Thunder & Lightnings - English Electric Lightning

English Electric Lightning
Survivor XS456
Privately owned, Lincolnshire

XS456 could be found for many years on display at the Elms Golf Centre at Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. She sat in the car park with a rope barrier separating her from the cars. The paint job is quite thick in an effort to protect her against the local sea air and markings such as the serial are applied with tape rather than paint. On my first visit in 1999 she looked well looked after from the car park side, however the other side of the aircraft was gathering moss and mould - happily on my return visit I found she had been almost completely repainted, with only the tip of the fin on the port side and the underside of the wings and fuselage left to do. Much less moss and mould to be found that time! In May 2010, however, she was put up for tender and was dismantled by Hawker Hunter Aviation and transported the - apparently short - distance to her new home.

Information on this page current as of 17/06/2010

Find other photos of XS456 on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - IrishAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net - Vertical Reality

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Richard from Mablethorpe	Posted at 4:28pm on Saturday, November 7th, 2009
Only 5 mins from RAF Wainfleet bombing range. A fine example of this much loved aircraft,well worth a visit.