Hi John

I have a hand controller in a large mound of ex saudi Lightning stuff, on the side it has a diagram explaining all the twiddly bits well kind of

anyway your picture top right the knob is labelled acquistion marker range rv2
smoother knob the opposite side says RVI manual Gain control, button in the middle of it is labelled SF Disply Range Selection

The sliding bit on the top between the two is Scan Pattern Selection SD – SE

The two items on the grip top right are the long switch angled at the top is some sort of rang indicator says 60 mile – 40 mile the switch in fron tof it says SL Vis ident

Hope you can decipher these

Tim

Thanks Tim

Yes it does help a little but there are still a few more to go!!!. check your PM box.

Regards,

John.

She was purchased by the owner of a business called A1 Commercials; he wanted her as a gate guard.

The wings were cut inside the undercarriage not outside like normally done for transport, this meant that the undercarriage was not strong enough to hold her up so a cradle was fitted below the ventral pack.

Things looked rosie while business was good but eventually A1 commercials went bust and she was left to rot, I don’t know who actually owns her or the land she is on but as time went by the inevitable happened and souvenier hunters took what they could.

A panel here and there and then the canopy went and the cockpit was gutted, somehow someone managed to take the radar bullet and radar (weighing in at about 250kg’s), this tipped the C of G to the back and she sat on her tail. On the High resolution photo I have you can see all the puncture marks down her side and there is not one square inch of her that isn’t either punctured, graffitied, missing or rotten.

I don’t know what the arrangement is currently regarding her ownership but whoever has her has a BIG decision to make, in my humble opinion she is way past restoration to full airframe, the cost of just a re-paint is hard for museums to budget for so a re-build of this magnitude I think is unfeasible.

What you must remember is she has been sat in the open for nearly twenty years without any form of maintenance or protection, she has been butchered by vultures that have had no regard for how they remove things other than just wrenching them of and causing more damage, There are a large number of Lightning’s preserved in the UK and to try and bring this one up to standard would drain resources from airframes that require it more.

This makes me cry to say it but yes I think that the best option would be to remove the nose section at the transport joint for preservation and restoration, take the engines and missile pack for display, remove all other usable/restorable spares and finally take the tailfin and make it into a memorial of her story and passing.

I know that to say ‘scrap a Lightning’ causes great offence so if someone is prepared to save her and she is close enough to me then I would gladly volunteer my help, I must stress that I NEVER want to see a Lightning scrapped but in this case one has to consider carefully the pro’s and cons of restoration.

Regards,

John.