Max Waldron describes the preparation of a Lightning for a new lease of life as a display airframe


Once the vanguard of the UK air defence network, English Electric Lightning F.3 XP745 is now tucked away in a warehouse in Greenford, London. Appropriately, it is owned by removals and storage specialist Vanguard, a company founded in 1964, the year in which XP745 was built. The airframe has been out of the public eye for many years, but things are changing and XP745 is about to enter a far more prominent position of display after many years in the dark.