XM575 has suffered some corrosion to the skin under the wings near the control surfaces but other than that she is still in pretty good shape. Electrical systems are still powered up regularly and every now and then a few other things are aswell.
Just to copy my post off the LPG’s forum, this is what i got for the fuel consumption of the aircraft.
The rolls royce avon 301r engine of the lightning produces 16360lb of thrust at full reheat and has a specific feul consumption (SFC) of 1.853 lb/lbf (pounds per hour pound). To allow that to make more sense here is a suitable analagy. An engine that produces 1lb of thrust and burns 1lb of feul per hour has an SFC of 1 lb/lbf.
So, back to the most basic of basics. The lightning has 2 engines, totalling 32720lb of thrust.
32720 x 1.853 = 60630.16
Meaning that the lightning is capable of consuming 60630.16lbs of feul in an hour. Now, to break that down.
60630 divided by 60 = 1010.502 to 3 d.p. (decimal places)
1010.502 divided by 60 = 16.842 to 3 d.p.
So, at full reheat on both engines the lightning burns 16.842lbs of feul per second.
Jet feul weighs 6.84lbs per gallon, so finally 16.842 divided by 6.84 and we can now conclude that the true feul consumption of the lightning is approximately 2.464 gallons of feul per second.
Jet A1 costs something in the order 64p a litre at the moment, roughly £2.40 a gallon. Excluding the startup and fuel consumed while the engines are at idle and taxiing power, you’d burn about £75 of fuel in the 12 seconds or so that the aircraft is at full power. For the rest of the run including a static reheat it would total to about £450 worth of fuel being consumed. The only thing left to add into the equation now is the Avpin starter fuel, which is currently around £80 a gallon. If a fast taxi run in the aircraft costs around £600, it makes sense that £100 of that goes back into the aircraft to fund maintenance.
If there are going to be any others arriving are there any dates set?
I’ll be somewhat miffed if i dont get to see one of these magnificant beasts in the air atleast once.
EDIT:
Ok, i cant argue that one anymore, one just flew over my house.
I’d still like to see one up close though XD
So much for keeping one as a runner for the collection =/
Hi there Proctor I’m sure Russell won’t mind me ansewring this, during a fast taxi run with 2 thirsty avon 302’s on full re-heat XS458 uses around 14 gallons of fuel a second 😮
Hmm, I only got about 2 gallons per second when i did the calculations with the SFC units. Still, i could be wrong.
Hear hear!
I know i’d like to have another go if i can raise the funds to do so 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Those came in really useful
Ive already visited thunder and lightnings a couple of times. The pictures have been useful but they dont appear to go far enough round to the sides in the pictures of the top half of the cockpit.
£8000 for a display is less than i expected. Makes me kinda wish i had the money to pay for a display over college XD
I’m no expert on anything along the liines of engineering/maintenance of lightnings but i’ll happily volunteer myself to help out on the topic of lack of manpower. Also, if publicity is needed, i may be able to help through the miracles of youtube and a HD ready video camera. Would be awesome to see the old girl run up again in her true home
I guess that’s the end of it then…
Not quite. VTTS realised the possibility of raising that kind of cash in the runup to christmas was too ambitious. The same went for the idea of having just donations as a way to raise money. With the reintorduction of the pledge campaign, the bar was lowered to £200,000. So far around £165,000 of this target has been met, and it is hoped that it will be raised to £200,000 by the new year.
Fingers crossed eh? Im hoping to see her in the air again in any case.
There’s something about the lightning at sunset….
Happy Christmas to the team on 458 and looking forward to next year.
Blimey that looks a bit tasty, wish mine had come out like that. I’ll have to post a few of my shots when i get the chance.
What can you say? Shes a big thirsty bird XD
For all the vulcan fans out there who dont yet know, PlanesTv have released the Vulcan Effect DVD. From what i gather theres a bit of a waiting list but its well worth the wait, and for £16 + postage the price isnt too bad either. Oh and some of the proceeds go to the vulcan to help keep her in the air =]
I dont know how many copies have sold but if PlanesTv are donating £5 to VTTS per dvd the funds will soon stock up.
http://www.planestv.com/shop/products/ptv/dvd/the-vulcan-effect-dvd
Any news on the axeing of xm603?
I say get the BBC to do a documentary about the aircraft, presented by Jeremy Clarkson!
OR get it featured on top gear
they need a celebrity face to speak for them! (Both projects)
A couple of documetries about the vulcan have been on tv over the last few years. The most recent being the short clipwith Chris barrie at bruntingthorpe. The other i beleive was about the restoration on 558’s airframe. There was also the documenty about the V-bombers somewhere aswell, that was a good watch.
On another note, i dont know who suggested it but running the ‘WE NEED MONEY NOW’ campaign in the summer would be more effective than doing it at this time of year, when everyones strapped for cash with christmas coming up etc.