Fighter Aircraft Since 1945 by Schwede Frank;

Author:Schwede, Frank;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2017-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

The F.3 variant shown here with a small fuel tank at the lower mid-fuselage was enormously powerful but could carry little fuel. In addition the F.3 was armed only with rockets and had no guns. (Ruth)

The Lightning had a first-class performance, an enormous thrust:weight ratio and was also excellent at low level in dogfighting tactics. The Lightnings in Germany were given an olive-green livery, while those stationed in the British Isles received a greengrey camouflage coat over the unpainted metal to the end of their service, sometimes varied to air superiority-grey.

There were a number of sub-variants amongst the 337 machines built. In 1962 the T.4 appeared as a trainer with dual controls, tutor and pupil sitting beside each other. The final and probably the best balanced version was the F.6 with modified wings with more strongly curved and extended leading edges and a larger tank at the belly. The enormous performance of the Lightning came at a price, however: the endurance in flight without refuelling was only around fifty minutes. Even if the Lightning had pronounced spectacular flying characteristics, from the technical point of view it became obsolete very quickly. Nevertheless the RAF operational squadrons kept their Lightnings until 1988 when the last of them were replaced by the Tornado F.3.

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