Thunder & Lightnings

English Electric Lightning - Walkaround Photos

This page will be revamped in due course; rather than remove all these images I have left them in place for the time being, though many are of poor quality these days.

Cockpit - F.1(DB) & F.2A

F.1(DB) XG337. General view of the instrument panel. F.1(DB) XG337. Panning right... F.1(DB) XG337. Port console. Throttles visible at top right. F.1(DB) XG337. Seat and canopy. Note that the early marks had black interiors, not grey, though it looks fairly grey from wear and tear! The red thing is a canopy lock. F.2A XN776's ejector seat at East Fortune.

Cockpit - F.3

Those shots were kindly supplied by Euan Withersby and 611 Squadon ATC, and are of an unidentified Lightning F.3 cockpit held by the Squadron. These images are copyright © 1997 Euan Withersby; personal use is unrestricted but if you want to use them commercially you must contact Euan (removing the .no.junk.mail text from the address first!) for his permission.

F.3. Port console (throttle etc.). F.3. Instrument panel. F.3. Starboard console. F.3. A view of the ejector seat and raised canopy.

Cockpit - T.5

T.5 XV328. Looking into the cockpit from the port side, and you can clearly see the throttles for the right-hand pilot are on the right-hand console, very unusual. All T.5s had the throttles positioned like this, whereas the T.4 had them always mounted to the left of the pilot. T.5 XV328. Now sitting in the right-hand seat and looking to the left. T.5 XV328. Now standing up and looking back at the seat tops. T.5 XV328. The odd looking things on the top edges of the coaming are the radar boots, fold-up hoods for the radar screens.

Cockpit - F.6 & F.53

F.6 XR728. F.6 XR728. F.53 ZF586. The wooden stick across the top of the seat was just there to hold the canopy open, as it weighs a fair bit (needing two people to open it manually!). F.53 ZF586. Turning to the front... F.53 ZF586. A nice view of the pilot's console. A little bit out of focus but still useful... F.53 ZF586. A similar shot, further back and getting the windscreen framing in too.

Nose

The cockpit access ladder; note the cranked layout to clear the missile. T.55. You can just about see the compressor face of the lower Avon engine. The upper one is located further back and out of sight. On the edge of the picture at the right you can see the gun camera which is buried in the support for the radar bullet. The upper part of the support (not in picture) extends forward further and has a small probe sticking out too. F.6 XS925, looking up at the open canopy from the starboard side. F.1A XM173, with the silver finish showing off the various panels etc. quite well. T.5 XS417, the contours of the nose are very different from the single seaters but the position of the various stencils etc. is generally similar. The two holes below the canopy are attachment points for the access ladder.

Missiles & Radar

de Havilland Firestreak infra-red homing air-to-air missile. A strictly tailchase missile. de Havilland Red Top infra-red homing air-to-air missile, with limited all-aspect capabilities. However the Firestreak's aerodynamics were found to be beneficial to Lightning performance so Lightnings often flew with Firestreaks even up to the last days of service. Ferranti AI.23 AIRPASS radar. This one is on a ground test trolley and connected to the ground control panel.

Fuselage

F.6 XS904's starboard fuselage. XS904 is an F.6 but has no cannon installed in the belly tank; accordingly it doesn't have the cannon ports, or the bulges further back. In this picture you can also see the kink in the leading edge of the F.6 variant. F.6 XS904 again. Good view of the underside of the wing (kink much more visible here!) and the outboard undercarriage door. T.5 XS417. The small belly tank of the earlier variants differs not only in size but also in the number of strakes fitted - a single one in the middle instead of the two large ones positioned on each side of the big tanks of the F.2A/6. T.5 XS417. More detail of the port fuselage side and belly tank plus the drooped port flap. T.5 XS417. More of the port fuselage side and spine. Also good view over the port wing's upper surface - note straight leading edge. The port aileron is slightly deflected; note how the wing tip is part of the aileron and goes up in opposition along with the arm further inboard. The navigation light on the straight wing variants is inboard; on the kinked wing variants it is on the corner and curves out to form a teardrop shape. T.5 XS417. Here's a view of the rear of the belly tank. Note the blunt edge at the aft end - I've seen several machines like this, but have photos that appear to show a smoothly faired rear edge to the tank as well. Optional accessory? F.6 XS904. Port airbrake, showing the distinctive shape of the brake itself and the recess in which the ram lies when the brake is shut. F.6 XS904's starboard airbrake bay. As you can see the bay is pretty blank - the door is very tight fitting! The top and bottom edges do have a slight lip and the edges of the brake itself lie not within the bay but overlapping it slightly. My thanks to the Lightning Preservation Group's ground crew and Wing Cdr. (retd) Brian Carroll, XS904's pilot for the opportunity to take these pictures - leaving the brakes open after a run is not normal practice and it takes some effort to pump them back in manually! F.6 XS904. Here's a small detail for the insane super-detailers out there. The small exhaust on the port side of the rear fuselage, below and back from the airbrake edge, has a pipe within it attached to the exhaust pipe itself by a strake. The exhaust also has the distinctive lip visible here. You can just about make out the interior pipe in this shot. F.6 XR728 lower rear fuselage. This is after a fast taxi run, the brake chute having been used on the run. Central in the picture is the open brake chute bay with the brake chute pack housing visible. The arrestor hook and rear light housing also show up well here.

Wings

F.6 XS904 showing the complex kink and camber of the leading edge of later variants along with the overwing fuel tank. F.6 XR728. The lens used has distorted the wing and exaggerated the size of the wing tip, but this view shows the kink very well along with the very visible panel lines. Also good belly tank detail to be seen. F.6 XR728. The forward attachment point for the refuelling probe includes not one, but two, lights built into it. The entire probe and the attachment points are black - and it's a very substantial affair, no bendy bit of tin this! F.1 XM173. Starboard wing and undercarriage. Note the unbroken line to the leading edge of the Mk.1 - no kinked leading edge here! F.6 XS925 showing the distinctive 'Overburger' drop tank. Note how the rear of the tank flattens out. The tank is not positioned in a perfect straight line along the fuselage axis, but toes out slightly towards the front.

Undercarriage

F.2A XN776's nose gear, with Aden cannon on display next to it. T.5 XS417. Unfortunately the detail of the nose bay isn't wonderfully visible but it gives you an idea of how it looks; little wiring to be found, mostly just ribbing on the sides of a blank box structure. The nose wheel has an appropriate indentation to fit into (not visible here). F.6 XR728. Nose gear bay (gear leg at bottom of picture). The nose wheel recess is clearly visible as are the ribs on the side of the bay. Generally oily and grimy appearance are what you'd expect from an operational Lightning rather than a museum piece. P.1A WG760 port main undercarriage - lots of differences to the production Lightnings to be seen her, mostly on the fuselage but also note the different wheel hubs. F.2A XN776 - port main undercarriage. F.2A XN776 again. All very clean looking - sprayed with silver paint, operational Lightnings certainly never looked like this. F.6 XR771's port main bay and leg. T.5 XS417 port main bay and door. I've lightened this picture to try and bring out some of the detail in the bay, not entirely successful but gives you an idea anyway. F.6 XR728's port main bay looking aft, showing the door attachment and generally clean bay layout. T.55 ZF598's starboard main undercarriage. Leg and door very clean again, but the bay itself was realistically dirty at least (not that you can see it in this shot). XR771's starboard main undercarriage bay. The main bays really aren't as 'busy' as you'd expect. XN776's arrestor hook and housing. Note how amazingly thin that arrestor hook actualy is - no carrier-borne aircraft, this!

Tail

The brake parachute line is a loop of steel cable that leads from the brake chute bay door underneath the bottom engine, back along the fuselage, around the tail bumper (in the grooves visible on the bumper in the previous picture) and then up around the jetpipes, following the figure of eight shaped channel. This is not something you'll see in any model kit but is easy enough to do with a bit of thread. The cable joins at the top into a steel insert which plugs into the hole at the top; the brake chute jettison lets it pop out and the chute then falls away. The yellow arrow on the right points to one of the many retainers around the channel that holds the line in place. F.2A XN776's jetpipes. You can see the brake chute line retainers here too. F.6 XR771's port rear fuselage, not a wonderful picture but shows the standard Lightning tailpipe cover at least.