Austin Seven & English Electric Lightening

[john williams]

Harry Hales showed me photo of him working on the front equipment of a lightening in his RAF days. He related that while attending a training course on the this equipment,{RADAR guidance} the subject was considered so secret, he and the rest of the course were not allowed to remove the course training documents from the training room.

[Lowlevelandfast]

This was true or more like fxck this goes !

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Not true the tyres would last longer , depending on how you dumped it on the runway!
Usually they lasted 10+ landings , they were at 200psi and could not be remoulded like other aircraft tyres

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Yes true but fuel was the always the issue unless you tanked midair.The U2 was intercepted at circa 85,000ft

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This is prevent the ingress of FOD ( Foreign object damage) and prevent birds from nesting ...true.

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This is an early F1a Lightning

[Bob Culver]

I have not met anyone brought up on a Seven who was not a capable driver. Maybe they used the car for aptitude testing.
I saw a visiting Oz Mirage? demonstrate the vertical climb a here in the early 90s. After driving a Seven up hills, very impressive.
The hp arithmetic an interesting exercise.

[Mark Atkinson]

Hello Stuart,

I hope that the following may help narrow down the cars history, indeed, perhaps the RR heritage people will know the cars story:

This aircraft XA856 and was one of the Lightning aerodynamic prototypes, a P1B. She was flown by J Heyworth, the chap in the white flying suit, from wha is now BAE Warton to the RR flight test establishment at Hucknall on 24th March 1958. RR used he for Avon development work until she did her last flight in March 1967. Alas, thou offered to Newark Air Museum, they could not afford the transport costs so, as is the unsentimental way with industry, she was scraped in 68.

Regards, Mark.

[Jeff Taylor]

CN 5692 first registered in 1933 here in the far North East of England in Gateshead, County Durham (now within Tyne and Wear). Sadly it's neither on the DVLA database nor the A7CA Chassis Register. The original Gateshead Registration Records do still exist at The Kithead Trust, Droitwich Spa, Worcs.