Mark Felton's wonderful YouTube channel has a video tailored to appeal to people who, like me, would rather have flown in an English Electric Lightning than any other plane ever.
It tells the story of XR729 which, in a 1984 exercise, intercepted a US U-2 spyplane, then climbed even higher - and reached a record-breaking altitude of 88,000 feet (at which the sky was dark and the earth's curvature could be seen).
The same aircraft was also the only one (of many who tried) to be able to intercept Concorde when it was flying at Mach 2.
Great days!
11 comments:
Fascinating! That Concorde was something - that kind of bright, shiny, chrome sci-fi future you find on the covers of Popular Mechanics magazines from the 40s-70s. Real greatness.
Not the most felicitous choice of names ever, though! I mean, "Electric Lightning"?
@Wm - The strange thing was that the English Electric company also made cookers and washing machines.
Dr. Charlton,
I didn't know you are a fighter fan! As a USAF fighter pilot I flew the F-4E Phantom II and the F-16C (Viper/Electric Jet - take your pick), including in Europe. I've seen Lightnings in the air - impressive - but never flew against them. The Lightning had some unusual features, most notably twin engines mounted vertically. Also the Lightning's primary air-to-air missile, the Red Top, which I don't think any other fighter carried. Great all-British fighter jet.
My pick for best British jet fighter is another all-British machine, the Sea Harrier. One of the few aircraft that can plausibly claim to have won a war. If the Sea Harrier had not been ready in adequate strength in 1982, the Falklands would have become las Malvinas. Deadly in a maneuvering dogfight, comparable to the F-16 and MiG-29, which isn't something we can say of the Lightning, and operable from small carrier decks in marginal weather. We'll see if the overpriced and long-delayed F-35 proves a worthy successor...
As for manufacturers making a variety of things, Saab has long built first-class aircraft, including several generations of fighters, along with all those cars and other appliances.
Check Six! Hondo (my callsign)
@HRS. Well that's really something! It was mainly a thing of my childhood and teens, but I really loved the Phantom, and had a good kit model. A really strong look about it, and extremely versatile. Never more than a dream, but to fly a Lightning interception or be catapulted from a carrier would be on my wish list.
The Phantom was a big machine - two-seat (pilot and navigator), twin-engine - and heavy for an air-to-air fighter. One had to be clever in air-to-air engagements as getting into a turning fight would not work against capable adversaries: a Sea Harrier could eat a Phantom alive in a visual dogfight, for example. Smooth ride at low level due to its relatively low wing area. In our air-to-ground secondary mission, we usually dropped laser-guided bombs. We called it the Rhino or Lead Sled, depending on how we felt about it any given day. But I loved flying the F-4.
However, when I switched to the smaller, lighter F-16 - single-seat, single-engine - the first time I got airborne I never looked back. The F-16 was a new generation. A pilot alone in the F-16 has far more combat capability and situational awareness than two men in a Phantom. Air-to-air was a new world, with greater agility and smaller profile, superior radar, and better missiles. In air-to-ground the F-16 was much more accurate, so we reverted to unguided bombs. Smart bombs for a dumb airplane; dumb bombs for a smart airplane, as we say. Surprisingly good ride low-level as well - and far cheaper to operate.
I've flown more intercepts than I can remember but, as an Air Force pilot, I never tried carrier flying.
@HRS - Thanks for that. The F-16 came too late for me, but it looks (and sounds, from your description) marvellous.
Oh, it was. (Still is; thousands of F-16s remain in service.) Certainly beat working for a living.
Like most fighter pilots, I preferred flying single-seat. That's not a slam against navigators, just the way it is: Did our knights of old ride to war two-on-a-charger?
Also preferred single-engine: one could have a smaller airframe. Size is not your friend in aerial combat.
Well, enough fighter pilot talk...
@BGC
So, the English Electric Company Ltd. was Britain's own Mitsubishi Corp!
On a somewhat lower 'plane' of existence, wouldn't you like to try out a Spitfire?
360. My favourite wwii plane is the Mosquito. Although the biggest thrill - guilty thrill - would be a vertical dive in a Stuka, with the siren on... It was the only plane designed to be able to dive vertically. Downside is that the crew black out when it comes out of the dive... (an autopilot takes over).
Why do I think of the colour gunmetal blue when contemplating these?
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