English Electric Lightning F3 XP701

Agreed. If you guys dont want it, can i have it ?

.

Seems to be little point in keeping it if it continues to corrode – at least a coat of paint might keep some corrosion at bay!

Is there any news on the on going restoration of XP701:rolleyes:

regards Matt

Hello Matt,

I’m sorry to say that there are no plans to restore what is left of XP701. The best I can do is continue with my compilation of her history and photos which I have to say is coming along very nicely. The ‘Lightning’ community has been very helpful and generates a steady trickle of pleasing information and photos. A number of pilots have been rummaging through their log books photo albums for me with good results.

Is there any news on the on going restoration of XP701:rolleyes:

regards Matt

Dave, you don’t have to open the cockpit to see if she still has her radar. Just remove the rad-dome. If memory serves me well, this is a one man job and takes about 3 minutes. No specialist tools required.

They can stick as had this on XR725 .
Check to see if the catches clear when you turn the unlocking handle .If they do the chances are at the front of the canopy you will see a shoot bar either side which the brackets they go into can rust up and they stick in them.
Best way is to have some hydraulic pressure applied to the line and try a small bar to try and unstick the canopy .But be carefull as the sides are very soft and can easily bend the canopy sides.
If you wish i can get you a copy of the layout of the locking mech and you can see what i mean if that helps.
Hope that may help

I think the society needs to seriously look at getting the Lightning undercover otherwise you will be fighting a loosing battle with her.

Hello Deskpilot,

I’m afraid that I don’t know anything about the radar. I did try to open XP701’s badly discoloured cockpit canopy but it was seized solid.

Hi Deskpilot
I did post a vague reply to you above but had put the wrong login name so maybe you didn’t see it. Wasn’t about AI23’s anyway.
Paul

Hey Everybody, Happy new year. We’ve started on the right note. Today’s temperature is going to reach 41 degrees (105.8) lol. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Nobody got an answer to my question re AI23 radars?

Hello Everyone,

I am delighted with the very helpful responses posted, thank you very much. I haven’t done this sort of thing before and it could indeed turn into quite a long term project! I will follow up all of the leads suggested but in the meantime, in response to ‘Viscount’, I do not have any documents at all, nor does the museum. How would I go about securing access to information such as entries from the ‘file card’ operational history?

Don’t be afraid to offer as many corrections as you like as much of the information I have so far is taken from the Internet and unverified. One man’s pedantry is another man’s accuracy!

Thanks again and a Happy New Year to all.

I have a couple of pictures of her being air lifted out of Binbrook somewhere.
Will try and find them for you

Hi Dave,

I expect you have already been in contact with the Lightning Association.

If not try: http://www.lightning.org.uk/

Their website records the following:

XP701; C/N 95155 ff T.M.S. Ferguson 14-9-63 Samlesbury. Used on undercarriage tests prior to introduction of Modification 4051. To 29 Squadron, 8-9-67; to 111 Squadron. Code BN with 11 Squadron, 1983, Binbrook. This aircraft had a long history of intake vibration, eventually traced to loose ballast weights in nose. Currently at Robertsbridge Aviation Society, Mayfield, Sussex

Also Thunder & Lightnings website is requesting update on 701. http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/survivor.php?id=600

Hello David,

I don’t have access to anything that could help at the moment, as my references are in deep storage. having grown up in Immingham which was just down the road, I remember Binbrook well.

I know there are people on here that still do things at Binbrook, that might be able to help you out. And there are other forums than could help as well (UK Airshow review, and Fighter Control, possibly even PPRune from a pilots point of view)

Someone might still have photos of the delivery flight under the MH-53 in December 87.

Best regards and a Happy New Year

Tim Senior

Thread creep!!

Hi Deskpilot, I was once in communication with someone who worked for Ferranti in regards to Jaguar LRMTS’s, he said that the company was offered all of the RAF LRMTS’s back when the Jag was withdrawn for only 1 pound each but the company had nowhere to store them so declined the offer. Could be a furphy but that is what he said.

Paul

XP701

This one was taken at Binbrook it came out of a box of slides given to me, so photographer is unknown.

You don’t state if you have the entries from the ‘file card’ operational history of XP701. The official transfer and unit dates would help your history greatly.

From a February 1976, updated April 1977, local enthusiasts magazine, a list of Lightning histories jointly compiled by Merseyside and Humberside groups, mostly ‘over the fence’ observations. A good guide, but more recent sources may well be more detailed and reliable.

Used by BAC 9.63 to 7.64, 7.64 to 1.66, 6.66 to 9.67.
Used by A&AEE 7.64 & 1.66 to 6.66, Boscombe Down
By 9.67 was M/29 Sqdn, Wattisham
By 9.70 became M/111 Sqdn, Wattisham
By 2.72 was F/29 Sqdn, Wattisham
With 60MU from 11.7.72 until 5.73
Continued as F/29 Sqdn, Wattisham again until at least 10.74
By 13.5.75 was W/56 Sqdn, Wattisham (56 Sqdn mainly operated F.6s), current 1976.

Incidently 95155 is more correctly a ‘Constructor’s fuselage number’, f/n rather than c/n. Pedantic perhaps.

Hope this helps rather than hinders. You seem on the link provided to have both detailed info and gaps in the record. A little worried by your reference to testing at Samlesbury. Possibly true if testing was all ground based. Certainly when I was on the Fylde in late 60s/early 70s all Lightning flying was from the considerably longer runway at BAC Warton.

G’day Dave. Looks like you’ve got yourself a project for life. I can’t help I’m afraid but I have a question for you and any one else. With all the ‘saved’ Lightning’s, whether whole or sectioned, are the radars AI23 etc still fitted or are the bullets just ballasted? If the radar was scrapped, did it go back to Ferranti for disposal?

Hello there,

I belong to the Robertsbridge Aviation Society in East Sussex where we have the cockpit section of English Electric Lightning F3 XP701. I am compiling a history of XP701 for our web site, including photos. I was wondering if there was anyone on this fine forum who might be able to add any photos, comments, corrections or information about XP701 please?

I have a somewhat mangled panel from XP701 which I found on the former
Binbrook firedump some years ago.

Lightning F3 XP701

Well…this might be of interest: http://www.aviation-picture-hangar.co.uk/xp701.html and http://www.rob.clubkawasaki.com/jas547.jpg
which shows XP701 as W/56 Squadron on 11 May 1976 at Wattisham.

(BTW the “John Smith” who took these pics – and presumably holds the copyright – is NOT me, but someone else of the same name!)

Plus http://media.photobucket.com/image/lightning%20XP701/Wedgy/Photos/AR-XP701.jpg as AR/5 Squadron in 1985

And http://www.hobbykit-import.com/images/X72097.jpg shows XP701 sucessively as M/29 Squadron on 1974, W/56 Squadron in April 1976, and BN/11 Squadron in 1981

This link http://www.ipcmedia.com/press/article.php?id=99228 shows XP701 as M/111 Squadron in 1972