Lightnings at Grainthorpe.

The other Lightning is a T.5 by the way. It says in W&R 19 the Draken is an ex Danish AF Esk.729, it was also with the same collection at New Waltham and now at Grainthorpe.

Good little collection of aircraft, and well looked after. I believe they used to have an S.55.

James B

Had to be either a 4 or 5 unles it was ex Saudi AF when it would have been a 54 or 55 I think

Guzzineil – her new home . On loan from her owner

I remember flying circuits at Warton one day way back in the early 90s cant remember when. I happened to comment on the rows of ex-Saudi Lightnings lined up.
My instructor told me they were up for sale, £1 each but you had to sign that you would preserve them ,display them and not sell them.

I considered putting my £2 dinner money in at the time and heading off home in an F53 or Twin seater. I dont think my mum would have been pleased.

sign to preserve them? Wish they had, that was rich coming from Bae Warton anyway, they couldn’t be ****d to preserve them, the state of them by the second year in ‘storage’ at Warton was testiment to that, they were absolutely mint on arrival 2 years earlier.

mjr

724 even. doh!

mjr

When was XR724 last run up, Looks like it is still in reasonable condition.

7224 was last run 3 weeks ago

MJR

XM192

‘snapped’ this morning, still in Lincs but a bit further south.. 😉 I dont know if this is its permanent new home or just passing through.. Neil.

XR724, as said, is owned by the Lightning assoc. Not sure when it was last run, suspect it was a couple of years ago. their website is below.

[EMAIL=http://www.lightning.org.uk/contact.html]http://www.lightning.org.uk/co…]

When was XR724 last run up, Looks like it is still in reasonable condition.

I remember flying circuits at Warton one day way back in the early 90s cant remember when. I happened to comment on the rows of ex-Saudi Lightnings lined up.
My instructor told me they were up for sale, £1 each but you had to sign that you would preserve them ,display them and not sell them.

I considered putting my £2 dinner money in at the time and heading off home in an F53 or Twin seater. I dont think my mum would have been pleased.

weres xm192 going now then? XR725 looks much better since the last pic I saw of her…

Well Any excuse for a pic, here’s one of XP706 going over the fence at hemswell heading for her new home.

Scott C

Regarding the Hemswell museum. The Lightning is an F1A XM192, owned by that well known (locally) Lightning buff, Charles Ross. Charles is a leading member of the Lightning association based at Binbrook, where they keep XR274 in running condition. Having said that since Binbrook was sold the Lightning has been reposing outside the hangar.

Charles is the local vet and lives in Binbrook village. His garden is host to Lightning XR275, he also has a fascinating collection of Lightning memrobillia which I’ve been fortunate to be shown around.

Pictured below is XR274 at Binbrook, May this year. And XR275 in Charles Ross’s garden, March this year.

Hello Scott i thought I recognised the serial number thanks.!

Hi All

Peter the Lightning F.3 XP706 was bought by me and moved to aeroventure at Doncaster in November 2002 where it is now under restoration.

Scott C

The Hunter cockpit is now at AeroVenture in Doncaster, i believe moves to restore it are already in hand as it is quite stripped out.

What a damn shame! I remember the collection when it was at Cleethorpes back in 1986! Was the Hunter not a mix up of several parts from different aircraft? Which lightning got saved as they had two at one time? Also it was a shame that the collection could not have found a home indoors in one of the historic hangard at Hemswell.

Pictures from the Bomber county museum website

Bomber County Museum

Many thanx there David. Such a shame the Canberra T.19 got scrapped, same with the Hunter (black arrows c/s). I hate it when that happens. Where did the 2 cockpit sections go? At least the Jet Provost went to Dumfries complete, and the Vampire, Provost, Mystere, and Lightning all complete too. I hope they will all be looked after.

James B

The Mystere will be returned to the USAF -Canberra already scrapped ,cockpit saved -the Hunter had her cockpit similarily removed,rest scrapped -Vampire and Piston Provost to Vaughan Mears in the West Midlands and lastly the Lightning is moving to another museum in the county .

As to what other aircraft the ex NATO air museum had were an S-55C S-884 which left in 1994 and returned to Denmark which was exchanged for the Draken. They also had Westland Sikorsky Whirlwind HAR.10 XP339 (left June 1987) which was exchanged for the F-104 Starfighter.

What they have now I believe??
Lightning T.5 XS416
Lightning T.5 XS457 nose
Lightning F.6 XR757 nose
Lightning F.6 XR770
Starfighter 22+57
Draken A-011

Talking of the Hemswell museum. Does anyone know where the aircraft are now as the museum has closed?

Hope this all helps.

James B

I believe the aircraft were paert of the NATO aircraft collection in what I thought was Cleethorpes, however James suggests they were at Waltham. Was this anywhere near the former airfield site at all?

I know there was some dispute between the owners and the council and the collection was split up. Anyone know what other aircraft they had and what happened to them?

On another note as mentioned in this months flypast, the Hemswell based Bomber county museum is going a similar way to the NATO collection.