The Lightning. Goes fast. Drinks heavily. Is fun.

The one represents XS899 of No. 5 Squadron, RAF. Which, according the fantastic https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/survivor.php?id=627 ;

"First flown on 8th June 1966, XS899 served with 5 Squadron for her entire career. With the retirement of the type and RAF Binbrook's closure, she was disposed of to Arnold Glass and flown to Cranfield as part of his plan to fly several Lightnings.

Alas, this came to nothing and she was scrapped in 1994; the nose was saved by Lightning enthusiast Charles Ross. She was put on loan to RAF Coltishall and XS899's nose was restored to an incredible condition by W/O Mick Jennings and his team there - as he modestly admitted though, he had a hangar to put it in and the services of an RAF station to help out. Many aspects of the restoration were treated as a training exercise, if only more stations were so smart!

With Coltishall's closure, the nose section moved to the City of Norwich Aviation Museum along with the rest of Mick's cockpit collection, but has since moved to Charles' place in Binbrook, and can occasionally be found at events - she's pictured at the Caister Show in 2018, where her appearance earned £500 for the XR724 fuel fund."

Around three years, on and off.

Thats how long this has been sitting around on my phone awaiting completion. I have several more models scattered around that I might get around to releasing. Who knows? Some days I struggle to get out of bed...

Still not perfect, but she flys nice enough.

The controls?

AG1 - Jettison external stores. In this case, a pair of Hawker Siddley Red Top IR seeking missiles (based on the stock IR missiles - you will need to maintain lock all the way in on target for these to work). She is also armed with a pair of ADEN cannons.

AG7 - Deploy brake chute

AG8 - Open / close canopy

All other AG are unused.

She has a working RADAR - just the job for Bear hunting over the North Sea.

The nosewheel will gradually decrease in authority over 25mph, and eventually lock.

Dry power is available (in buckets) up to 95% throttle. Pushing past 95% throttle will engage reheat. Reheat drinks fuel at an alarming rate, but thats OK - this F.6 has in flight refueling capability!

Otherwise she is easy to fly, all controls (flaps to VTOL, trim to correct pitch and so on) are standard.

There are two cockpit views available. One for general flight ops, the other giving a better view of the gunsight and RADAR.

Pip pip.