English Electric Lightning

[AdamW]

I know Pip'll like this article!

In 1984, during a major NATO exercise, Flt Lt Mike Hale intercepted an American U-2 at a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Records show that Hale climbed to 88,000 ft (26,800 m) in his F3 Lightning.

Wonder if that was in a ballistic trajectory or if it could maintain such an altitude?

Only the later F-15 and MiG-25 had higher rates of climb.

Ah, that would be the MiG-25 that was basically a huge pair of engines with a pilot strapped to the top... overpowered and dangerous, highly unreliable but it didn't half put the willies up NATO though!

 

[empip]

Allegedly...
Only beaten in ground to height race by a Harrier .. for obvious reasons.
H was a mile and a half high before EEL taxied and completed take off run....

Apparently revenge was sweet, at another time and place ... A Harrier in trouble, pilot ejects, um, oh ho ... H flies on, an 'EEL' was sent to intercept and shoot down .. Task completed with victory roll ... Mind you, the Harrier was then also quickest to ground...

 

[DDoyle]

You Fella's might like this Lightening site too..

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/history.html

 

[empip]

That's it the source of the story !!

Bu##er the climb rate ...
What about this profile, Victor:-

Bootiful !!

And then the 'Buccaneer' :-

The one and only daisy, or better, cactus cutter !!

Ark R. If only, during Falklands ! Phantoms and Buccaneers on deck.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ah, that would be the MiG-25 that was basically a huge pair of engines with a pilot strapped to the top...

So nothing like a Lightning at all, then....

 

[AdamW]

Ah, that would be the MiG-25 that was basically a huge pair of engines with a pilot strapped to the top...

So nothing like a Lightning at all, then....

Ah, but in the case of the Lightning it was... erm... errrrr... nah, the MiG-25 was a bit of a crazy plane. The Russians produced a very powerful jet engine for a proposed supersonice missile.

They then put two of them in a plane, and this meant they had a fast fighter (later adapted to a fighter bomber). However, there was a slight problem: above Mach 2.6 or thereabouts, the engines would go mental and just start overrunning.

I think you can find the story on the internet, but the version I heard was a soviet pilot got the willies after the "missile lock" light came on, in vietname or iran or some such are of east/west tussling. Hit full power, streaked past a tracking station at M3.2 and 85kft. The west suddenly thought the USSR had planes capable of that.

However, after flying a MiG-25 in such a manner the engines had to be replaced as they were, to put it in engineering parlance, f***ed.

Pip, I thought pr0nography was banned from these pages

 

[empip]

Better keep the Fox and Bat apart if that is the result.

--------------------------
Had to get some oldies in !
Can vaguely remember a TV newsreel of joint exercises somewhere in desert regions of US where the Buccaneer boys were beating up an airbase after flying under the defences .. The US airforce guy commentating from a bunker exclaimed .. 'This is some flying, I am going topside to watch..' or words to that effect.
The Buccaneers were pulling sand plumes during low, low level turning /banking .. stirring stuff.
Later of course they began to break up .... lives were lost.
E

 

[AdamW]

Yes, little did the Mikoyan Design Bureau realise that their MiG-25 would be the inspiration for a whole generation of chavs

The 25 is a phenomenal aircraft though.

Looks like a typical jet interceptor from the front...

Looks like the channel tunnel from the back

 

[empip]

"There, that put the goddam fire out ... "

Did someone mention WMD ..?

 

[empip]

 

[empip]

 

[johnwr]

What a wonderful plane, I remember my father taking me to an air display at RAF Finningley when I was a kid (long time ago) and it did it's usual, arriving at some monsterous speed when the crowd was looking the other way, then doing it's party piece, taking off then sticking it's a**e to the runway and disapearing skywards, Great days. There is a EEL parked at the side of the A1 near Newark and it's slowly falling apart, but what makes it worse some t**t has stated painting it in a way only sad bas**rd's can.

 

[johnwr]

What a wonderful plane, I remember my father taking me to an air display at RAF Finningley when I was a kid (long time ago) and it did it's usual, arriving at some monsterous speed when the crowd was looking the other way, then doing it's party piece, taking off then sticking it's a**e to the runway and disapearing skywards, Great days. There is a EEL parked at the side of the A1 near Newark and it's slowly falling apart, but what makes it worse some t**t has stated painting it in a way only sad bas**rd's can.

 

[DDoyle]

What, about these

And not forgetting the aircraft that even the US Military have conceeded is the best Interceptor flying today.

For more info simply click THIS LINK

Now I am sure you can all identify these venerable and excellent aircraft from Europe.

 

[hermes]

Sea Harrier? Saab Draken?