English Electric Lightning - Notable Appearances

Notable Appearances

• British journalist and TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson borrowed a Lightning (serial XM172) which was temporarily placed in his garden and documented on Clarkson's TV show Speed.
• Professor Brian Cox uses one of the South African Lightnings (XS451) in his "Wonders of the Solar System" BBC TV programme - episode 3 of 5, "The Thin Blue Line". The broadcast features a "vertical" ascent, and allows the Professor to show the curvature of the Earth and the relative dimensions of the atmosphere. More than five minutes of the episode are devoted to the Lightning, with a large number of close-ups. Coincidentally, this was the aircraft that crashed only about a month later at the Overberg Airshow, after developing mechanical problems.
• British author Jan Mark's children's book Thunder and Lightnings (1976) tells the story of two boys living near RAF Coltishall in Norfolk, who share an interest in aeroplanes, at the time when the RAF is phasing out its Lightning fighters and introducing the Jaguar.
• An old, destroyed Lightning, now used for target practice on a Northumberland military range, is featured on the cover of the Suede album Sci-Fi Lullabies.
• A haunted Lightning, previously attached to a fictional 666 Squadron and was officially listed as destroyed, is kept at the aircraft museum at RAF Cosford in the Charles Stross novel The Fuller Memorandum.