EE Lightning F1a

[archiesdad]

I remember standing at the side of the runway at Leuchars when a flight took off loads of years ago, man was that an experience, truly great aircraft.

[walpurgis]

I remember standing at the side of the runway at Leuchars when a flight took off loads of years ago, man was that an experience, truly great aircraft.

I was there too. Watching a visiting Lightning showing off. It came across the airfield supersonic at about 300 feet directly above us. We were at the side of the runway. It was weird watching it approaching without a sound until it reached us. The shockwave was something else! It brought down celings in adjacent houses. As the plane reached us, the pilot pulled up into a vertical climb with afterburners on and went straight up into the clouds at a ridiculous rate.

This was a heck of a long time ago, as you can tell from the fact the Lightnings were not in service there. They had Gloster Javelins at the time. I remember them being started with a crank handle, to get the impellers spinning.