрын

Lovely forever. ❤️ 💪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

@philippecate964 6 ай бұрын

Why didn't you move the camera to record the whole take off ?

@kerad43 6 ай бұрын

I wanted to have a cookie and eat a cookie. The camera was still, and I was taking more photos

@johnnydiamondsmusic1673 5 ай бұрын

At the start I thought that’s clear footage from back in the day operarational footage. It wasn’t till I saw the people videoing on a tablet I really it was just recently. Ridiculous they are not allowed to fly.

@johnreed3638 5 ай бұрын

Even today the EE Lightning would eat today’s modern interceptors for breakfast. Just wish the authorities would let them fly again so today’s public can be astonished by her speed and manoeuvrability.

@hiho59ish 5 ай бұрын

Wasted 7 minutes expecting the fkrs to get airborne 😂

@evanleebodies 5 ай бұрын

When and where was this filmed?

@kevinbutters5964 6 ай бұрын

Is it RAFG?

@aj-2savage896 5 ай бұрын

Top of the "fast jet" pecking order.

@user-wp8vy8le3y 5 ай бұрын

I thought these fighter planes were obsolete because it wasn't cost-effective to upgrade the avionics after surface-to-air missiles were introduced ?

@Robert66Lambretta 6 ай бұрын

Are these still at Bruntingthorpe?

@kerad43 6 ай бұрын

Yes

@marinpalushi9437 5 ай бұрын

Sembra Mig 21 in cinta.

@mark261166 6 ай бұрын

Did you make a video of them taking of!!!!!!!!!!!

@Rogue-7.62 5 ай бұрын

They aren't flown, unfortunately.

@johnnyshinnichi1785 5 ай бұрын

What exactly are they doing here? Are they airworthy? I thought we were going to see them fly.

@14terry1 5 ай бұрын

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't they built for travelling one way only never the intention of coming bak

@Coltnz1 5 ай бұрын

You’re wrong.

@14terry1 5 ай бұрын

@@Coltnz1 fair one......I just thought they was intended to fly to wherever to deliver a payload of nukes in event of nuke war knowing they burn all fuel by time they got there......must b thinking of a different aircraft...........no problem bein wrong bud

@nzs316 5 ай бұрын

After all that and not one shot of the takeoff rotation!

@terryakers2438 5 ай бұрын

Gaydon and Finningley, I was a lucky Kid.

@markpriestley7884 5 ай бұрын

This would out pace ghe Typhoon

@augustiner3821 5 ай бұрын

there is nothing what can outpace the Typhoon. But nevertheless one of my favourite fighter planes

@augustiner3821 5 ай бұрын

@rogeriodearaujobonito6377 5 ай бұрын

When happened this flight ?

@kerad43 5 ай бұрын

autumn 2019

@well-blazeredman6187 5 ай бұрын

Not shown here, the very advanced, for its day, AIRPASS radar and the early HUD.

@roscodog441 6 ай бұрын

I once heard of a pilot saying they didn't land !!! It was a controlled crash.

@philyew3617 6 ай бұрын

That's true of every aircraft to ever fly, both military and civil. The correct term for every landing is "A Controlled Stall"

@robertpatrick3350 5 ай бұрын

Douglas Adam’s described flying as the art of throwing oneself at the ground and missing.

@nigelwarnke6514 2 ай бұрын

So sad that we can no longer see this. Just because someone wants to park a pile of unwanted cars on the runway.

@axelgs11 5 ай бұрын

Should have gone to spec savers.

@johnshepherd7958 5 ай бұрын

Lightnings could go straight up at 60,000 feet/minute.

@perekman3570 6 ай бұрын

No flying?

@fat_biker 6 ай бұрын

The lightning Preservation Group keep them in ground running condition, but the CAA, & in one case I think fatigue life, keeps them grounded. You used to be able to fly in a Lightning at a company in South Africa, but the owner killed himself in... a Lightning...

@kyledickson8009 6 ай бұрын

They're retired, so aren't allowed to fly. I guess the only way to show them off is to perform engine runs

@andrewallan6802 6 ай бұрын

You’re not allowed to fly a supersonic jet fighter in the UK if you’re not the RAF. We’re funny like that

@stevebroughton4787 6 ай бұрын

@@andrewallan6802The Sea Vixen was supersonic, and was flown for many years here in the UK in civilian hands. Sadly now a museum piece.

@oliabid-price4517 6 ай бұрын

The South African incident was actually an in-flight hydraulic fire, and the canopy wouldn't jettison, thus not allowing the ejector seat to fire. Tragic on every level, unfortunately due to poor maintenance. 😢