EE Lightning

[Weaver]

Nice Lightnings Greg!  

For the mixed power one, how about this: put the rocket in the top position with a tubular LOX tank ahead of it, and then make the radome bigger so that the 50% smaller air intake forms a chin shape, with a straight duct to the lower Avon?

[Radish]

WTF ever happened to my big 1/48th Lightning?
I think it must be up in the loft part done. Perhaps i'll discover it one day while extricating something else.

Meanwhile, busy building RoG Hasegawa re-pops of the F.6.
What a beauty for a quick-build. One day and it's ready to prime.
Got two ready to prime now, later today after I've bought some grey primer.

Both to be African, inspired by Gekko's great artwork, on our site plus Brit Modeller.

Must buy some more, a bargain at £6 from MZ.

[raafif]

my point-defence Rocket Interceptor halfway down this page ...

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,29226.0.html

I got an old FROG Lightning I could use for this one.  How big is a 1/144th Shuttle booster -- would it be the right size ??

[Mossie]

I take it you mean the main external tank?  According to Wiki it's 46.9m long & 8.4m in diameter.  Half that if you're scaloramaring from 1/144 to 1/72, you've got 23.45m long & 4.2m in diameter.  The Lightning is 16.8m long, so maybe a touch large compared to your pic?

Maybe try a 1/200 Shuttle?  That gives you 16.9m long, 3.02m in diameter, closer to your pic.  Hasegawa do one.

[MAD]

Well Rickshaw this would have to be one of the best weapons load outs I`ve seen on the Lightning - much more staying power!
The access panels (as I have highlighted in your drawing - are these on the actual Lightning or have you added them?  
Finally Blue Dolphin BVR missiles. Was this a real missile project?

My only concern is the very narrow wheel track. I could seeing it being the achilles heel of the design (in both peace and war), as was the case of the Spitfire!

Great work - I like it

M.A.D

[Hobbes]

Blue Dolphin was a real proposal. I don't think it was ever more than that, though.

[rickshaw]

Well Rickshaw this would have to be one of the best weapons load outs I`ve seen on the Lightning - much more staying power!
The access panels (as I have highlighted in your drawing - are these on the actual Lightning or have you added them?  
Finally Blue Dolphin BVR missiles. Was this a real missile project?

My only concern is the very narrow wheel track. I could seeing it being the achilles heel of the design (in both peace and war), as was the case of the Spitfire!

Great work - I like it

M.A.D

The engine access panels are from the original P.8 drawing that my chin-intaked version is based.  No idea if they are on the Lightning.   Perhaps someone else can help?

I don't think it has a particularly narrow undercarriage track - no narrower than say the F-104 and other fuselage mounted undercarriage jet fighters.

As for Blue Dolphin aka Blue Jay, both were apparently a real proposal for for a BVR missile based on the Red Top airframe.   Silver Cloud models apparently offer a P.1154 armaments set in 1/72 which contains a few examples of them.

[ChernayaAkula]

Modified a top view to go along with the design by Andrew Newstead that Jschmus found:



I think Andrew's design looks better. It seems double delta shape is much more pronounced.

The main undercarriage could also be modified. The way they are, they fold back- and outwards. Moving them a tad outboard and having them fold just backwards might free up some space for a pylon between the undercarriage and the fuselage.

[PR19_Kit]

Yes, those are the 'normal' engine access panel positions on a Lightning. The lower engine is forward of the upper one, but the hatch is quite difficult to see as it's usually covered by the belly tank.

[raafif]

Photo seen in a current magazine "special" on the EE Lightning -- twin over-wing rocket pods on the fuel-tank pylons plus another pair on outboard under-wing pylon.

Any other proposed Lightning heavy-armaments ?

[The Wooksta!]

Two nuclear tipped Genies were proposed in the late 50s and I think ther was a proposal to carry a Red Beard free fall nuke on the centreline at one point.

[Mossie]

Here's a pic showing thos over wing Matra JL-100's.  The JL-100 was a Matra 155 pod mated to a 100 Gallon drop tank.  Saudi & Kuwaiti Lightnings had a mud-moving role & could be armed with six 1000lb bombs (four on the underwing pylons, two on the overwing tossed free of the aircraft by an explosive charge).  They could also carry up to eight Matra pods, four on the overwing pylons, four underwing & also use the microcell rocket pack in the fuselage.  This gave a total of 192 rockets plus I'm reliably informed that the guns could still be used.  An F.3B variant was touted to the RAF which would have had similar capability to the Saudi & Kuwaiti Lightings, but it wasn't taken up.  There were proposals to use Bullpup or AS.30 guided weapons but I don't think this ever happened.



In the air to air role, Lightnings carrying capability was much lower.  Any attempt to mount missiles in places other than the the foward fuselage stations resulted in a big fall off in performance.  This didn't matter so much in the strike role but made a big difference to an interceptor.  A larger ventral pack was proposed for the naval swing variant, which would have had a weapons bay that could have carried two Red Tops, Bullpups or 1000lb bombs.  This variant would have had pylons on the wing gloves too, making a total of six Red Top, or two Red Top & four bombs.  Have a look on page 2 & 3 for these proposals.

[Gondor]

Two nuclear tipped Genies were proposed in the late 50s and I think ther was a proposal to carry a Red Beard free fall nuke on the centreline at one point.

Odds and Ordinance are doing the Genies for the EE Lightning.

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Two nuclear tipped Genies were proposed in the late 50s and I think ther was a proposal to carry a Red Beard free fall nuke on the centreline at one point.

The nuke was for use in Germany. If things got really bad then the Lightnings would zoom to altitude towards the border and toss the bomb at the apogee of the zoom. Then beat it back.... ? Where you went after nuclear war happened has never been satisfactorily explained to me.  Unless you count the unnamed RAF Wing Commander who told a Vulcan pilot "after you've dropped your weapons, head East and settle down in the arms of a big fat Mongolian woman"

[The Wooksta!]

I did the Lightning years back but never fitted the missiles...