English Electric Lightning F.6

[Weta43]

Iconic plane, flew for the British in West Germany & the Saudis against Egypt.

Super-cruised,

Short legs, but about the same range as a MiG-29

Intercepted a U-2 at > 26,000m :-)

 

The AI.23 was the world's first operational airborne monopulse radar system !

 

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by Weta43

[Svsmokey]

You forgot one thing .

 

Ugly

 

God-awful ugly

 

I should file assault charges

 

:)

[Beetle]

...also forgot it was reported as being able to go to mach2 vertically

[Knock-Knock]

The F2 wasnt so ugly, before all the shit got glued on, and it still had its canon in the nose.

But I do agree, a module that would be fantastic to have in DCS, and what it didnt manage in a beauty contest, it sure made up for in just being awesome :thumbup:.

 

[norbot]

Well, you're not the first one who thinks about the F.6. :D

 

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=214717

 

 

I don't think its so ugly. Look at the A-10. Its not a beauty at the first glance, but I love to fly it.

[Lixma 06]

Would be fun but very little to do.

 

Now a Buccaneer on the other hand....

[Capn kamikaze]

...also forgot it was reported as being able to go to mach2 vertically

 

No, not a chance.

[joey45]

Mach one maybe but not 2

[Capn kamikaze]

Not even that, its thrust to weight ratio was 0.78, so it would not even be able to hold the speed it did have in a vertical climb, to just maintain altitude on thrust alone would require more than it had available, and no modern fighter could do it either, the overhead of fighting gravity with thrust would mean you'd have very little left to go supersonic with.

[Svsmokey]

The F2 wasnt so ugly, before all the shit got glued on, and it still had its canon in the nose.

But I do agree, a module that would be fantastic to have in DCS, and what it didnt manage in a beauty contest, it sure made up for in just being awesome :thumbup:.

 

 

Viscerally , makes-me-wanna-puke , ugly ! And all that stuff stuck on was to make the aircraft actually perform its intended function .

[Capn kamikaze]

I think people look at the Lightning with very rose tinted glasses, it was actually a very poor aircraft in terms of doing the job it was intended to do, the main thing being the incredibly limited armaments, only two short range IR missiles with a dubious reliability, and a pair of cannons (or no cannons at all in some versions)

 

It may have been fast, but if it was fast and it had no teeth, then what good was it really as anything other than a psychological band aid?

 

Other aircraft of the era had comparable performance, and the ability to actually do something useful, hence why it was quickly replaced in the role of the primary RAF interceptor by the Phantom, which had its first flight only four years after it, but had a much more respectable armament, and as a dogfighter that was asking too much of it, especially against what it would fight if it ever went to war.

 

Of course some will be angry at me saying that, but those are the facts, top notch performance, sub-par as an actual USEFUL weapons system.

[Svsmokey]

The vertically stacked engines that introduced so many packaging problems also made it a maintenance nightmare . Interesting that the same team that brought us that abomination of an aircraft also gave us the Canberra , a beautiful , USEFUL and versatile aircraft that the U.S. was so impressed with that we adopted it (and adapted it) -the only foreign military aircraft the we did so since WW1 !

 

To be fair , i also despise the Lightning for displacing the Hunter .

Edited November 16, 2018 by Svsmokey