FACTS
LJ - I'm just trying to keep the facts correct!! Yes SID told a good yarn I'd love to hear about how he almost ejected from an F3 by accident !!!!- The ADV and LTG were quite different the ADV in my opinion was pretty awesome from sea level to about 5000 - sit at 300kts select max reheat and it would effortlessly accelerate to 900 Kts - no noise just a smooth ride. The Lightning would accelerate like crazy to 500 kts then frankly it all got a bit scarey ! Because most of them were so bent as you went past 500kts the ball started to drift out and you ended up with a whole boot full of rudder on and a load of aileron to fly straight. I flew a couple of silver Lightnings before they were painted and they were much faster and smoother. there was a pilot who flew quite high near the end of the lightning on an air test and the canopy seal blew- it's only a bit of thin rubber and then 20 years old !!! - besides in the 1960s they wore the tailor Baxter pressure suits in the 1980s all you had was a Mk3 bone dome and a P or Q mask - so just for the record despite what wicked idea says I take the story about XR749 going into orbit at Mach 2.8 with a very large pinch of salt !!!
The Lightning was a great aircraft but the F3/ ADV was a lot less scarey - next thing I expect is Sharkey telling us he could Viff his Sea Jet behind a Mach 2.0 Concorde !!!