wrong.

Not wrong at all – I’m simply stating what Lightning pilots have told me, so unless you think they’re wrong too…:p

As John rightly says, the rocket pack photo was a fake, but a rocket wouldn’t have maked much difference as it was all about drag and limiting Mach number, more than anything else. As most of these stories suggest, the Lightning only got to the extreme heights thanks to a zoom climb and once it was there it was pretty delicately balanced until it came down again – so it’s doubtful that anyone would have been able to get that much additional energy out of a climb to notch-up as much as another five thousand feet or so, plus I would think they’d be less-than inclined to even try and get the aircraft to that height, knowing full well that it would almost certainly stall.

Hopefully one will turn up of the lineup at Waddo

I doubt it Peter! As I said previously, I don’t think any 12-14 aircraft scramble took place at any air show and I can’t recall any evidence of a line-up on the ground at Waddington either. I think the Scampton event was the only time that a big collection of Vulcans was lined-up for the public (excluding the 1977 review at Finningley of course).

Thank you Sir:)

Hope someone gets some concrete information on this – it sounds fascinating but I’ve certainly never heard anyone mention it before – sixteen Vulcans getting airborne at an air show? Doesn’t sound very plausible but I hope someone finds some evidence if it is true!

Peter – maybe you’re thinking of the anniversary display at Scampton? There was a long line-up of aircraft from each squadron at that event?

I’ve never heard of any show demosntrations of scrambles which involved any more than four aircraft – besides, it would seem a bit pointless as the aim was to demonstrate to the public what a “standard” dispersed scramble looked like, and they were always two or four aircraft. Certianly, all the Finningley show scrambles were either two or four (some years they were Victors though). Maybe it’s a tale which has been confused with the later pre-disbandment events when some of the units did mass take-offs just before they disbanded? I seem to recall 44 Squadron launched 12 (or was it 14?) aircraft from Waddington when they ended their operations.

I’ve seen some info somewhere but I can’t remember where off-hand, but I seem to recall that most of the flights were either pretty standard routes from Boscombe (ie- south and back) and out over the Irish Sea in the case of Warton, but I seem to remember that they did take the aircraft on a low level route at some stage on at least one flight. If I spot the info again I’ll pass it on.

B.61? TSR2 was to carry Mk.43, WE.177 and Red Beard… I have photos of the mock-up installations.