Just picked my matchbox lightning t55 up from the post office. Yet more nostalgia for me. I will have to look very carefully at where I can put pylons on it and not overload the wings, as I want to retain the IFR probe on it. It could be a weapons test aircraft, like the meteor NF14 I am doing, or a strike aircraft about to be sent to Malaysia/Borneo in 1964.
Chris
Saudi T53s had a wing pylon outboard of the u/c bay with quite a high rating: 1000lb bomb or 2x MATRA pods at least. Aeroelasticity might be an issue with something long and finned like a missile though.
They also proposed (cleared?) the overwing drop tank pylons for twin MATRA JL-100 rocket+fuel pods on each one. As the Jaguar had proved, Sidewinders will fire just fine from overwing pylons and the position has good 'look-up' into a turn for IR weapons, so this looks like a definite possibility for extra AAMs.
BAC put forward many schemes for advanced Lightnings based on 'T55s' (i.e. two-seaters with the long belly tank) or two-seaters with an even longer belly tank that covered the normal missile pack position. Many of these had fuel in the front and back of the tank (no guns) and a removeable weapon pod in the middle of it that could take retractable rocket packs, conformal bombs (including a tac-nuke) or pylons for bombs, rocket-pods or ASMs. Clearance with the undercarriage legs and the ground is the main limitation.
Alleycat do the wing pylons IIRC, and Freightdog do a slightly different belly-pack with pylons conversion, originally proposed as a ground-attack conversion for the RAFG F.2As.
