Way back in the mid 1960's I was working in Guardbridge near Leuchars when about 12 Lightnings did a sequential scramble. They had 2 planes on the runway at a time and each pulled vertical after takeoff. The first was up about 50,000 feet before levelling off when the last was clearing the runway. It was an amazing sight and an even more amazing sound. When I tried to talk to my colleague he could not hear a word I said and eventually I had to keep my mouth closed because the air was reverberating in my chest.
Re U2 interception, I recall reading many years ago that Roland Beaumont was out testing a Lightning and was directed by radar into a storm climb to intercept the U2. He just drew alongside and waved to the amazed pilot before turning away but the plane was falling out of the sky anyway as it ran out of momentum. Apparently there were newspaper stories at the time mentioning the interception.
