"red top had some limited all aspect capability, but that isn't modeled in WT" Well of course, it's in the british line so it's nerfed, just like the javelin

"this won't be an RP grinder" I always think if I'm the weird one for grinding FGR line with lightning before and it really is a fun jet

Everyone I've spoken to who's used this aircraft have expressed nothing but joy for this plane, no illusions about it's place in the meta but joy nonetheless. Yes, I love it. It truly lives up to the description of feeling like you're "saddled to a skyrocket". I've had some troubles with the radar locks though, often it seems like the missile doesn't want to point it's seeker at the locked target.

As always, a very informative video that not old goes in depth about the plane's gameplay and performance but also with it's real life history! keep up the great work!

9:25 "landing the lightning won't take you very long to figure out" *Confused Taffy Holden Noises!*

They have work to do here. Lightning had snappy roll rates, not slow, and it was absolutely no slouch in a dogfight. In their peak years, where intercept was around the German border, the pilots believed they could take on anything they met. Any plane that has excess thrust to weight - Lightning F6 was around 1.2 is going to be a handful as they can gather energy back up better than planes that have greater weight to thrust.

I think for me the hardest part about flying the lightning is everyone says it's so bad I expect it to be bad Also it really do remind me of a double wide Mig, looks like a J8 but stacked vertically

So easy to fly that an engineer flew one by accident

A london double decker bus made its way into warthunder. That intro got me good.

Your videos are genuinely incredible. I have learned so much about military aviation in nations far away from me, and the applications of it make war-thunder way more fun and interesting. Thank you!!

Was a pleasure to spot you in game yesterday Tim! Another great video!

Very in depth and informative video, no personal bias or vendettas towards the plane. Everything you said about the plane’s in game performance was spot on and fact. Very good I’ll look forward to see more of these.

You sound like you're reviewing either cars or laptops... I love it. Keep em coming!

Good video, always found the Lightning to be one my favourites, tricky to master at first but very enjoyable once spaded.

I've been flying the Lightning for a long time and it really is the Best 9.7 Since the BR-lock at 9.7 is gone it also faces uptiers but does OK in them. I think the Mitsubishi T2 is equally as strong as it. The aiming computer with the Vulcan has another touch to it. But I think the platform overall is just straight up fastastic. You go 1100 with one engine without afterburner. Like wtf. Or you go supersonic without afterburner at altitude giving it the ability to supercruise. It is one of of the Fastest planes in the game and that at 9.7. truly astounding

Such a classy looking plane

I once out rated a Sabre in the Lightening. It was in the 10.0. Lightening. Also, TheLightening is beautiful.

One note abuot playing with theLightening. (befor the stock missile update). Because of the guns, you will fly to set yourself up for gun attacks and it forces you to learn. Something I would like every nation to learn.

The is by far one of the most unique planes in game. Very cool.

Ive had the lightning for a couple months now and its my favourite plane ive ever flown. Im currently about 5-8 days away from my first phantom in britain and ive played the us into beginning of rank 3 and nothing even comes close to this aircraft, the guns are definitely hard to learn but once you do its very rewarding. I remember wanting it since i started playing, this was pre phantom when the lightning was still classified as top tier. Amazing how far the game has come since then For anyone watching this review, a couple things have changed, i find the lightnings turn performance is no longer best at maximum speed, it turns like an f16 at about 300-350 knots (if this is incorrect please let me know, i dont exactly remember) the stock grind isnt as bad anymore since it gets stock firestreaks now! The firestreak isnt an amazing missile in comparison to the red top but it isnt awful. Landing performance hasnt really changed, just be aware that its a heavy aircraft, it doesnt feel like it a lot of the time because of the engine performance but even with full flaps it has a rather high sink rate below 200 knots so watch out for that

I seriously doubt the realisticness of the wing ripping system this game has sometimes, sure it has its limits, but a plane designed for mach 2 cant handle going in a straight line under its own power??? Doesn't sit with me right that you get "REDUCE SPEED" warnings in a plane for doing what it was designed to, but correct me if i'm wrong

I hope they add the other variants of the lightning

I don’t know if you do requests but could you please do a review on the harrier gr.3. Love your videos, keep it up.

In reality a Lightning pulled 13.5 G and made it home in WT the wings rip off at Mach 1.2. In reality it could accelerated in the vertical. The RAF practice was to shoot the metal buckle of the towed targets to get an instant kill confirmation and a crate of beer, this was stopped when one ingested the debris and crashed.

just went from mainly flying the hunter fga9 to this, and im already in love with it since it have very similar flight style to the hunter IMO. with the key difference being it out preforms the hunter in every catagory even when its stock :)

Absolutely amazing video as usual, I love the real life history added as well as a review of the aircraft and everything about it. Could you do videos on the FAW Javelin, Hunter F6, Buccaneer S2 and the harrier GR3 please?

Im a lightning main so im used to the guns, i've 1v1'd viggens in custom battles and won, i've played 11.0 with it and have gotten 3 kills The lightning is amazing when you know how to use it and you can catch people off guard with your amazing turn rate for the plane that you have

Wow it can supercruise, has good missiles and is 9.7, which other aircraft in WT can supercruise?

I got this plane a few days ago, and I really like it. That said, I'm not very good with it, but I like it anyway. Edit: one year later, this kinda actually was my primary RP grinder until I got the Jaguar GR1A, and I think it's currently the plane with my highest kill score. Still a very fun plane, but difficult to master, 100% agree on the "never feeling comfortable" experience with it.

The biggest advantage: the low Br of 9.7 You will play against jets that have no afterburner and no missiles so you outperform them significantly in every apsect beside turnfighting let alone that many players dont even know how to evade aim 9Bs and you have 16G missiles... And still people can spawn in a lightning and get 0 kills and die to a sabre ...

One of the best interceptors ever made. These things were used to race the Concorde once and one of them was able to keep up at mach2.

Gj man. Thank you.

I just got it and stock i am very good in it. It’s great

Im not certain if you have a video on it yet but if you dont could you consider a video on the f8u2

Red Top was able to used in combined approach speeds of around Mach 3.4 head on against a supersonic bomber and a Lightning.

Nice review...

I really want this thing to be added to dcs so badly

I'm banging my head up against a wall trying to grind this thing stock. Can't get the firestreaks to hit a thing given their supposed range/G-tolerance. And considering it's supposed to be a mach 2 aircraft, I haven't yet managed to get it above about mach 1.2 as the engine performance seems to drop off significantly with altitude.

Did you know that the pilots often joked that the plane only needed wings to land

Maybe you will compare jet's from every nation on similar br's? (for example 9.3-9.7) Like T-2, Lightning, F-100D, early MiG-21's, MiG-19's etc.

Can you make a video on the Hunter f6? EDIT: and the harrier gr3 :)

How do you get the last to liveries you showed during the video? The one with red accents and the No.111 livery? I play the Lightning on Ps4 and I can’t access either of those paint schemes. Only the other four (the stock silver, the camo, the two grey ones). Is there a task that has to be completed that isnt shown normally?

8:50 guess we got a Saudi Arabian skin now

Stock grind is super easy in sb, got all mods researched within half of the day

Any videos on your thoughts regarding the recent news about the new nation added?

Can you please make a review of the mystère IV A

I am really regretting skipping the lightning tree in favor of both phantom trees, Definitely gonna start grinding the Lighting after spading my FGR.2

On the cockpit model feeling cramped, it is probably because it is in real life! I am 5”8 and medium build but I felt huge sitting inside one.

Can we get A-4E next? Edit: didn't realize there was an A-4B review already up, that's on me

Is the firebird camo a user skin or is it in game?

All of the "shortcommings" mentioned here were choices made during design for a designated mission. It's NOT a dog fighter, it is an Interceptor & it's radar, performance, lack of endurance, roll rate, etc etc etc were all meaningless where it was doing its intended job....getting off the ground, up to speed & altitude extremely quickly. There wouldn't be a lot of warning if soviet bombers that threatened the UK attacked & since they'd be close to the UK when engaged what's the point of carrying an advanced (& very heavy) radar when you're being vectored by the ground? Same goes for roll rate...it can roll faster than a Soviet Bear. Countermeasures? No fighter escorts so why carry them? Slow guns? It's all you need for a big bomber that can't turn inside you. The Lightning was never intended to dog fight from its very begining.

Its a super fast interceptor designed to take of fast, reach altitude in no time and take down sovjet bombers. Its not a dogfighter but I think they should give it the ability to supercruise (which it had).

I want to get this plane but I'm only rank 3 in the British tree... it'll be a while, and I'm not the biggest fan of props either. One day I'll get this jet... maybe... How does it compare to the F-104? It looks like it turns better and has better missiles but is a little slower and has worse guns.

Well, the Saudi one is out and It has ground pounding capabilities. As a Saudi myself, I'm glad we got this thing, Truly a beautiful aircraft. I hope to see you enjoying the Saudi EEL in a future video, and thanks for this one. I enjoyed watching it!

14 tonnes of thrust is just ridiculous

I want to love the lightning but I found the red tops are useless for me and I assume it's because of my Australian ping. Even in a straight line on the test flight the missiles break lock/track half way to the target and fly off into space.

A Lightning F6 would of course in the real world out turn and out burn an F16 and can overtake a M2.2 Supercruise Concorde, which no other fighter even today can achieve except possibly a Mig25/31

You should do some videos on the glorious spitfire :p

Isn’t the Lightning capable of Mach 2? So why are you getting wing rips at Mach 1.2?

Lol of course the British would name a missile "Red top"

Lightning in reality; vertical climbs at mach 1, can easily reach mach 2 when not climbing Lightning in WT; rips wings at just abover mach 1.2

Still a can't believe gaijin tried to sneak this jet to 9.3 in some recent planned br changes

Is there any good way to grind sweden

Iv been flying this fir years.... how do I only now know this thing has radar

Sealclubber plane

f4c vid soon?

IRL its role rate was approx 180 degrees a second, the pilot was the limiting factor. see 1:52 on this vid kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbBmpK2ipqjMdp8.html. The role rate in WT is a travesty, if anything the pitch up could have been a shade better according to pilots.

If you take min fuel it turns into a nippy turn fighter and can out turn mig 21s

Lightning is my favourite British jet, I have a my pilot Ace and average 3 4 kills a game. your untouchable if you play it smart.

This plane looks like a pregnant beluga whale.

Im worthless at getting kills in this plane but its fun to be faster than everyone else

sadly unplayable due to su25 consisting of both teams

Having seen this IRL, it's climb if anything in WT is underestimated (its instantaneous climb was 50000+ ft min) 2.5 mins to 40000ft and the Avons were not smokey in cold or reheat. Its rate of roll is also too low in WT, as the limiting factor was the pilot. Good vid none the less, also the export versions had over and under wing pylons for 6x 1000lb bombs ,CBUs, fuel tanks or SNEB rocket pods. (The Mk 53,would make a good premium)

Its going to 9.3 ;-; bru

I actually think the Lightning F6 is a good looking jet. Unpopular opinion alert.

this vehicle is so typical british for them its like godtier but just like the spitfire its just not...

Omg, you finally learned to stop blacking out your poor pilot. *Weell done*

You turn and lose speed so much try and stay fast in jets

A very ugly jet