and is still one of (if not 'the') fastest climbing aircraft ever built.
MiG25, 0-20000m in 2 min 49.8 sec, 0-25000m in 3 min 12.6 sec and 0-30000m in 4 min 3.86 sec...
Sani, you are talking about an aircraft that took its first flight over 10 years after the Lightning. A whole different generation of fighter (unless you are saying that a Mig25 against a Mig21 is a match?) Even then, a Lightning could reach 36,000 ft- from a stand still- in less than 3 minutes and maintain a 20,000 ft per minute climb rate- for an aircraft that first flew in 1954 and became operational in 1959, that is truly spectacular.
In British Airways trials in April 1985, Concorde was offered as a target to NATO fighters including F-15 Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-14 Tomcats, Mirages, F-104 Starfighters - but only Lightning XR749, flown by Mike Hale and described by him as "a very hot ship, even for a Lightning", managed to overtake Concorde on a stern conversion intercept. Its turn performance and buffet boundaries were well in advance of anything known to him, the Mirage III included.
Roland Beamont (Lightning development-programme chief test pilot and WWII fighter ace), after flying most of the second-generation "Century series" US fighters of that era, made it clear that in his opinion, nothing at that time had the inherent stability and control and docile handling characteristics of the P 1 series prototypes and Lightning derivatives throughout the full flight envelope.This remained so right up until the next generation of fighter/interceptors was developed worldwide, with underbelly intakes and straked leading edges, or canards.
The late Brian Carroll, a former RAF Lightning pilot and ex-Lightning Chief Examiner, reported taking a Lightning F.53 up to 87,300 feet (26 600 m) over Saudi Arabia at which level "Earth curvature was visible and the sky was quite dark"
In 1984, during a major NATO exercise, Flt Lt Mike Hale intercepted an American U-2 at a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Records show that Hale climbed to 88,000 ft (26,800 m) in his Lightning F.3 XR749.
Im not saying it was the best aircraft ever built, and it had its limitations, but it cannot be written off with a simple "erm, No"
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Topic: mig 21 opponent (Read 19681 times)
