There I was minding my own business...

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gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
Vulcans are kinda part of the family as my father-in-law was a V-force navigator. Apparently, its elastic band and string technology used to wind up the Americans in war games as it was impervious to their attempts at jamming the planes. ^_^
Same here....
Recounted this in a past post but dad was an airframe fitter on Valiants (doomed of course) and Vulcans. He broke every rule in the book by taking me in the cockpit in one while they were still operational, although that particular one was on a training airfield with moderately low security and of course the aircraft was effectively decommisioned. Awesome climbing up the ladders into the crew area, looking at the mbanks and banks of instruments and switched...and the lack of room.

Dads twin brother (now sadly gone) was a Vulcan crew chief...imagine that ?, doing that for a job. He recounted the only way to get out was if the plane was upside down, highly unlikely you'd survive if there was an emergency. He flew in the bombing competitions in the States. He said they flew so low, so fast, the whole plane shook and vibrated as turbulence built up under the plane, like riding a bucking bronco, one of the scariest things he did.

Dad recounted the other day...he joined in 1949. His first plane he worked on was a Gloucester Gladiator. He also worked on Spitfires that were the station commanders 'private' transport, just a few left but kept in tip top nick, and i assume the Gladiator was for a similar purpose. On through many aircraft, culminating in the Valiants (he has a commendation for finding the cracks that doomed them)...onto Vulcans....and his final swansong (and despair) were Chipmunk trainers. He called them elastic band aircraft....just so uninteresting after V bombers.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
View attachment 57005
Has anybody seen an English Electric Lightning? They first flew in 1954 and had an initial rate of climb of 50,000 feet per minute. I was told that they could easily have exceeded that figure but the nose wheel retracted forward so the pilot had to keep the speed down after take off so that it l could fold in against the air resistance. I think it could be over Iceland in twenty minutes. There used to be one at Cranfield, privately owned by a New Zealand sheep farmer who would take it out for a fast taxi down the runway. A great sight and an even more incredible noise. Judging by the blast of heat from the aircraft, I wouldn't want to be the one picking up the fuel bill.


I love the Lightning.

And the Vulcan. haven't managed to see it recently. I do follow it in Twitter, so I tend to know where it's been...
 
I saw what was at the time the "last flight of the vulcan" at RAF Cosford back in the 90's. The outstanding memory i have of it was it almost silently gliding down in front of us and then putting on full throttle. The noise was like nothing i had ever heard before. Couple that with the fact that a large number of birds that happened to be in the area just fell out of the sky - shock possibly (but they didn't seem to get up and fly off) made it one of the most memorable moments of my childhood.

Now I live just down the road from RAF Marham who have just taken on the eurofighter. Watching those guys and the tornados doing low flying training ops is awesome.
 

subaqua

What’s the point
Location
Leytonstone
I have the enviable position of growing up in N Wales. the RAF favourite low flying practice ground back in the 80s. sitting in Snowdonia on the edge of a mopuntain looking DOWN into the valley at the variuos planes going through.

a list similar to posted above. have also been to Valley for multiple airshows as a kid. My favourite airfix model was the Lightning.

there is a Hawker Hunter on non flying display at Classic airforce in Newquay , and also one mounted on a pole outside my office in Woking
 
'Thrust 2' (the Land Speed Record car) was powered by a single Lightning engine

Just had a flick through my copy of Richard Nobles book about the LSR attempts
A fantastic book, if you ever get the chance to read it, the mans motivational/team-selection skills are exceptional

Thrust SSC used two Spey 202 engines (ex Phantom F4)

'Bloodhound is using a EuroFighter engine; EJ 200 (aircraft development engine)
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news/ten-astounding-facts-about-bloodhound-ssc


You get a "Like" just for that :thumbsup:.
Mmm... T'Pol :wub:.

Though I might from someone.....................
 
Just had a flick through my copy of Richard Nobles book about the LSR attempts
A fantastic book, if you ever get the chance to read it, the mans motivational/team-selection skills are exceptional

Thrust SSC used two Spey 202 engines (ex Phantom F4)

'Bloodhound is using a EuroFighter engine; EJ 200 (aircraft development engine)
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news/ten-astounding-facts-about-bloodhound-ssc




Though I might from someone.....................

Useless fact no. 452. The Bloodhound SSC machine used wheels from a Lightning for its initial test runs
 
 
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