English Electric Lightning - Survivor XS899
F.6 XS899 - Charles Ross, Binbrook, Lincolnshire
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Lightning F.6 XS899 at Caister, July 2018; Jon Dean / Lightning Association
First flown on 8th June 1966, XS899 served with 5 Squadron for her entire career. With the retirement of the type and RAF Binbrook's closure, she was disposed of to Arnold Glass and flown to Cranfield as part of his plan to fly several Lightnings.
Alas, this came to nothing and she was scrapped in 1994; the nose was saved by Lightning enthusiast Charles Ross. She was put on loan to RAF Coltishall and XS899's nose was restored to an incredible condition by W/O Mick Jennings and his team there - as he modestly admitted though, he had a hangar to put it in and the services of an RAF station to help out. Many aspects of the restoration were treated as a training exercise, if only more stations were so smart!
With Coltishall's closure, the nose section moved to the City of Norwich Aviation Museum along with the rest of Mick's cockpit collection, but has since moved to Charles' place in Binbrook, and can occasionally be found at events - she's pictured at the Caister Show in 2018, where her appearance earned £500 for the XR724 fuel fund.
Alas, this came to nothing and she was scrapped in 1994; the nose was saved by Lightning enthusiast Charles Ross. She was put on loan to RAF Coltishall and XS899's nose was restored to an incredible condition by W/O Mick Jennings and his team there - as he modestly admitted though, he had a hangar to put it in and the services of an RAF station to help out. Many aspects of the restoration were treated as a training exercise, if only more stations were so smart!
With Coltishall's closure, the nose section moved to the City of Norwich Aviation Museum along with the rest of Mick's cockpit collection, but has since moved to Charles' place in Binbrook, and can occasionally be found at events - she's pictured at the Caister Show in 2018, where her appearance earned £500 for the XR724 fuel fund.
Information on this page current as of 07/04/2023, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XS899 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net