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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0877.PDF
0T May1962 1,000 m.p.h. in a Lightning T.4 BY MARK LAMBERT •AST week I had one of the most exhilarating and exciting Lgi flights of my life—34 minutes in a Lightning T.4 with J. L. "Jimmy" Dell, English Electric chief test pilot, during which we reached Ml.6 on the level at 30,000ft and exceeded M1.0 at low level. It is nothing short of tragic to be tied "pen and mouth" by security in describing an aircraft so potent and yet so easy to fly, for these were my main impressions of the mighty bird. I am allowed to say virtually nothing specific about it. I became thoroughly accustomed to the Meteor during some 500hr flying with a RAuxAF squadron some years ago and I was mightily impressed with the much greater urge of the Hunter Two-seater when I flew it with Bill Bedford shortly after the RAuxAF disbanded. But even so the tremendous urge of the Lightning took my breath away. I may not say how heavy a Lightning is, how much thrust it has or how fast it can really go, nor how high. But I must admit that I was miles and miles behind it until we had settled at 30,000ft. Acceleration and climb are astonishing. English Electric have always pointed out that the Lightning is not only genuinely supersonic, being capable of sustained man oeuvres at beyond M1.0, but also docile and simple to fly. Yet no amount of public relationsmanship has shown me as conclusively as this flight how true that claim is. Perhaps the most impressive demonstration of this was a hefty boot of rudder applied with the autostabilizer switched off at Ml.5. I thought this was the way to break an airframe, but the Lightning stabilized, hands-off, in just over two cycles. The landing, too, was far less hair-raising than I had expected, even though the wind was 30kt, gusting to 40kt and very turbulent on the approach. But let us start at the beginning. English Electric arranged to take me and some others up from Warton during one of the eight or so test flights required to clear production Lightning T.4s for delivery > the RAF. Such flights are very carefully planned and carried out under close radar surveillance in the supersonic test area over the Irish Sea between North Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and trie Lancashire coast. Great trouble is taken to avoid trailing the supersonic shock over inhabited areas and "planting a fourpenny one"; and both airways and other military aircraft have to be avoided, even though the Lightning pilots can rarely see the other aircraft. In addition, my flight was scheduled as a production test and certain specific test points had to be completed. Dell had to check afterburner operation at low altitude, induce and measure recovery from Dutch roll at two heights and speeds, with and without autostabilizer, and check other points. It was a crowded 34 minutes. Temperature was somewhat warmer than ISA, causing some loss of acceleration. Variations from IS A have noticeable effect on supersonic aircraft. A 120kt jet stream was expected to provide some rough clear-air turbulence, but this did not materialize. The weather was windy, with cloud patches around 8,000ft and below, but clear above. We were only climbing to 30,000ft and wore no special clothing or g-suits. They gave me a thorough briefing on the use of Mae West, Sarah beacons, dinghy, survival pack and all the fitments on the Martin- Baker Mk 4 ejection seat, which is now quite a complex, but unusu ally comfortable device. Two sets of harness are fastened into one parachute junction box by looping restraint straps through the parachute straps. There are two "Y" straps between the legs, forming a very firm vertical restraint system with the lap straps. The shoulder straps were fastened and tightened afterwards, oxygen hose clipped to the Mae West and then connected and mic-tel plugged in. Dinghy lead and leg-restraint garters were fastened. The P-type, chin-resting oxygen mask with its rigid toggle frame made head turning difficult, but rearward visibility was in any case restricted to a fleeting glimpse of the leading-edge of the wing. I sat with my legs almost horizontal, disappearing it seemed right amongst the instruments with precious little clearance. There was hardly room to reach down beside the seat and the electric seat- raising switch was on the outboard wall. Dell and I were just not rubbing elbows. The coaming was level with my right elbow and the windscreen arch seemed to provide bare clearance for my crash helmet and visor. A horn blew quietly as the clam-shell canopy closed slowly around us, warning us to keep our elbows tucked in. Continued overleaf
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