Lightning weights

Have you checked if there’s a radar in the ‘Bullet’. That’s a fair weight to consider in your balancing act. Of course, it might have weights in there anyway. We often flew them without the radar.(Ex radar fitter/tech) Best check though.

It is indeed the Dumfries Lightning Phil. We removed it from a plinth outside Feranti in Edinburgh with just 48 hrs notice before it was to be scrapped so it had the usual clipping of wings and tail. Wings and tail refitted, a few repairs here and there and a repaint in completely spurious, but very fetching, 111sqn colours later it is destined to be remounted on it’s plinth next year.

In fairness the years have not been especially kind to it but corrosion appears to be fairly well controlled now and fresh paint has helped it immensely (we retained its own serial). The undercarriage is a mix of cut struts and wire bracing – it’s what we found when we opened the u/c doors – and is not really a long term solution for display. There is also the issue of the mount for the pole poking out of the belly tank. So the decision was made to use it as our gate guard remounted on it’s pole, and banking over the car park it will certainly be hard to miss!

depends what’s in it, i.e. if it’s stripped or fully populated, even without engines, it makes a huge difference.

Anyway, what’s the plan with this F.53? I’m guessing this is the Dumfries example due to your avatar photo…

The Aircraft Engines section of Jane’s Aircraft from 1968 confirms the weight of an Avon 302 as 2,890 lb.

The Lightning Mk.53 used the Avon 302, while the Mk.55 used the Avon 301 (also 2,890 lb), as did the F.3, F.6, & T.5.

The F.2 used the Avon 210 and the F.1 & T.4 used the Avon 201, both of which weighed 2,860 lb.

Thanks Phil – I can work from that. I have an inbuilt distrust of figures from the net but you have confirmed the figure I had.

Avon weighs in at 2,890 lb

You could always find the weight of the engines and then do the maths 😀