English Electric Lightning
English Electric's Mach 2 interceptor, developed from the P.1 research aircraft: the interim P.1A flew in August 1954 and the P.1B fighter prototype on 4 April 1957, with production later taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation. Its two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets were stacked one above the other in a slim fuselage, and its radar, missiles and cannon were developed as one weapon system. The Lightning equipped nine RAF frontline squadrons from 1960 to 1988, was exported to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and 337 were built including prototypes.
Why It Mattered
The Lightning was Britain's first supersonic fighter able to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, and Vintage Aviation News notes that no other aircraft of its kind was designed and built wholly in the United Kingdom. It grew out of the P.1 research programme: the interim P.1A went supersonic on its first flight in August 1954, the first British aeroplane to do so. The P.1B fighter prototype followed on 4 April 1957, and the production Lightning then guarded British airspace for nearly three decades, entering RAF service in 1960 and remaining in frontline use until 1988. Air & Space Forces Magazine called it the first British aeroplane treated as a complete weapon system, its radar, armament and airframe developed as one integrated design.
Design Notes
The Lightning was conceived by W. E. W. Petter and designed through development by F. W. Page at English Electric. Its two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets were mounted one above the other, staggered fore and aft, a stack that kept the fuselage narrow for the thrust it produced. The untapered wing was swept at sixty degrees, with saw cuts designed into its leading edges to aid the airflow. In the nose sat the scanner of Ferranti's Airpass system, an airborne interception radar and pilot's attack sight system developed alongside the aircraft itself. Armament paired guided missiles with 30 mm Aden cannon, integrated with the radar and the aircraft's flight and engine systems rather than carried as separate equipment. A two-seat version, designated the P-11, flew in May 1959 as an operational trainer; its seats sat side by side and it retained the single-seater's full combat capabilities.
Operational History
Three P.1B prototypes were ordered, followed almost immediately by twenty fully equipped pre-production aircraft, each used to develop a particular part of the interception task. The production Lightning entered frontline squadron service on 11 July 1960 with No. 74 Squadron at Coltishall. In RAF service it equipped nine frontline squadrons and defended United Kingdom airspace throughout the Cold War. Production passed 300 aircraft: the early F.1, F.1A and F.2 marks, the improved F.3 family, the longer-range F.6, two-seat trainers and export versions; Wikipedia's count, which includes the prototypes, is 337. Exports went to two air forces: Saudi Arabia ordered 34 multirole F.53s and six T.55 trainers in December 1965, and Kuwait ordered 14 Lightnings in December 1966. Kuwait replaced its aircraft with Mirage F1s in 1977, while Saudi Arabia's remaining flyable Lightnings were traded back to British Aerospace in 1985 under the Tornado purchase agreement. The RAF retired the type on 30 April 1988, closing nearly three decades of frontline service.
Afterlife
Surviving Lightnings are spread across British museums and airfields, ranging from gate guardians to carefully preserved collection aircraft, many maintained by dedicated enthusiasts. The RAF Museum holds both ends of the development story: WG760, one of the two P.1A technology demonstrators, and XG337, the last of the twenty pre-production aircraft, both at its Midlands site. Most of the ex-Saudi aircraft traded in during 1985 were ultimately scrapped or preserved in museums and static displays after resale offers came to nothing. A small number flew on in private hands in South Africa, where Thunder City operated three at Cape Town; one of its T.5s flew again in January 2014 and is reported to be the only airworthy Lightning, though another Thunder City T.5 crashed at an airshow in November 2009, killing its pilot.