E.E. Lighting main gear door cycle

Seeing as it has the small ventral tank, it is Airfix (an F1a). You could convert it to F1 by removing the external cable conduits (the two ridges fore to aft on the lower fuselage) and not fitting the IFR probe.
You could convert it to F2 by fitting an intake scoop on the spine.
For an F3 you would have to fit the intake scoop, larger fin and extend the cable conduits fore to just past the missile pylons.
I’m personally doing a 1:48 F1 (my first real attempt in nigh twenty years)
I’m not sure if I’ll use AFDS markings or try and scratch some 33 MU markings.
I’ll be giving it the tail no XM135. Probably one of the more famous F1’s.

thx for the quick insight in the Lightning marks Robert!

regards

Bert

Seeing as it has the small ventral tank, it is Airfix (an F1a). You could convert it to F1 by removing the external cable conduits (the two ridges fore to aft on the lower fuselage) and not fitting the IFR probe.
You could convert it to F2 by fitting an intake scoop on the spine.
For an F3 you would have to fit the intake scoop, larger fin and extend the cable conduits fore to just past the missile pylons.
I’m personally doing a 1:48 F1 (my first real attempt in nigh twenty years)
I’m not sure if I’ll use AFDS markings or try and scratch some 33 MU markings.
I’ll be giving it the tail no XM135. Probably one of the more famous F1’s.

Haven’t decided between F1, 2 or 3, but you can see I reshaped the tail back to how it was.. In 1983, I built it as sort of F6 by cutting the tail crudely, but stripped it down recently to rebuild, and since the Canberra rebuild turned out so nice in natural metal, I figured to make a time companion in the form of a earlybird Lightning:)

As you can see from last post, the Lightning kit is from the 1963 mould; either Matchbox or Airfix. When rebuilding my old kits from teenage days, I strip them with modelstrip, correct basic mistakes know I have the 25+ years experience and referral material under the belt, search for aftermarket detail sets and look for new decals. Believe me it’s more expensive than buying off the shelf, but much more fun:D

Here’s another one : the Matchbox 1:72 Emil from 1984, rebuilt this week. Gear and prop blades are scratchbuilt; they were lost in some of the moves from one attic to another, before coming out of the boxes again recently..

Will you be building it as an F1a?

Thx both Robert and 320 🙂
I have my questions solved. I studied some more pics here and there, and managed to get things in shape on my Lightning. I managed to get some nice early bird lightning decals today to put on. I’ll post a pic when shes ready to roll out..

A true masterpiece of engineering design.
🙂

You should see a Victor main leg on retraction. The other one I always found interesting was the Jaguar.

Hmmm, not sure I entirely understand the question but here goes.
I assume the thrust of your question refers to the main wheel door.
This is, as you say, set in line with the aircraft fwd/ aft centre-line to minimise drag when open, and is located on the inner edge on the main wheel well.
It has a simple piano hinge along the joining edge and operates via an independent hydraulic jack.
The up down sequencing is arranged via a series of hydraulic sequencing valves such that the main leg cannot come down until this door is open and locked and in the reverse cycle, it cannot close until the main leg is up and locked.
The main leg itself is a simple one piece unit with no rotation required.
The apparent rotation needed to get the leg flat into the well is achieved by the pintle angles at the main pivot.
The angles are something like 30 deg forward incline and 30deg outboard rake. When in transit the leg passes in front of the main door and in very close proximity.
All the other door bits are attached to the back of the main leg and close with it.
The main leg locking link is located behind the main leg and has the main retraction jack attached to one end, the other being on the leg.
When up selection is activated, the jack then simultaneously folds the locking link at its centre while jacking the leg up. The locking link then tucks in behind the leg when stowed.
A true masterpiece of engineering design.
To understand it fully you really need to look closely at the real thing and watch it during operation.
Did have some detailed info somewhere which gave all the angles etc but no idea where now.
Hope this helps a bit, if not PM me and come over and have a look.

🙂

If you mean the door attatched to the main leg unit then the leg itself is pivoted as it retracts. The locking strut (fitted at an angle to both leg and u/c bay) folds in the middle during retraction. The ground locks are two pip-pins that prevet the strut from folding on the ground due to soft hydraulics
(a problem with Lightnings).