I know - shame really that they are in such short supply for worthy projects........

Marvellous to see - they've got the only airworthy Lightnings flying there, because it's about the only place in the world that allows reheated jets to fly legally owned by privateers.

Depends on what you are looking for, plenty of lightnings left in the UK and still running.  Bruntingthorpe still do their thunder days where the birds still run along the runway at max takeoff power, though restricted from rotating.  And classic jets like sabre, canberra, hunter, provost, etc can be seen at kemble, bournemouth, duxford.  If you are getting withdrawal symptoms fancy a car meet at an air show?

http://www.lightnings.org.uk/

http://www.kemble.com/images/Kemble_events_2004.doc

Nothing comes close to the sight and sound of a full reheat take-off by a Lightning F6 - engines spool up, brakes off, full reheat, rushes down the runway, up off the deck, wheels up, pilot holds it horizontal whilst building speed, crosses the airfield boundary, rotates to the vertical.   About 90 seconds from releasing the brakes, the airfield lies about 60,000 feet below (that's 11.36 in miles) .......awesome indeed.  

Oh - and that was nearly 40 years ago in 1965, long before the recent crop of F-14s, 15s, 16s and 18s which the dear old Lightning would outperform in a vertical climb.   Mind you - sod all fuel left after that to tool around before needing to return to terra firma.   For those who have ever seen or experienced it when the Lightning was in service, the memories remain

No, your right Mark. But you never forget seeing a Vulcan on rotation and then marvelling at the low speed handling and weird pitch attitude during a display. The most eery noise I've ever heard. Once saw her display at HMS Daedelus and the pebbles on the beach literally shook!

So I was pleased to hear that the Vulcan people at Bruntingthorp have been awarded a big slug of lottery money to get the old bird XM back to the sky. I for one can't wait to see her display and anyone with even the faintest interest in noisy, fast, smelly machines should do to.

As well as encounters with the Lightning during various work-related existences over the years, I do remember that one in particular, as a lad being taken to an air show at Gaydon in the late '60s.   Awesome just doesn't adequately describe that 9-ship formation, and the Red Arrows (with Folland Gnats) at the time made hardly an impression by comparison     In the final twilight of its service, I also saw the farewell 9-ship flypast tour of the Lightning around the Lincolnshire airfields.   It was sometime in 1988 or 1989 when I was at Cranwell - can't remember which, but that was an equally evocative and impressive moment as the Binbrook boys gave us a good, if brief, display with a slow flypast (well, about 350 knots or so), followed by an excellent return at just subsonic speed, throttled right back as they crossed the station boundary, whistled across the airfield and then stood on the tails and opened up........the ground shook and grown men cried......

can remember once on exercise with the Phantom mud pluggers, we were providing FAC support in Germany,  a phantom overcooked his approach speed into the target, needed to be sub sonic for the munition,  huge condense cloud formed from the intakes back about a mile out, throttles chopped, Spey turbine blades bouncing out of the engine.  It was a good prang.