F.6 XS904 at Bruntingthorpe, May 7th 2000; author	F.6 XS919 at Wonderland Pleasure Park, 29th February 2000; author

Now, another active Lightning! XS904 is the second of the Lightning Preservation Group's pair of AVTUR burners at Bruntingthorpe (see also XR728). She's seen during a fast taxi run at the May open day at Bruntingthorpe, still doing more than 100 knots with the brake chute in full bloom. The aerodrome is open every Sunday for visitors to take a look around the collection of historic aircraft - well worth a visit.

XS919 has done more travelling than most retired Lightnings! Bought by an enthusiast in Cornwall, XS919 moved to Lower Tremar but by 1994 had moved once more to Torpoint in Devon, where she was reassembled and put on display in a car park. However after a few years of that XS919 was put up for sale and bought in 1999 by the owner of the Wonderland Pleasure Park near the village of Farnsfield in Nottinghamshire. Unfortunately the wings and tail were cut off for transport but they've already been reattached and the aircraft is under active restoration. If you want to see it, either take your family for a day out, or ring the park to arrange a Lightning-only visit - they're cool about people coming along for a look and won't make you pay for admission if you're just there to see the Lightning.

F.6 XS925 at Hendon, 8th March 2003; author	F.6 XS928 at BAe Warton; Matt Durrant

Above is XS925, another F.6. While it took some doing, it finally got preserved at the museum. In 11 Squadron markings (the final operational Lightning squadron), she's nicely surrounded by various bits of Lightning kit including Red Top and Firestreak missiles, a gun pack and ejector seat. Happily the massive perspex guard placed in front of the aircraft has been removed - sadly, they've removed her pitot probe instead. Personally I'd say if you couldn't see that probe, you deserve to get a smack in the head anyway, and removing pieces of exhibits to stop idiots walking into them is about as poor a policy decision as any museum could possibly make bar needlessly scrapping an exhibit. Hmmm I wonder which museum has done that sort of thing? Information current as of 08/03/2003.

British Aerospace were the last users of the Lightning, and they have preserved one of them at their plant at Warton in Lancashire. F.6 XS928 was preserved for crew escape procedure training purposes and BAe fund the North West Heritage Group who ensure that the aircraft is looked after. The aircraft will is now on display within BAe Warton - and unfortunately she's not visible to the general public.

F.6 XS929 at RAF Akrotiri, 5th June 1998; Shaun Waite	F.6 XS936 at Castle Motors, May 2001; Garry Lakin

Here's another F.6, this one being XS929. One of two gate guards at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus (the other being a Whirlwind), she's in great shape by the looks of the picture, but is lacking a pitot probe. Lightnings regularly deployed to Cyprus, particularly for armament practice camps where they would use the good weather to practice their gunner skills on towed banner targets.

Now XS936; an F.6 seen here with the Castle Motors logo on the fin. She's to be found at the Castle Motors garage near Liskeard in Cornwall and is very much out in the rain but looks none the worse for it. I dare say she's been sealed against water and as she has no engines in her the stress on the airframe is much less anyway, which always helps. Positioned in a flying pose, the adjacent A38 road even has a 'Low flying aircraft' sign just before you reach the turnoff for the garage... for the helicopter charter operation there, sadly not for the Lightning!

F.53 53-415 at Al Jaber AFB along with 53-416 and 53-417, Kuwait, June 1995; Roy Hauer	F.53 53-418 at Kuwait City, April 1999; Kieran Maher

Now a trio of Kuwaiti Lightnings. These three F.53s (53-415, 416 and 417) are mounted in vic formation on poles at the Al Jaber Royal Kuwaiti Air Force Base. Though thankfully surviving the attentions of Saddam Hussein's military, the Lightnings are in pretty poor condition and have received little attention over the last few years. Part of the reason for this is that some areas of the base have still not been certified as being clear of unexploded ordnance - when Roy was there even some of the 'clean' areas had cluster bomblets lying around on them!

A previously unrecorded Lightning survivor is 53-418, pictured here at Kuwait's Educational Science Museum. She looks to be in good nick though lacks a nose probe and the canopy is completely clouded over.

F.53 53-422 at Ali Al Salem, 2001; Les Turner via Garry Lakin	F.53 53-423 at Ali Al Salem, 2001; Les Turner via Garry Lakin

One of two gate guards at the Ali Al Salem air force base in Kuwait, 53-422 is displayed on a hillock with gear retracted, and looks somewhat tired. The desert sun has done her no favours, and the canopy is completely clouded over.

Second of the two gate guards at the Ali Al Salem air force base in Kuwait, 53-423 is displayed differently to her sister-ship - gear down and mounted on blocks. She's in a similar state but from the looks of the fin flash her markings at least have received a recent touch-up.