English Electric Lightning - Survivor XM144
F.1A XM144 - Atlantic Air Adventures, Shannon, Clare, Eire
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Lightning F.1A XM144 at Atlantic Air Adventure, 24th September 2017; Jake Wallace
First flown on 14th March 1960, XM144 first served with 74 Squadron then in 1963 moved to 226 OCU, was damaged in a wheels-up landing, repaired, returned to service with the RAF Leconfield Target Facilities Flight, and later the TFFs at Wattisham and Leuchars. She ended her career with 23 Squadron and was retired to gate guardian duties at RAF Leuchars in 1981.
Disposed of in 1994, she was scrapped with the nose being saved and sold to Southwest Aviation Heritage at Eaglescott. She later moved to Parkhouse Aviation at Booker and Barry intended to use her as a travelling exhibit; XM144 by this point was basically an empty shell and was to be restored using XM172's cockpit interior. However as it became clear the plan for putting XM172 on a roundabout was not going to come to fruition, XM172 kept her cockpit internals and XM144 moved on to a new owner in Pershore... then to Jet Art in Bradford... then to Neil Airey in Cumbria. Neil installed an ejector seat in her along with as many panels and instruments as he could find, and repainted her as you can see.
XM144 was later exported to Ireland, and was put on display at the Atlantic Air Adventure in Shannon. As you can see from above photo, Neil's paintwork has unfortunately faded due to the Irish weather, the canopy has also started to cloud over. Thankfully, the cockpit has recently been moved into the museum's new building, allowing XM144 to finally be out of the elements.
Disposed of in 1994, she was scrapped with the nose being saved and sold to Southwest Aviation Heritage at Eaglescott. She later moved to Parkhouse Aviation at Booker and Barry intended to use her as a travelling exhibit; XM144 by this point was basically an empty shell and was to be restored using XM172's cockpit interior. However as it became clear the plan for putting XM172 on a roundabout was not going to come to fruition, XM172 kept her cockpit internals and XM144 moved on to a new owner in Pershore... then to Jet Art in Bradford... then to Neil Airey in Cumbria. Neil installed an ejector seat in her along with as many panels and instruments as he could find, and repainted her as you can see.
XM144 was later exported to Ireland, and was put on display at the Atlantic Air Adventure in Shannon. As you can see from above photo, Neil's paintwork has unfortunately faded due to the Irish weather, the canopy has also started to cloud over. Thankfully, the cockpit has recently been moved into the museum's new building, allowing XM144 to finally be out of the elements.
Information on this page current as of 19/08/2022, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XM144 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net