P1B March Newsletter

Update on P1B

Now winter’s impudent fingers have finally loosed their grip on the coldest season. It’s full steam, or full reheat, to get XA847 display ready.

The exciting news is we found a genuine missing part that fits the jigsaw. It might be one small panel for man, but it’s one giant leap (panel) for Project P1B.

For all the geeks this is a riveting paragraph. For all of you who are not geeks, go and put the kettle on and fast forward a few paragraphs!

Have you ever thought how the nose wheel is fitted to the Lightning? No, well neither had I, and frankly it wasn’t on my bucket list, but it’s all part of the story.

The nose wheel is a heavy lump made by Dowty Rotol and, unlike other fighters, it’s a self-casting unit – that means a Lightning doesn’t have nose wheel steering. And unlike other types, the nose wheel retracts forward into the well and is closed by three doors.

Now this has an advantage – it can’t fold back accidentally – but it also has a disadvantage. To fold forward it has to use hydraulic pressure to move it and then mechanically lock it up.

Now if the Lightning is famous for one thing, it’s acceleration. So as you rotate and get airborne around 165 Kts and the twin Avons are in full reheat, it’s only a nano second before you hit 200 Kts and you need to get a wiggle on to raise the Dunlops (a cute term for putting the gear up.)

As you get airborne it’s very tempting to move your hand off the throttles and select gear up and simultaneously select flap up – no one likes a lot of flap unless you are in a sticky spot...

This in test pilot speak has a side effect. As the centre of pressure moves aft you have to be very, very careful not to keep pulling the stick back as you part company with the ground. I’ll explain...