Foulness Island TSR 2 EE Lightning
 

Looking at the thread regarding Thorney Island has anyone worked or remembers Foulness Island.

I seem to recall something from Air Clues in the late seventies were they had a TSR 2 and a Lightning for target practice or maybe destructive engine testing, but looking at google earth maps there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a runway.

They came in by road!

I will always remember the shape of the TSR2 fuselage, sans wings and covered by a tarpaulin on the back of a huge low-loader, trundling down the Arterial Road (A127) at Prittlewell in late '65. Very sad :sad:

SincoTC

I think I may have some pictures or air clues mags showing frozen chickens being launched in to a Lightning intake, I do recall the article stating the engines ran for nearly 45 mins with no oil pressure and compressor damage!!!! will post them if I find them.

Part of the TSR2 fuselage was clearly visible and identifiable from the air in 1992. Saw it many times due to the nature my job at the time.

Don't recall the lightning, but that wasn't exactly news back then.

I have just found this pic but do have another one of it complete somewhere before they started destroying it, I think its XR219?


http://www.dragonhd.demon.co.uk/images/tsr2/target.jpg

I don't recall the Lightning either, but as you say AB, they didn't rate that much attention then. You ought to post the pictures fastjet45

I also saw the same sight of a T-188, can't remember the year though! Fortunately, it was put to one side, didn't get used as a target and wound up being rescued and put in a museum :ok:

Edited to say, after refreshing memories, I missed seeing one of the two 188's that went to Foulness, they were XF926, which went to Cosford in 1972 and XF923, which was scrapped at Foulness after being used as a target :{

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/...coSafe/188.jpg

I have to say it wasn't being "used as a target" - why the hell should it be? They didn't need "targets", they shot at co-ordinates miles out into the mud as far as I could see, but by 1992 they didn't seem to be firing at anything at all. The TSR2 front fuselage was sitting on the grass behind the sea defenses and probably behind the position of any guns anyway, so no way a target. Just left there to rot.

Perhaps "Target" wasn't a good choice of word, "Test Article" would have better described their intended use; you're correct in saying that the (large calibre) gunnery targets were just co-ordinates out to sea (where the expended rounds could be recovered from the mud flats at low tide for examination).

However, my understanding, from talking to people that worked there at the time, is that the airframes were subjected to live fire (smaller calibre) and other explosive devices to test their effect on modern materials and construction techniques in these "state of the art" test pieces!

It's just a pity that the various Ministers who decided the fate of these fine machines, couldn't be persuaded to sit in the cockpits during the trials. :E

Saw a Lightning T5 during a visit in the late 80s – 23 Sqn markings.
Also saw the results of 30 mm cannon fire (various rounds) on different thickness of aircraft structure; possibly parts of the Lightning and a TSR 2 wing.

I recall a briefing from a ‘boffin’ who had detonated an A-A missile warhead near a bomber front fuselage. He did not disclose the type, but a Valiant was suspected, which would have replicated the opposition, and particularly as it could be pressurized. The boffin reported dismay that the test failed to ‘kill’ any of the five dummies on board immediately and thus did not meet the new ministry’s directive on aircraft destruction for a nuclear threat!

fastjet45
 

;)

Sometime around 1975/76/77 I was a member of a team that transported 2 Lightnings from RAF Binbrook to 'RAF White City', Shoeburyness. We were told that these were to be used for engine injestion trials.

AARON thought it was just me going crazy with age, I haven't been able to find the Air Clues magazine showing the frozen chickens being launched in to the Lightning intake only found some cut out pics of the TRS2 XR219 parked up waiting to be destroyed.

Using the Bristol188, while it could be said to be a criminal waste nowadays, might have had a shred of justification as was largely stainless steel, so a lot different to the norm ?

IIRC, the ingestion trials on the two Lightnings taken to Shoeburyness showed that the phenomenon was somewhat random. Foreign Object Damage (FOD) was a frequent and expensive occurrence to Lightning engines, and we were keen to understand more about it. Yet the trials showed that for the most part polystyrene flakes on a plate, passed under the intake of a Lightning with its engines running, stayed resolutely put! Until, that is, a random, just-right, sideways gust of wind induced the formation of a suction vortex out of the intake, and once that was established not only did the flakes disappear down the intake, but the plate too and anybody unwise enough not to let go of it...

Which is why a Binbrook starter crew, taking a short cut under the nose of a running aircraft, could occasionally find himself sucked off the ground and have a real struggle to get free while parts of his cold-weather gear disintegrated and disappeared down the hungry intake...

I lose sleep over it to this day.

But they were tethered?

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/899/ingestion.jpg

Fastjet45
 

;)

Having just looked at my records I find that the dates for the Lightning job from Binbrook to Shoeburyness were;

Start dismantle at Binbrook on 20 Sep 76 (Dismnantle = cutting off wings, tail plane etc with Husqvana disc cutter), leaving Shoeburynes on 28 Sep 76 after positioning on test rig.

I remember that the fuel tanks were supposed to be drained and vented but when we were cutting through bolts and sparks flew around the wing burst into flames! Just another day at the office.

Have a look at the photos here:

Air-Britain : Shoeburyness

Ahh, spent many an hour in ‘Z’; a sad end to a fine (albeit heavy) steed. Lightning T5, XS421

Thanks Liffy 1M

If anyone is still interested, i remember the following aircraft that were present on Foulness up to 1998/1999 ... maybe even into 2000 when they were all cleared. There was more than this, but i don't recall what they were.

One site had:
1 Vulcan nose section
2 Lightening nose sections
1 buccaneer nose section
1 valiant nose section
1 complete V1 rocket
various TSR2 Parts strewn with holes from amunition blasts

another site had;

1 complete buccaneer (that was later used for testing and taken away in about 2003 i think)
various other tsr2 parts
2 mig fuselage
1 amphibious car (not an aircraft, i know.. but i thought it interesting none the less)

Indeed:

Ah, the Lightning intake check. A sort of diving roll around the radar bullet to crawl up to the No. 1 compressor face to inspect it, then a climb into the upper intake to inspect No. 2. Wearing special FOD-free overalls, of course, and carrying a torch and mirror that hopefully did not disintegrate.

They said that if you could get in, you could get out. Nevertheless, tales circulated of a radar bullet having to be removed to extract one luckless individual. Some of us, this SEngO included who led from the back on this one, declined even to try.:sad: