All the Lightnings at Binbrook rotated between squadrons, storage and ASF for major /minor servicing, thus LTF would have a different F6 every couple of years or so. It was a simple job to change the gun tank for just fuel, although there were not many of the non – gun tanks about

Towards the end of my time I was a Chief in charge of one of the major teams. The aircraft had had parts robbed from them for other aircraft during their time in storage and were generally in a hacked – about state. I remember when one came in for the start of the servicing, one of my lads wanted to know if it was a decoy!!

We are relying on memory here!!

I am virtually certain they never had overwing tanks. They were a theoretical fit that none of the Lightnings at Binbrook used, except when they were at the very end of their life and BAe had some as high – speed targets.

The reasons for this were that they were bad for aircraft fatigue life and were also a total pain to fit. The holes in the wing where they fitted were good for an odd bit of light smuggling from Cyprus!

I can’t remember a just green aircraft they were either grey – green and towards the end various shades of grey. One interesting variation was on the underside where an oval was left metal exactly opposite / same shape as the canopy. The pilots said this confused the opposition as to which way up the aircraft was, as often the canopy glint was used as a cue.

Didn’t take long! Check out this link:

[URL=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2175506481&category=…]

Picked up from a search on Google News:

Two Portuguese soldiers died Sunday when their military plane crashed near the capital Lisbon, a military spokesman told Lusa news agency.
The aircraft, which had taken part in the conflicts that led to Portugal’s pullout in the 1970s from its colonies in Africa, was owned by the aviation museum.

It plunged for unknown reasons into a residential area near the train station of Algueirao but no one on the ground was hurt.