Aircraft

Visitors to last week's Africa Aerospace and Defence show at Cape Town in South Africa witnessed the extraordinary sight of four English Electric Lightning fighters in formation.

The display was organised by Cape Town-based Thunder City, which specialises in operating Cold War-vintage fighters for paying passengers.

Included in the group was XP693, an-ex Royal Air Force Lightning which has just begun flying again following restoration by the Lightning Flying Club in the UK nearly 14 years after its final in-service flight.

As well as the Lightnings, Thunder City operates three Blackburn Buccaneers, seven Hawker Hunters and one Aerospatiale Puma.

The video below shows the Lightnings in a scene straight out of the 1970s. And Kieran Daly blogged about this legendary aircraft when the US Air Force decided to call the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the Lightning II.