I was taken to the Farnborough air show when I was about 10 and watched a squadron of three Electric Lightnings performing for the huge crowd. I seem to recollect they had taken off from Lossiemouth yet were with us in less than thirty minutes over the field. This was very hard for me to process at the time when I was told that was about 500 miles.
Two more things seriously impressed me. As they flew past, almost silently floating by, I thought how quiet they were, and then just after that thought, the ear splitting roar as the sound arrived after the squadron had left. Incredible and never forgotten. I think that manoeuvre is now banned unfortunately. On the return flypast (just as fast), we were told they would now climb to 50,000 feet. They just stood on their tails and went through the cloud cover vertically, which being quite low cloud on the day, they vanished in seconds. I dreamed of being a fighter pilot for many years after that.
Castle Motors just west of Plymouth on the A38 has one of these amazing machines on display in their car courtyard. Lots of nice overpriced cars there to ogle as well as the plane.
