20 Years ago today

[320psi]

Well todays a big one in the history of the Lightning Preservation Group, its twenty years today since the LPG took delivery of XR728, straight from RAF Binbrook the UK’s last operational Lightning base.

And so on June 24th 1988 XR728 was in the 11sqd hangar on her last day at Binbrook

She was 'BFed'


She stands on a very sad Binbrook apron along with the Cranfield 'six'

Chris Berners Price was met in the crew room and introduced to the new owners of 728, his line was 'so where's this Bruntingthorpe place then ?'
A local map was studied and stowed he then made his way out to 'our' Lightning

Engines started, maps stowed and brakes off

Bye bye Binbrook 'ramp'

Then vertical into the wide blue yonder

Then after a flight around the 'houses' 45mins later she is over head Brunty

One 'go round' to check the runway is clear

Nearly down

And down for good



More in a sec

[320psi]

Taxy round to the pan infront of the tower



And shut down, but not for the last time []

Where's the ladder chaps ? []

[320psi]

Got him out in the end []


And one of the first if not the first privatley owned super sonic jets[]

A small crowd of family members gather, with Chris's taxy back to Binbrook in the foreground, always struck me as funny this 'arrives in a Mach 2 jet fighter and goes home (helmet under arm) in a 1000cc metro []

The LPG members had a little welcome reception then 'knocked up' a tow bar and towed her round to an empty hangar where 558 now sits



And that was the first, a big day for the LPG []

Here's to the next 20

[mystic_meg]

Great shots, and great memories of Binbrook. Sadly, apart from the hangars in your 2nd pic, the rest of the buildings have been demolished

[320psi]

Yeh, I know a sad place, a shadow of its former self, we have been over there on many occasions in the last 20 years, helping the guys with 724, we have also had a few visits to the QRA shed to take reference photos and dimensions of both the hangar and the crew quarters, this now sits alone on that windy hill cut off and in the middle of a field, full of muddy farm equpiment and general rubbish.

But that said we try to keep the memory alive at Bruntingthorpe

There they both are as of yesterday, 904 fully servicable and fueled.



And 728 in a few bits, we are doing some work on her to cure her aiments so we have just 'pulled' both reheat pipes and the No1 interpipe.



Here they both are in 'our' Wattisham Q shed back in Jan/April 08

[Chris Kebab]

If you don't want one of them there's a chap on 5 Sqn looking for one