Lightning vs U-2 and Concorde!

[Music] the lockheed u-2 spy plane first entered american service in 1957 and incredibly is still in US Air Force service today in 2020 a single jet engine ultra high-level reconnaissance aircraft in the early days they were used by the CIA to photograph sensitive sites in the Soviet Union considered immune from interception as they cruised at sixty plus thousand feet above the earth this immunity was rudely shattered when a u2 was downed over the Soviet Union in 1960 hit by a new surface-to-air missile the pilot Francis Gary Powers was eventually exchanged in Berlin in 1962 for convicted Soviet spy Rudolf Abel the u2 was constantly upgraded with new models entering service in the 1980s the u2 was still considered safe from fighter interception it was believed that no aircraft could touch it that was until 1984 and a very interesting encounter with probably the best interceptor the Royal Air Force ever possessed the famous English Electric lightning [Applause] the Lightning wasn't much younger than the u2 having entered RAF service in 1959 he was a wild man her plane pilots described flying as like being saddled to a sky rocket it was the only British designed and built fighter capable of Mac - its two rolls-royce Avon turbo jets fitted staggered within the fuselage producing not only high speed but an exceptional rate of climb it takes about three and a half minutes to climb the 36,000 feet from brake release the aircraft is now leveling off and power is reduced to maintain 0.9 three things another one for maintain 36.9 the aircraft accelerates to 1.6 map radar clearance must be obtained for flights in excess of Mach 1 on this heading you are clear for high-speed the pilot now select maximum rehe the lightning takes two and a half minutes to accelerate 21.6 initial acceleration is high but falls off in the transonic beat the due to a shockwave disturbance over the pressure head all in indicated altitude which is rectified by a jumper occurring at 1.04 map after 1.2 the rate of acceleration increases and care must be taken not to exceed maximum limitation at 1.6 mak the pilot pulls up into a zoom climb and can reach 36,000 feet in one minute this is a climb from 36,000 feet at 20,000 feet per minute designed to intercept attacks on Britain's V bomber airfields and shoot down Soviet nuclear arms supersonic bombers once ballistic missiles replaced this sort of attack the Lightning's role was to intercept high-flying bomber and reconnaissance types primarily the soviet tupolev tu-16 and the tupolev tu-95 bear bomber [Applause] [Music] but quite how high a lightning could go into the stratosphere wasn't exactly known the handbook gave a service ceiling of sixty plus thousand feet but could a lightning catch a you to the world's highest flying aircraft the only way to find out was to try the 1984 test was not to be the first interceptions of u2's by lightnings that the highest yet made in September 1962 a series of tests have been run intercepting u2's flying out of RAF upper Heyford using the older lightning f53 trim ease exercises the u2's flew at between 60 and 65 thousand feet 14 attempted interceptions were made with four successful but as technology developed the u2 flew ever higher until by 1984 it was believed to be untouchable flight left tenant Mike Hale was the lightning pilot in number 11 Squadron at RAF Binh Brooke in 1984 his aircraft XR 729 had the tail code BM and was known in the squadron as big mother noted by pilots as a very hot ship even for a lightning during a major NATO exercise the US Air Force agreed to allow an interception by an RAF Lightning to be attempted on one of their you twos considered immune from this sort of thing hail and some of the other pilots from 11 squadron had some impressive records under their belts hail and XR 749 had participated in an unofficial time to high trial against f-104 starfighter z' from Aalborg in denmark to anna squadron exchange at bin Brook in April 1984 the Lightning's had won all the races with ease except the low-level supersonic acceleration which ended with a dead heat Hale now turned his attention to the u2 xr7 for nine really was tremendously quick even for a lightning and in September 1983 had accelerated to an astounding Mac 2.3 or one and a half thousand miles per hour taking off from Benbrook Heil climbed up and up into the stratosphere acquiring the u2 at an altitude of 66 thousand feet Hale passed the u2 and continued climbing rapidly before beginning to move into his intercept position records show that he climbed to a zoom height of 88,000 feet or sixteen point six miles above the earth the u2 pilot gobsmacked by the British fighters outstanding performance at eighty-eight thousand feet the sky was dark and the curvature of the earth was visible the flight proved that the u2 was not immune from interception unfortunately for the Americans the Lightning's were allies rather than foes but the Lightning wasn't quite done breaking records just yet the following year flight left town and hail had an opportunity to demonstrate the Lightning against another revolutionary aircraft concorde the world's only supersonic airliner [Music] [Music] British Airways was trialing Concorde in April 1985 the type was very quick capable of twice the speed of sound at Mac 2.0 for one thousand three hundred and fifty four miles per hour British Airways kindly offered Concorde as a target to NATO and a whole panoply of interceptors including f-15s and f-16s f-14 Tomcats mirages and the venerable f-104 starfighter attempted to catch the airliner but none could well except one lightning xr-7 for 9 and xr7 for nine was probably the only lightning with the legs to manage it incredibly hail managed to overtake concorde on a stern conversion intercept the British Airways crew were suitably impressed in total 337 lightnings of all marks were built before the type left RAF service in 1988 as for the rather special lightning that broken altitude record for the type quarter you to an overtook concorde xr-7 for nine was preserved for some years at the Teesside airport in the north of England currently she is in Scotland at the Peter head complex of score UK a company's servicing North Sea oil and gas rigs as a gate Guardian thanks for watching please subscribe and share you can also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton details below you can help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details also in the description box [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 773,873

Rating: 4.95295 out of 5

Keywords: Concorde, English Electric Lighting, U-2, Mark Felton Productions

Id: 8DdUwIhI-ZA

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ifonlythiswasreal403]

When I first started work back in the 1970's I worked at RAF Manston and got to see just how fast one of the Lightenings could climb out of sight.

Brilliant engineering.

[u/SoNewToThisAgain]

From memory they are both true stories, but pushing the bounds. The U2 intercept was only done because the did a zoom climb and were basically slung up there, I don’t think they flew and properly intercepted.

The Concorde intercept had similar limitations. There as a TV programme recently where an interceptor, probably a Tornado, intercepted Concorde but could only stay with it for a minute because of fuel burn. Concorde continued across the Atlantic.

Yes, they both were intercepted and could have shot them down but the Lightning was at the edges of it’s performance and the others were just having a normal day at work.

I love the Lightning, it’s a fantastic plane especially for its time and I also love these stories. I used to see them flying a lot when I was a kid, they were just brilliant. This is one of my favourite pictures though.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/olimeads/4702722915

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-behind-a-famous-photo-of-an-ejection-from-a-raf-lightning-interceptor/

A bit more reading https://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-505899.html

[u/crucible]

Obligatory:

Taffy Holden: Accidental Fighter Pilot

[u/BumHaw]

Fascinating, thank you.