History

The Lightning was a high performance supersonic interceptor designed to defend Britain against nuclear armed bombers. They began entering service in 1960 and were phased out between 1974 and June 1988.

The Lightning F.3 was a development of earlier versions of the Lightning. It had improved radar, more powerful engines and could be armed with the new Red Top missiles, but its cannon armament was removed.

As a result of the more powerful engines it was given a larger, clipped tail, making it the highest performance version of the Lightning.

The first F.3 flew on 16 June 1962 and 70 were manufactured.

The F.3 had a short service life due to British defence spending cut backs and replacement by the more advanced Lightning F.6s.

This model represents Lightning F.3 XP749 of 11 Squadron, RAF, at Binbrook in May 1984.

Trumpeter 1/72 kit with Modeldecals completed by Leigh Edmonds in March 2015,

Data

MODEL: BAC Lightning F.3 (XP749, 11 Squadron RAF, 1984)

ROLE: supersonic all-weather interceptor

TIME PERIOD: 1962-1980s

ENGINES: two Rolls Royce Avon 301R Series 300 turbojet engines of 7,420kg reheat thrust each

WING SPAN: 10.62m

LENGTH: 16.84m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 18,182kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 2,412km/h

CREW: 1

ARMAMENT: two Firestreak or Red Top missiles

SCALE: 1/72

KIT:

GALLERIES:

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