All I CAN THINK OF TO DESCRIBE THIS IS. . . .ooooooh !

[Phil Perry]

 

I know. . .I know. . .I'm just into PlanePorn. . . . . .

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I raise you another SAAF Lightning and two Typhoons -

 

 

 

[M61A1]

Beautiful shots.....shame they're of such an ugly airframe.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I serviced Lightning for 14 years and love them. Yes, on the ground, not pretty and terrible to work on. In the air, the only aircraft ever to catch and overhaul Concorde, fastest speed ever achieved not disclosed and still holds the climb to height record. From stand-still to 30,000ft in 1min 20secs I believe.

 

 

[Happyflyer]

World Record for Time to Climb to a Height of 30000 Meters Archives - This Day in Aviation

 

This was a modified F15 but it passed 32,000 ft in 56 seconds on its way to 99,000 ft. I once made the mistake of watching for an F15 three quarters down the runway at RAAF Williamtown. By the time it was abeam us it was almost out of sight and that was with a bigger bomb load than the Mirage could carry!

 

The Lightning was the best of its era, but it was not a match for the F15.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

I stand corrected.

 

 

[DenisPC9]

I know. . .I know. . .I'm just into PlanePorn. . . . . .

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind I recall an ATC Instructor (Yep, I was a Trainee ATC at one stage in the mid to late 1960s, for a while) commenting during the High Speed Flight section of the Course that when he was (somewhere), he had a momentary lapse and requested the departing aircraft call off passing through each 1,000 feet. He said that as the Pilot hogged the frequency just rolling off one number immediately after another, it went through his mind that the departing aircraft was a Lightning.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

There are times in life when one wishes they'd had a camera. I have three examples to share.

 

For a station open day I was positioned at the thresh-hold of the runway and a Lightning roared off to do a full power climb out. Wheels have to be up before 260 knots is reached, plane pulls nose up very soon after and hangs there, probably about 50ft off the ground. It begins to sink back down, we hold our breath, then as it's exhaust 'flames' start to spread out across the ground, it hovers again as if sitting on a firey stool, and then slowly claws it's way up again and accelerates to normal climb speed. I often wonder if the pilot had to change his under-wear after he landed.

 

We had a squadron of Swedish Drakens visit for some reason, probably another open day. How-ever, on departure, the last one to take off, pulled tight circle and headed back directly at the control tower. At the time I was standing on the wing of a lightning and nearly <mod censored> myself when the Draken disappeared behind the tower. I clearly remember seeing the ATC personnel throwing themselves to the ground and then the underside of the plane shot up vertically missing the tower by inches(seen through the tower). The pilot, we later learned, was grounded.

 

Whilst flying in a 47 Sqdn Blackburn Beverly en-route to Germany I had occasion to leave the Tail-boom and climb down to the freight bay. For this trip, the rear 'clam-shell' doors had been removed. Going as far as I was allowed to look out the back, another Bev slowly rose up between our twin vertical stabs. The pilot, grinning like some evil being, raised his hand an did a finger wiggling wave then just as slowly, took his plane back down again. Oh for a camera at those moments.

 

 

[MarnixBrees]

World Record for Time to Climb to a Height of 30000 Meters Archives - This Day in AviationThis was a modified F15 but it passed 32,000 ft in 56 seconds on its way to 99,000 ft. I once made the mistake of watching for an F15 three quarters down the runway at RAAF Williamtown. By the time it was abeam us it was almost out of sight and that was with a bigger bomb load than the Mirage could carry! Not sure that statement is correct! Look at this:

The Lightning was the best of its era, but it was not a match for the F15.