(Image: Tim Marshall, reproduced with permission)

When the Cold War ended, an eerie silence gripped the Lincolnshire Wolds for the first time since World War Two.  RAF Binbrook was opened as a Bomber Command station in June 1940, and in its best known role operated the supersonic English Electric Lightning fighter from 1965 until 1988.  Deactivated when the last operational Lightnings were withdrawn from service, Binbrook is now an industrial estate but looks more like a military ghost town.  This atmospheric image shows RAF Binbrook’s last Lightning standing on what used to be the main flight line, as the sun sets beyond the former runways.  The aircraft, serial number XR724, is looked after by The Lightning Association, while another Lightning can be found in a garden in the local village.