Welcome back mate!” beams Scott McPhee of the Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire-based Lightning Preservation Group (LPG). “It’s good to be back!” I reply as I walk through the door of the group’s famed Q-shed housing its two still radical-looking F.6 variants of the English Electric icon as the sweet smell of jet fuel and WD-40 fills the air. It’s November 12, 2022 – almost three years to the day since I last saw them. Looking across at the dormant slab-sided fighters he adds: “A lot’s changed since you were last here.”
He isn’t wrong…