Camlobe/ Danny,
Taff Holden's flight in the lightning indeed happened at RAF Lyneham, I believe that it was the MU for the Lightning at that time. It's well covered in other threads on PPRUNE and should be easy enough to find. Despite rumours, the man was actually a trained aviator, and handled it as one would expect
Edit, here's some info I came across.
It happened on July 22nd 1966 while XM135 was at 33 MU at Lyneham. The aircraft had a persistant electrical problem that only showed itself under aceleration. So Wg Cdr Walter "Taff" Holden decided to undertake some ground tests to see if he could find the problem. The canopy was removed and the ground locks were in place Taff had a set of pilots notes with him in the cockpit he was strapped in but the safty pins were in. A couple of short bursts down the run way showed nothing so taff decided to give it a bit more speed. As he opened the throttels he accidentally pushed them through the gate into reheat. At first he thought the trottles had jammed but by the time he figured out what was happeneing he was out of runway and was left with only one choice to take XM135 for a quick spin round the airfield. This wouldnt be too much of a problem except that Taff had only done a few hours on a tiger moth. He couldnt call the tower as he only had on ear defenders and he couldnt eject as the seat was safe. After a couple of failed attempts after 12 minutes he landed.
Not too sure if he held an RAF pilots brevet! but I think he was OC eng on the unit at the time. I also believe that XM135 now resides at Duxford as an exhibit. Hope that helps.
Smudge
