Visited Bruntingthorpe EE Lightning back in Nov. Some pics and movies of the plane in action. This was the RAF's fastest plane and still holds a number of world records to this day. Good value for £20.
Two engines with a few bits of aircraft wrapped around them, leaked every type of fluid on board all over the place - but an amazing machine, even still.
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I was seriously considering going to S. Africa Thundercity and flying in one. Unfortunately one of them suffered a hydrallic failure back in 2009 and killed the pilot. The cause of the crash was attributed to the ejector seat not being serviced.
Here is an interesting documentary about the lightning, with interviews from Roland Beamont, EE's test pilot who first flew the P1A (The prototype that would become the lightning).
Lucky enough to have seen them live and flying, bloody awe inspiring stuff. The Typhoon is the only other thing I've seen close to it. The Bucanneer was another heartstopper but slower.
The UK CAA will not allow them to fly in this country on the civil register due to many reasons including in-service safety record, lack of spares and no backing from the design authority (BAe). Many of the airframes have used all their available fatigue index.
The chances of BAe or the RAF restoring one to flight are somewhere between slim and none.
The guys at Brunthingthorpe LPG (shown in the pics) do a fantastic job of keeping the planes for fast taxi runs.
The only lightnings that might fly again are the 3 remaining airworthy jets that belonged to Thundercity or the one being restored in the USA, but sadly it won't happen in the UK.
Shame that you'd have to go to another country to see a part of our history in action; it certainly will be the last, fully British jet fighter.
