Hi all......Found this very rear interview from BBC radio ( on Youtube ) with Wg Cdr 'Taffy' Holden he talks about his big day out with Lightning XM135, back in 1966. As you all known '135' is at Duxford snice 1974. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKFYaXDivs&feature=relatedIt all started when XM135 had a wiring loom changed in its electrical utility system (generation) as part of a more major overhaul. The replacement loom came from a flight test aircraft, at high engine power levels and "brakes off", both the engine generator dolls eyes indicators would drop out supposedly indicating a double generator failure. The problem had first showed up on the post overhaul test flight and had necessitated a priority landing at Lyneham due to suspected total electrical generation failure. A team from the support unit were dispatched to recover the aircraft. Two attempts where made to resolve the problem, both times the test pilot (Bob Turbin) drove some distance only to conduct a high speed abort when the problem reappeared. By this time the test pilot was getting a bit cheesed off and said that he would only make another attempt when the problem was unquestionably solved. Hence intrepid engineering officer "Taffy" Holden found himself performing high speed taxi tests.
Taffy had to carry out a series of high power taxi acceleration tests to simulate the forces imposed during a take off roll as that was the time where the electrical fault manifested itself. The thrust lever on the Lightning can control both engines and when pushed fully forward can be made to go through a gate which in doing so activates the After-Burners (Re-heat). On Taffy's last run, this is what he inadvertently did. The speed of the taxing aircraft with both engines in after-burn built up very quickly while he struggled to remember how to dis-engage the after-burners, (a pair of piano like keys have to be depressed while retarding the throttle).
After a few seconds he observed a fuel tanker crossing the intersection on the taxiway that the Lightning was using, he figured that he would not be able to avoid the tanker an so the only option left to him was to lift the aircraft off the ground.
Taffy was a ground engineering officer and although he had been trained to fly Tiger Moths and Harvards he had never flown a jet let alone a Lightning!
In W/Cdr Holdens own words about after the incident;
"XM 135 was towed back to the hangar and I was taken to see the medical officer who gave me some pills to calm my nerves. I felt reasonably calm because I had almost killed myself on five occasions in that 12 minute flight, yet I had miraculously survived. What is more, I would see my wife and young family again. Two or three times in that same 12 minutes, I thought I would never ever see them again. My only priority was to save my own skin, I was not thinking about the non insured loss of a Lightning Mk 1A aircraft. The minor damage to the aircraft was repaired with a new set of brake shoes and a new rubber chute block. As a memento, I have kept that rubber block, one day it might be returned to XM135 at Duxford.
The Fault
Although the tests I did and the ensuing flight did not immediately provide a reason for the initial electrical fault, my electrical staff, with additional assistance from English Electric, Salmesbury eventually did. Apparently, in early versions of the Lightning, there was to be a ground test button fitted into the standby inverter circuit. It was never fitted to the Mk1A but the wires were left in the looms. It was one of these redundant wires which shorted on to the UHF radio as it moved on its trunnions when the aircraft nudged forward on take off. Who would have thought I should risk my life to find it, in the way I did?"
BBC radio interview with John Dunn.
