English Electric Lightning - Survivor XP706
F.3 XP706 - South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum, Doncaster, South Yorkshire
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Lightning F.3 XP706 at South Yorkshire Air Museum, 11th June 2022; Richard E Flagg
XP706's last flight was in July 1985, and she was put into storage at Binbrook initially, before being towed out onto the airfield as a decoy a couple of months later.
Disposed of to the Lincolnshire Lightning Preservation Society, in late December 1987 they cut her wings and tail off to ease transport and towed her behind a tractor all the way from Binbrook to Strubby airfield. She spent some years there, tucked away in a hangar. Unfortunately little progress was made on restoring the aircraft to complete condition and early in 1999 XP706 was bought by John Jennings and moved to the Bomber County Aviation Museum at Hemswell.
With that museum's closure she was bought by Scott Clayton in late 2002 and moved to Aeroventure at Doncaster. Scott made some limited progress on her restoration but sadly my visits some 8 and 14 years after that found her apparently no further on with any restoration, and looking increasingly neglected.
Happily in 2020 the Museum themselves have taken her on and begun a restoration - and they are not messing around! A complete set of new wings has been sourced and they are working on dismantling the fuselage to fit the new wings, after which she'll be reassembled and repainted. Follow the restoration on the Museum's Facebook page.
Disposed of to the Lincolnshire Lightning Preservation Society, in late December 1987 they cut her wings and tail off to ease transport and towed her behind a tractor all the way from Binbrook to Strubby airfield. She spent some years there, tucked away in a hangar. Unfortunately little progress was made on restoring the aircraft to complete condition and early in 1999 XP706 was bought by John Jennings and moved to the Bomber County Aviation Museum at Hemswell.
With that museum's closure she was bought by Scott Clayton in late 2002 and moved to Aeroventure at Doncaster. Scott made some limited progress on her restoration but sadly my visits some 8 and 14 years after that found her apparently no further on with any restoration, and looking increasingly neglected.
Happily in 2020 the Museum themselves have taken her on and begun a restoration - and they are not messing around! A complete set of new wings has been sourced and they are working on dismantling the fuselage to fit the new wings, after which she'll be reassembled and repainted. Follow the restoration on the Museum's Facebook page.
Information on this page current as of 22/06/2022, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XP706 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net