After lift-off the take-off attitude is held, in visual or instrument conditions, to maintain the initial climb angle while

selecting undercarriage up. With undercarriage locked away, the climb attitude is reduced slightly at about 1,000ft. As speed builds up rapidly, a little nose-down trim is applied with the stick trim-switch. Autostabilizers may now be engaged (though they are not essential) and fine trimming is completed on all axes. At climbing speed the climb angle is resumed by a firm rotation, and this speed is held with i.a.s. reference until, with altitude rapidly increasing, climbing indicated Mach number is reached. Climb speed is thereafter controlled with reference to the Machmeter, still by use of tailplane with engines at maximum cold thrust or maximum reheat as required. Climb angle can easily exceed 40c at full power, and Mach 1.0 is exceeded during the push-over at the tropopause. In the climb the Lightning remains virtually in trim at the original settings and requires retrimming only on encountering the transonic trim-changes. As with all aircraft of this generation, reheat acceleration is made at the tropopause for either speed performance or supersonic energy climb performance. At maximum reheat the design limits arc quickly reached in level flight. Longitudinal trimming is easily taken care of by one or two "blips" of the trim-switch on the stick and, on most Lightnings, a small directional trim-change which occurs in transition to supersonic flight is taken out with one application of the rudder trimswitch.

Supersonic acceleration in maximum reheat is smooth and fast very fast indeed on a low-temperature day. Having accelerated to attack speed at the tropopause, one then has great flexibility in getting into an attacking position, particularly against fast targets, because of the Lightning's .high speed, good manoeuvrability and remarkable zoom-climb performance. Control response is very good at all speeds. Although damping of the long-period oscillation is slightly reduced above Mach. 1.0, stability and control are more than adequate even at Mach 2.0 without using the autostabilizers. With autostabilization, damping is virtually dead-beat on all axes throughout the flight envelope. At Mach 2.0, with the ram-air temperature at around 100'C and leading edges and windscreen structure heating up, cockpit conditions are maintained at a comfortable temperature, with a fresh and even air circulation. Noise-level is relatively low (even if the pilot is following the writer's occasional and reprehensible practice of wearing only an inner helmet without bone-dome). Altogether, with the pleasantly responsive controls and ease of accurate trimming, flight at Mach 2.0 in a Lightning is an enjoyable and undramatic experience. Even slow and fast rolling in this speed area is a simple matter of displacing the stick in the required direction, the aircraft responding accurately with little or no sideslip. As with all other aircraft of this performance, however, aerobatic manoeuvres at the higher speeds are associated with rate-of-roll and g limitations. Another control feature of importance to the pilot is that the