25th Anniversery EE Lightning in Service

[tc2324]

Back in 1979 RAF Binbrook held an event to mark the 25th anniversary on the EE Lightning in service. A number of aircraft was painted up with the markings of each RAF squadron who operated the Lightning and here is my rendition of the 74 Sqn example. By now 74 Sqn had been disbanded about 8 years and they never operated the Lightning in the grey/green camo, hence why I`m posting here as it`s a bit `what if`ish`.









And here`s a picture of the actual aircraft.......

[PR19_Kit]

Yes, they should have given 74 Lightning 6s, it would have been SO right. That looks great, an RW Whiff indeed. 

I was lucky enough to see 74 flying their Mk1s at the Coltishall BoB Display in 1965. An 8-ship stream take-off and EVERY one went vertical off the end of the runway! Hardly surprising I need a hearing aid these days.... 

[TallEng]

Yes, they should have given 74 Lightning 6s, it would have been SO right. That looks great, an RW Whiff indeed. 

I was lucky enough to see 74 flying their Mk1s at the Coltishall BoB Display in 1965. An 8-ship stream take-off and EVERY one went vertical off the end of the runway! Hardly surprising I need a hearing aid these days.... 

I thought that 74 had f.6's when they where in Singapore before they disbanded?
(Big black fins an all) I seem to remember the Matchbox kit featured these (those?) markings.

Regards
Keith

[PR19_Kit]

I thought that 74 had f.6's when they where in Singapore before they disbanded?
(Big black fins an all) I seem to remember the Matchbox kit featured these (those?) markings.

Well yes, but they high-tailed it out to Singapore soon after re-equipping with the F6s and never came back with them, so all of us in UK were prevented from seeing them.

[The Wooksta!]

There was talk of forming a third Lightning squadron in the early 80s as there were enough aircraft in store, but it fell apart due to the Treasury not releasing the funds and a lack of pilots.  74 was apparently mooted as being the squadron.

[Pablo1965]

Nice.

[NARSES2]

Nice one 

[kitbasher]

Aah, Lightnings - proper aeroplanes!

[tc2324]

Again, thank you all for the kind comments. 

Although I had heard of the rumour about 74 reforming on the Sepecat Jaguar in the early 70`s, I`ve never heard about 74 going back onto the EE Lightning.

Would love to know more please. 

[The Wooksta!]

Can't remember where I read it, unfortunately.  I'll have a dig later if I remember.  Think it was a Roger Lindsay softback.

[kitbasher]

There had been talk in the early 80s of a third front-line squadron forming at Binbrook, but it never did.  Notwithstanding 74 reforming on the F-4J(UK) (horrible designation, surely someone could have called it the Phantom F.3, no one would have confused it with the Tornado F.3) in 1984, could 74 have been the candidate for Lightnings at some point between 1981 and 1983?  I suppose we'll never know (well, not in a hurry).

[tc2324]

74 reforming on the F-4J(UK) (horrible designation, surely someone could have called it the Phantom F.3, no one would have confused it with the Tornado F.3)

Now that I can answer. 

To avoid any confusion with servicing manuals, modification orders and directives, British Aerospace pointed out the dangers of not giving the American F-4 it`s own designation so F-4J(UK) was adopted. (F.3 may have been confused with the Tornado in that respect).

Don`t worry though, many RAF people felt the same way as yourself with regards to the long winded designation and it was just known as `The J` amoung the air and ground crews.