A couple of RAF Typhoons were apparently scrambled at around 4:20 this morning and generated a sonic boom in the Home Counties. 'Janet from Hertfordshire' was so alarmed she thought her boiler had gone, perhaps a tree had fallen on her house? She checked all her rooms for cracks in the walls then headed off into the street with a torch to check to see if there'd been a car crash. Found nothing and not un-surprisingly no one else around
So went home and decided it needed to be recorded on TwitterFace or wherever
She'll no doubt save hitting Mumsnet until later on

Apparently, the first picture in the Guardian about this story was of a Russian MiG. They then amended the story with a photo of a Tornado and it wasn’t until the third edition did they get a picture of a Typhoon. Freelander 2 Metropolis. 2014

It was reported on the BBC website a while back

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Used to hear the RAF English Electric Lightnings go sonic back in the 1960's
from RAF Manston, straight up like a rocket then out over the North sea,
Wow all very exciting for a young teenager.
Dave DAVE.

To quote a true saying from the 1960's

"Jet noise; the sound of freedom"


J

Spent over 6 years working on English Electric Lightnings in the early 60's.

Truly remarkable performance and ability, limited by a very poor fuel consumption.

We also had Gloucester Javelins, the performance differences between them were great.

My memories of them are, in operational conditions, intercepting (for real or in exercise), the Javelins took off first and lumbered away, after a few minutes the Lightnings shot after them.
Unfortunately for the groundcrew, before they could get a warming cup of tea, the Lightnings returned from the interception, followed, after quite a while, by the Javelins. They had all covered the same distance.

The Lightning could perform the trick of completing a loop immediately after take off, although a flame out caused a crash at a display, and stopped this being done. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

First time I was taken to the Biggin Hill show was I believe the last time an English Electric Lightening was allowed to do a sonic pass for a show, I think it was around 1969 or maybe a bit earlier, I am sure it was the same time that the Beagle Pup was shown, all I remember was watching the Lightening heading towards us very fast in complete silence, passing with a woosh and then........ ouch!

Absolutely loved it..... Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

I was informed by an RAF pilot that many of the Lightnings had damaged lower tail pipes due to the pilots betting on the shortest take off and lifting the nose wheel and going verticle, this caused the tail pipe to hit the runway. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
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Nothing wrong with that......

I remember at RAF Alconbury we were at the USAF show and a Vulcan came into land upon parking up the ground crew started mopping and cleaning the massive wing area, the USAF airman we were with joked about how clean they liked to keep it, we told them they do that so it has a better speed/range in service.....I swear he thought we were joking, but later the next day when it was time for the Vulcan to go home it was waiting for a Phantom display to finish before taxiing out, the Airman said how great the Phantoms were (must admit I had a soft spot for Phantoms anyway) and how fast, the Vulcan sat on the runway end revved up produced a small countries yearly dose of exhaust emissions and stated to roll........15 seconds later it was vertical until lost in a 6000ft cloud base......that yanks mouth was still wide open last time I looked  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Dartman the one wrote:

I was informed by an RAF pilot that many of the Lightnings had damaged lower tail pipes due to the pilots betting on the shortest take off and lifting the nose wheel and going verticle, this caused the tail pipe to hit the runway.

Not sure about that,

But a Lightning could go from (end of runway) zero to supersonic (at operational height) in about 3 minutes.

What they could not do is land without a fully locked down under-carriage, because of the high mounted wings could most likely invert them on to the cockpit. We dumped a few into the shallow sea (off Happisburgh, Norfolk), after many attempts to shake the wheels down with violent manoeuvres over the airfield.

As I said, an impressive, but expensively difficult to maintain, aircraft.

This is the radar, as I saw it, on its test rig.




More Lightning facts here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Lightning FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

I had the pleasure of being the “guy in the back” in Phantoms from ‘79 until ‘85. Got just over 1000 hrs on type. A wonderful aeroplane. If it didn’t leak, it was empty; it would blow oil and smoke everywhere on start and it could burn fuel at 250 gallons per minute. But what a beautiful noise and lots of it! A very happy time in my life, some of the best fun you can have with your trousers on. Freelander 2 Metropolis. 2014

Absolutely, and a few of the Phantoms we saw at Alconbury had.....er......small patches on the tail, the USAF seemed a little less speedy at repairing small arms damage, just visiting on the way back from the war they didn’t finish!

The little chaps in the paddy fields apparently used to take pot shots just for something to do.......one pilot we spoke to said occasionally his flight would try and fly low enough not so as to avoid rifle fire but to take a head off or two

Not sure that actually worked but must have made the rice taste funny  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Drainpipe wrote:

e. If it didn’t leak, it was empty; it would blow oil and smoke everywhere on start and it could burn fuel at 250 gallons per minute. But what a beautiful noise and lots of it! A very happy time in my life, some of the best fun you can have with your trousers on.

sounds like some Land Rover Defenders out there