Thanks for your helpful response. Please let us know from your logbook the serial number and the date of your zoom flight in this Lightning F3.
I too may have flown the very same 'hotrod' F3, but without being aware of the tuned pipes (mice?) & lighter weight. If you could add some detail …
Will “Firestreak” (#42) or Mike Hale (#45) please describe for us the profile that they used to reach a U-2 flying at it’s normal height of some 70,000’+?
A good description of the complexity in trying to intercept/identify a high flying target (as opposed to just zooming for fun) is provided at the link below by the RNoAF.
Note the advantage of a 'toboggan' from 0.9 to 1.4M, a technique that worked well on the Lightning in the Cyprus airspace and saved a few hundred pounds of fuel burn when accelerating.
At mach 1.5 the compressor changed mode, the turbine RPM increased by 4 % and acceleration increased further. What limited the engine and with that practical speed was compressor inlet temperature (CIT). That shouldn´t exceed 120 degrees.
High altitude flying with F-104
