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The English Electric Lightning is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, remembered for its great speed and unpainted natural metal exterior finish. It is the only all-British Mach 2 fighter aircraft. The aircraft was renowned for its capabilities as an interceptor; RAF pilots described it as "being saddled to a skyrocket".[1] English Electric was later incorporated into the British Aircraft Corporation, later marks being developed and produced as the BAC Lightning. The Lightning was used throughout much of its service life by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force. The aircraft was a regular performer at airshows and was the first aircraft capable of supercruise. The Lightning was also one of the highest performance planes ever used in formation aerobatics. The Lightning aircraft is now largely retired to museums, but three examples still fly at "Thunder City" in Cape Town, South Africa.
[edit] Design and development The prototypes, known as P.1, were built to Ministry of Supply Operational Requirement ER.103 of 1947 for a transonic research aircraft. The first of the two P.1s WG760 flew for the first time from RAF Boscombe Down on 4 August 1954. It was soon realised that the aircraft should be regarded as a prototype fighter to satisfy the British Air Ministry's 1949 specification F23/49 rather than being research aircraft. This specification followed the cancellation of the Air Ministry's 1942 E.24/43 supersonic research aircraft specification which had resulted in the Miles M.52.[2] The Lightning shared a number of innovations first planned for the Miles M.52 including the shock cone and all-moving tailplane, the latter described by Chuck Yeager as the single most significant contribution to the final success of supersonic flight.[citation needed] The P.1's chief designer was W.E.W "Teddy" Petter, formerly chief designer at Westland Aircraft. The design was controversial and the Short SB5 was built to test wing sweep and tailplane combinations. The original combination was proved correct. The forerunner of the Lightning series was the P.1A and P.1B flying "proof-of-concept" aircraft. Looking very much like the production series, the prototypes were distinguished by the rounded-triangular intakes, short fins and lack of radar or operational equipment.[1] On 25 November 1958, the P.1B became the first British aircraft to fly at Mach 2.[1] The Lightning was designed as a point defence interceptor - essentially a guided missile-armed, air superiority fighter optimised to defend mainland Britain against bomber attacks. In order to reduce cross sectional area of the fuselage and improve performance, the fuel capacity was highly restricted. It was armed with two 30 mm ADEN cannons and two air-to-air missiles, at first the de Havilland Firestreak and later the Hawker Siddeley Red Top. A unique way of minimising the drag of the twin engine installation was put forward by Petter. This involved stacking the engines vertically (staggered to avoid too much weight aft, with the lower engine forward of the upper), effectively tucking them behind the cockpit, fed from the nose and achieving minimum frontal area. This effectively gave twice the thrust of its contemporaries for an increase in frontal area of only 50%. The dish antenna for the Ferranti AI23 AIRPASS: Airborne Interception Radar and Pilot Attack Sight System was mounted in the shock cone. Limitations of fuel capacity dominated this aircraft's design as its fuselage was nearly all engines and ducting, and thus could not hold any internal fuel. Hence all available other room was adapted to the purpose of holding fuel. The leading edge and flaps were even used as fuel tanks, and the landing gear had very narrow tyres that retracted outward so that there could be greater tankage inboard. This also meant that when the addition of drop tanks for greater range was considered, they could not be placed beneath the wing and were mounted on top instead. When the aerodynamic principle of the area rule became used in aircraft design, a ventral tank was added to the fuselage so the aircraft could carry more fuel while being more aerodynamic. In September 2008, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers conferred on the Lightning its "Engineering Heritage Award". Former pilots and engineers, who were involved with the plane during the 1950s and 1960s, gathered at the BAE Systems site at Warton Aerodrome to mark the engineering feat.[3] [edit] Operational history The first operational aircraft, a pre-production P.1B (XG336), arrived at RAF Coltishall in Norfolk in December 1959. From 1960 the production mark F1 served initially with 74 Squadron. An improved variant the F2 first flew on 11 July 1961 and entered service with 19 Squadron at the end of 1962. The F3 was first flown on 16 June 1962 and the longer-range F6 on 16 June 1965. The versions sold to Saudi Arabia were essentially similar to the T5 and F6 models in UK service and this final production batch reverted to the classic natural metal external finish which lasted well in the drier Arabian climate. During the 1960s, as strategic awareness increased and a multitude of alternative fighter designs were developed by Warsaw Pact and NATO members, the Lightning's shortcomings in terms of range and firepower became increasingly apparent. The withdrawal of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms from Royal Navy service enabled these slower but much longer-ranged aircraft to be added to the RAF's interceptor force alongside those withdrawn from Germany which were being replaced by SEPECAT Jaguars in the ground attack role. Later the Tornado F3s also arrived to defend UK airspace. While slower and less agile than the Lightning, the Tornado carries a much larger armament load and much more advanced avionics. Lightnings were slowly phased out of service between 1974 and 1988, although much testing and modification was needed to keep them in air-worthy condition due to the high number of flight hours accumulated.  The English Electric Lightning is credited with a single kill, ironically a British aircraft- a Harrier pilot ejected, but the pilotless aircraft continued to fly. The order was given to shoot down the aircraft and the Lightning achieved this successfully.[4] In their final years of UK service, all RAF Lightnings were based at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire and many were camouflaged to make them less conspicuous when flying at low level. They tended to defend the Flamborough Head Sector of airspace above the North Sea. These later aircraft were the single-seater F3 and F6 and the twin seat trainer variant T5, all constructed by British Aircraft Corporation and distinguished from earlier versions by their flat topped fins. In their last year of service their pilots regularly pushed the aircraft to their limits as they used up the remaining hours of fatigue time. Many Lightnings are conserved in museum collections where their clean sleek lines are evocative of the high speeds that they once attained. The Short SB5 and a P.1A are at the RAF Museum, Cosford. The Civil Aviation Authority refused a licence for the surviving airworthy examples to perform at air shows in the UK but there are three flying in South Africa (see Operators below). [edit] Performance The Lightning’s speed and climb performance were excellent not just by 1950s or 1960s standards but even compared with modern operational fighters. Its initial rate of climb was 50,000 ft per minute (15 km/min). The contemporary Mirage IIIE climbed initially at 30,000 ft/min (9 km/min), the MiG-21 managed 36,090 ft/min (11 km/min). The recent Tornado F3 does 43,000 ft/min (13 km/min). The Lightning could, using re-heat (afterburner), reach FL 360 (nominally 36,000 ft) in 2.5 minutes.[5][6] The official ceiling was a secret to the general public and low security RAF documents simply stated 60,000+ ft (18 000+ m), although it was well known within the RAF to be capable of much greater heights; the official maximum altitude mainly being determined by cockpit pressurisation reliability and safety. In September 1962 Fighter Command organized a series of trial supersonic overland interceptions of Lockheed U-2As, temporarily based at RAF Upper Heyford to monitor resumed Soviet nuclear tests, at heights of around 60,000-65,000 ft.[7][8] The trials took place in two stages, the second series consisting of 14 interceptions, including four successful and four abortive ones at 65,000.[9] The late Brian Carroll, a former RAF Lightning pilot and ex-Lightning Chief Examiner, reported taking a Lightning F53 up to 87,300 feet (26 600 m) over Saudi Arabia at which level "Earth curvature was visible and the sky was quite dark" but control-wise it was "on a knife edge".[10] In 1984, during a major NATO exercise, Flt Lt Mike Hale intercepted an American U-2 at a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Records show that Hale climbed to 88,000 ft (26,800 m) in his Lightning F3 XR749. This was not sustained level flight, but in a ballistic climb or a zoom climb, in which the pilot takes the aircraft to top speed and than puts the aircraft into a climb, trading speed for altitude. The normal service ceiling for this aircraft was 60,000 feet in level flight. Hale also participated in time-to-height and acceleration trials against F-104 Starfighters from Aalborg. He reports that the Lightnings won all races easily with the exception of the low level supersonic acceleration, which was a "dead heat".[11] Subsequently, in 1959, a specially prepared F-104 broke the world altitude record, reaching 103,395 ft using a zoom climb and an auxiliary rocket for additional power. Carroll reports in a side-by-side comparison of the Lightning and the F-15C Eagle (which he also flew) that "acceleration in both was impressive, you have all seen the Lightning leap away once brakes are released, the Eagle was almost as good, and climb speed was rapidly achieved. Takeoff roll is between 2,000 and 3,000 ft [600 to 900 m], depending upon military or maximum afterburner-powered takeoff. The Lightning was quicker off the ground, reaching 50 ft [15 m] height in a horizontal distance of 1,630 feet [500m]". In British Airways trials in April 1985, Concorde was offered as a target to NATO fighters including F-15s, F-16s, F-14s, Mirages, F-104s - but only Lightning XR749, flown by Mike Hale and described by him as "a very hot ship, even for a Lightning", managed to overtake Concorde on a stern conversion intercept.[11] The XR749 now resides at the entrance of Score Group plc's gas turbine testing and servicing facility in Peterhead, Scotland. Despite its acceleration, altitude and top speed, the Lightning found itself outclassed by newer fighters in terms of radar, avionics, weapons load, range, and air-to-air capability. More of a problem was the obsolete avionics and weapons fit, particularly the 30 mile (very short) range 1950s radar sets: the avionics were never upgraded in RAF service since Lightnings were always supposedly just about to be replaced by something better. Roland Beamont (Lightning development-programme chief test pilot), after flying most of the 2nd Generation Century series US fighters of that era, made it clear that in his opinion, nothing at that time had the inherent stability and control and docile handling characteristics of the P1 series prototypes and Lightning derivatives throughout the full flight envelope. Its turn performance and buffet boundaries were well in advance of anything known to him, the Mirage 1 included[12]. This remained so right up until the next generation of fighter/interceptors was developed worldwide, with underbelly intakes and straked leading edges, or canards. [edit] Variants  
Total production was 277 single-seat fighters and 52 two-seater trainers, including RAF and export aircraft. [edit] Operators[edit] Military operators
[edit] Civil operators
A Lightning T5, XS451 (civil registration ZU-BEX) belonging to Thunder City crashed after developing mechanical problems during its display at the biennial South African Air Force Overberg Airshow held at AFB Overberg near Bredasdorp on 14 November 2009.[15] The Silver Falcons, the SA Air Force's official aerobatic team, flew a missing man formation after it was announced that the pilot, Dave Stock, had died in the crash.[16]
[edit] Aircraft on display  The following aircraft are on public display:
[edit] Specifications (Lightning F6) General characteristics
Performance
Armament
[edit] Popular culture
[edit] See alsoRelated development Comparable aircraft Related lists [edit] References[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
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