The fact that the Lightning had lasted so long was a compliment to its capabilities, although in recent times another more significant factor was a delay in bringing the new Tornado air defence variant into service. It finally arrived in late 1984 at RAF Coningsby in the shape of the F.2 for 229 OCU, although there were still serious problems with its Foxhunter AI system to the extent that early aircraft were forced to fly with ballast in place of the nose-mounted radar. This offered a further stay of execution for the Lightning, although it was becoming increasingly difficult to balance the operational requirements with a distinct lack of fatigue life in the remaining aircraft. Accidents only compounded the problem and over the remaining sixteen months of the Lightning’s RAF service three more aircraft were lost, although in each case the pilot survived.
Before the first of these accidents another F.3 flew its last flight as an in-flight fire caused serious damage to the rear of the aircraft. This was XP751 of the LTF, which was being flown by Flying Officer Ian Black on 22 October 1986 on only his third solo flight in a Lightning. The sortie was a general handling exercise of maximum rate turns of up to 6g, which were to be carried out over the sea off Spurn Head at an altitude of 5,000 feet. The combination of the F.3’s limited fuel and a high rate of consumption at low-level meant that Flying Officer Black was soon heading back towards Binbrook where he completed two circuits. With his fuel state at 800lbs per side he brought his aircraft in for a precautionary landing but, once on the runway, the braking parachute failed to deploy. By careful use of the brakes, however, he was able to stop before the end and pulled up on the ORP. It was immediately apparent that something had gone wrong as pieces of the parachute cable could be seen at the rear of the aircraft but, on closer examination, it was noticed that a hole had been burned in the No.1 jet pipe. It was later discovered that a fuel leak had led to a fire and that this had burned through the fire wire of the fire detection system so that there had been no warning in the cockpit. It was perhaps fortunate that this particular sortie had been of short duration. Any longer and Ian Black would probably have become the lowest-time pilot to eject from a Lightning. XP751 was not repaired after this incident and was withdrawn from use on 22 January 1987 having flown 3,101 hours.
Although the Lightning had always been popular at Air Shows, the fact that 1987 was to be its last display season brought increased interest, although the preparations got off to a bad start when XP707 of the LTF crashed at Binbrook during a practice display on 19 March. The aircraft was being flown by Flight Lieutenant Barry Lennon who had been authorised to carry out his routine at a minimum height of 5,000 feet above ground level. The first few manoeuvres were carried out without any difficulty but as he positioned his aircraft for a slow roll, Flight Lieutenant Lennon became aware that he had a slow-feeding ventral tank as the fuel flow to the wing tanks was less than normal. Having checked that he had enough fuel to complete the sortie, Lennon continued with his slow roll, which was to the left and was commenced at 5,000 feet and a speed of 330 knots IAS.
As he became inverted he realised that he was descending slightly so he increased the push force on the control column to hold the nose up. However, this control input generated considerably more pitch response (and consequently negative ‘g’) than he was expecting, so he eased back on the stick once more. Unfortunately this had no effect on the rate that the aircraft was now pitching and, as it was still inverted, the negative ‘g’ that was being experienced increased to a figure of around -3g. Events then happened extremely quickly and as it was still in a bunt manoeuvre the aircraft flicked sharply to the right with the nose well up. By now the Lightning was in heavy buffet with speed decreasing rapidly and on passing 160 knots IAS it entered an inverted spin, at which point Flight Lieutenant Lennon ejected. It was later estimated that the amount of time from the increase in negative ‘g’ to ejection was no more than six seconds. As Flight Lieutenant Lennon came down on his parachute his aircraft crashed about 500 yards from the airfield boundary.
The fact that the aircraft had gone out of control was due to the slow-feeding ventral tank, which eventually affected CG to the point where it was beyond the aft limit. The result was that stability in pitch had been reduced to a dangerous level and this had led to the aircraft over-responding to a forward movement of the control column. It had then g-stalled, pitched up (relative to the horizon), and had entered an inverted spin. With no further need for replacement Lightning pilots the LTF was disbanded four weeks after the accident and two of its F.3s were passed to 5 Squadron for use by Flight Lieutenant Jon Fynes, who took over as display pilot for the 1987 season.
The penultimate Lightning accident to result in a Cat.5 write-off took place during 5 Squadron’s last Armament Practice Camp (APC) to Akrotiri. The squadron had flown out at the end of June and the accident took place on 1 July. These two-week detachments had always been popular with Lightning pilots as, in addition to excellent Mediterranean weather, the flying was interesting and varied and it made a pleasant change to be able to fire live ammunition, even if it was only at a target towed by a Canberra. The unfortunate incident that took place was a freak event that could not have been predicted as it had probably never happened before.
Flight Lieutenant Dave ‘Charlie’ Chan had been tasked with carrying out a live gunnery sortie against a banner target and had been allotted XR763. Apart from a barrier engagement shortly after being delivered to Binbrook in 1966, a detached canopy on take-off thirteen years later and a lost undercarriage D-door in 1986, this aircraft had not troubled the engineers greatly but it was about to go out with a bang. The first two firing passes at the target were made without difficulty but after breaking away from his third pass Flight Lieutenant Chan noticed a black circular object detach itself from the banner. Although he made an attempt to avoid it, the object struck the Lightning in the air intake (having somehow missed the radar bullet) and there was an ominous ‘clang’ as it was ingested by No.1 engine. On glancing at the engine instruments it was immediately obvious that the engine had seized as rpm fell to zero and jet pipe temperature rose above 900 degrees C (the maximum was normally 795 degrees C). Flight Lieutenant Chan immediately shut down No.1 engine, put out a Mayday call and set course for Akrotiri.
As he was on his way back Chan carried out a low-speed handling check, which did not reveal anything untoward but, shortly afterwards, he noticed that the No.2 engine JPT was now higher than normal. When he was on finals with about two-and-a-half miles still to go to the runway threshold there was a distinct loss of thrust from the remaining engine and he immediately selected full power in an attempt to maintain speed and height. Unfortunately this seemed to have little effect so he attempted to use reheat on No.2 engine but it would not light up. It was now obvious that he would not be able to make the runway so he made one last R/T call to say that he was losing power and would have to eject. He was soon faced with another problem as he was heading for the village at Akrotiri and so had to manoeuvre his aircraft to the right to avoid it. Having done so, he levelled the wings and ejected at a height of only 250 feet and a speed of 150 knots IAS. He landed safely a short distance away from his aircraft, which crashed and exploded in a vineyard. Although Chan was uninjured he was extremely fortunate in that his right leg had not been restrained as it should have been on ejection and so it was probably only the fact that he had ejected at a relatively low speed and at low altitude that had prevented a serious injury due to flailing.
When the target banner was inspected it was discovered that one of the rounds that Chan had fired had hit the upper wheel mounting and as it disintegrated, the wheel, and half of its mounting, was released into the air. During a subsequent investigation of the wreckage it was noted that there were marks on the engine air intake that corresponded to the dimensions of the wheel (this weighed approximately 1llb and was guaranteed to cause major damage to an engine if ingested). It was therefore concluded that the top wheel of the spreader bar had caused No.1 engine to seize almost instantaneously whilst it had been running at high power. In doing so, debris from the No.1 engine had then been ingested by No.2 engine. The level of damage that was seen on No.2 engine was consistent with a progressive disintegration that eventually led to the decreasing thrust that had been experienced, together with increasing JPT.
Back at Binbrook on 7 August XS899 of 5 Squadron became the last Lightning to land having lost its rudder in flight. On this occasion at least the pilot was aware of what had happened as he diverted to Coningsby, but it would be another six weeks before it was able to return home. As a result of its temporary exile, XS899 missed the Last Lightning Show on 22 August 1987, which was the final Open Day at Binbrook before it closed as well as being the last opportunity for enthusiasts to see large numbers of Lightnings in the air. As had become customary at the Lincolnshire base the weather did its best to spoil the event but the rain eventually relented in the late afternoon and this allowed a diamond-nine formation to be flown. The humidity that was still present in the air did, however, provide the opportunity for some spectacular passes from the solo aircraft that hurtled down the flight line wreathed in condensation from the shockwaves produced as they flew at near sonic speed.
Of the two Lightning squadrons at Binbrook the first to disband prior to re-equipping with the Tornado F.3 was 5 Squadron and this took place at the end of the year with the new unit being reformed at Coningsby on 1 May 1988. This just left 11 Squadron to soldier on a little longer with the Lightning until they too disbanded on 30 April 1988. The new squadron also flew the Tornado F.3 and reformed at Leeming in North Yorkshire the following November. Before the Lightning was finally retired, however, one more was to be lost in seemingly familiar circumstances.
On the morning of 11 April four Lightning aircraft took off from Binbrook for air combat training over the North Sea but only three were to return. The section was led by Flying Officer Ian Black with Flight Lieutenant Dick Coleman RAAF, a Mirage IIIO pilot who was on an exchange posting, as his No.2. The other pair comprised Flight Lieutenant Alan ‘Porky’ Page and Flying Officer Derek ‘Grinner’ Smith. The previous day it had been arranged that F-4J Phantoms of 74 Squadron would play the role of the bad guys and to complete the picture a Victor tanker was also available. After it had disbanded at Tengah 74 Squadron had remained inactive for some time but had reformed with the F-4J Phantom on 31 December 1985.
After departure from Binbrook the first priority was to rendezvous with the airborne tanker so that all four aircraft had a full load of fuel before the engagement with the Phantoms. This was accomplished without any difficulty and, after the arrival of the section from 74 Squadron, a CAP was set up as the Phantoms flew off to begin their attack. The first indication that an attack was imminent came when Ian Black was informed by Ground Control that four targets were heading towards his section at a range of 40 miles. The pulse-Doppler (PD) radar of the Phantom was much more sophisticated than the antiquated AI.23 system in the Lightning, but when operated in PD mode it could only pick up a target that was heading towards it so Black turned his section through 90 degrees so that they were side-on to the Phantoms.
Another trick was that window, or Chaff, had been stuffed into the airbrakes of the Lightnings so that when these were opened momentarily a cloud of aluminium strips was released into the air to further confuse the situation. In a matter of seconds visual contact was made and a number of individual combats ensued. As Ian Black was in the middle of a fight with one of the Phantoms he heard a Mayday call from Flight Lieutenant Dick Coleman (call-sign Schubert 2), who was also in combat with a Phantom several thousands of feet below him. Urgent calls were made for the fight to be called off and, having picked up Coleman’s aircraft against a layer of cloud, Black descended to assist as best he could.
During his combat with the Phantom Flight Lieutenant Coleman had cancelled reheat at one point before easing back on the throttles in the cold power range. However, this produced a series of loud bangs so he moved the throttles slightly forwards once again and climbed in an attempt to clear the condition. Unfortunately the next thing to happen was that the Fire 1 caption illuminated on the warning panel. At the same time fumes and smoke entered the cockpit, although these did not last long and soon dissipated. It was at this stage that Coleman transmitted his Mayday call, after which he went through his emergency drills, which included shutting down No.1 engine.
From his position alongside, Ian Black could see that there was a streak of flame along the port side of XR769, the source of which appeared to be towards the rear of the No.1 engine compressor. There also appeared to be considerable structural damage to the external skin of the aircraft in the vicinity of the fire. By now the aircraft was heading back towards Binbrook at 10,000ft and the Fire 1 warning went out when it was still just over 50 miles north-east of the airfield. Although the warning light had gone out, the fire was still evident from Ian Black’s position; indeed it continued to spread so that Coleman was forced to abandon any hopes that he might have had of saving his aircraft. He therefore turned his aircraft away from the coast once again, completed his pre-ejection drills and ejected at a speed of 300 knots IAS. Thankfully the last ever ejection from an RAF Lightning was successful and Coleman was rescued from the North Sea by Wessex helicopter after spending around fifteen minutes in the water. His aircraft came down about 5 miles off Spurn Head where it soon joined all the others that had been abandoned along the east coast.
With the end of the Lightning only three weeks away, it was perhaps not surprising that a salvage operation was not forthcoming. With a complete lack of material evidence and only the testimony of the pilot and photographs taken of the aircraft in its final moments to go on, the investigation had a difficult job in discovering exactly what had caused the accident. It was, however, concluded that the persistent fire and subsequent structural damage had been the result of an uncontrolled failure of No.1 engine following a severe surge. With the lack of any wreckage it was impossible to say exactly what had caused the surge. So it was that XR769, which had been the first F.6 to exceed 1,000 flying hours and at the end of its life had flown a total of 4,070 hours, became the seventy-sixth Lightning to be lost, either by an accident resulting in a complete loss, or by one that caused damage of such severity that it was deemed to be uneconomic to repair.
No.11 Squadron was declared non-operational on 30 April 1988 and to mark the occasion of the Lightning’s retirement from active service the very last diamond-nine formation was flown. After a practice the day before, this took place on the 29th when the formation, led by Wing Commander Jake Jarron, the O.C. of 11 Squadron, performed a flypast over Binbrook. Even this was not quite the end of the Lightning in RAF service as aircraft continued to fly, albeit in ever decreasing numbers, over the next two months. One final detachment was made to Lossiemouth in May to work with the resident Buccaneers of 12 Squadron, but thereafter much of the flying that was carried out involved the delivery of aircraft for use elsewhere as decoys, or for static display in museums, and the last two aircraft were flown out of Binbrook at the end of June.
Although it was initially thought that the Lightning would remain in service for only ten years, in the event it had been a mainstay of the UK’s air defences for a period of twenty-eight years. During this time for many it had become a symbol of national pride as it was the last wholly British-designed interceptor to see service with the RAF and its performance and earth-shattering noise made it the highlight of any air display. Although it suffered from a chronic shortage of fuel and was lacking in its range of weaponry its handling qualities brought a smile to any pilot’s face that other aircraft, such as the F-4 Phantom, never could. As a single-seat aeroplane that utilised technology from the 1960s, the pilot’s workload was extremely high, so that only the very best were allowed to fly it. The skills of its pilots were also tested to the full when things went wrong and from the events recorded in this book it will now be appreciated how often that happened. To put this into perspective the final chapter looks at the Lightning’s safety record compared to other jet fighters of the period.