A 16-year-old girl has rolled up her sleeves and broken out the elbow grease to help her grandad bring a legendary Cold War-era fighter jet back to life.
Grace Johnson, from Grimsby, has been working to restore the Lightning XR724 at the former Binbrook station near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire alongside her grandfather, Chris Johnson.
Chris, a former RAF engineer, started his career at the Lincolnshire site at the age of 18 and found himself working on Lightnings within five years.
Grace began visiting the historic aircraft with her grandad in 2021 and is now hands-on with the maintenance as part of the Lightning Association.
She told the BBC: “We’re trying to get her back to how she used to look, how she used to run, back when she was operating.
“There’s a lot of 16-year-olds who won’t have even touched a Lightning or seen one. Just to have that experience is really great.”
A few weeks ago, Grace was sent down into the aircraft for maintenance on one of the engines, which she described as “magical”.
She added: “You can’t drop anything, otherwise it would go into the engine and it would ruin it…I was really scared to go in at first, but then I got in and it was fine. I really wanted to try it because, who, at 16 years old, could say ‘I’ve been inside of an intake in a Lightning?'”
‘Who, at 16 years old, could say “I’ve been inside of an intake in a Lightning?”‘ Grace said
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Chris was inspired to join the project after seeing the aircraft outside the base in 2019, describing it as “looking a bit sorry for itself”.
The 64-year-old said: “Five years down the line, the aircraft is looking really good.”
Lightning XR724 first flew at the height of the Cold War on February 10, 1965, and was used to perform the quick reaction alert (QRA) role during the 60s. In 1991, the aircraft was retired.
Grace working on the legendary aircraft
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Chris said: “It was scrambled very quickly, any time of the day or night, and would intercept aircraft and escort them out of the airspace.”
The craft was inspiring to Grace, who said: “I saw it run and it was quite cool… I started to get really interested in it. It is nice just to get out and just do something with him… whenever I go to his, he’s showing me videos of what it [wartime] was like.
“He’s taught me a lot about it and that’s made me quite interested in it.”
Now, Grace says she is interested in joining BAE Systems, a multinational aerospace, arms and information security company or the RAF.
Grace went inside the engine of the aircraft
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Since its retirement, the craft has undergone multiple public runs with support from former motorcycle racer and presenter Guy Martin.
Chris said: “It’s nostalgic for me as I worked on it as a young airman from 18 to 23 and I’m now passing on some knowledge and some interest to my granddaughter.”
Grace added: “I know I wasn’t there when it flew back into Binbrook and when the Lightning was actually operating.
“But it wasn’t too long ago that it wasn’t this great – it was just old, really rusty. But to see it like this, it’s great. It’s a lot better.”