The English Electric Lightning

The finest British post war fighter

There are only really a few aircraft that have been so instantly recognisable when apprehended in the skies above this country. The Spitfire and Hurricane are two of them and the Lancaster is another, but strictly in terms of jet aircraft, the title for instant recognition must go to the English Electric Lightning when it still flew during its service life.

I recently reviewed this venerable Airfix kit, one which I will build as I edge towards a collection of BAC aircraft. You can find that review here:

I have acquired a number of resin kit upgrades to this model which I firmly believe will significantly enhance the look of the finished project. I have the cockpit, the shock cone/ intake channel and the undercarriage wells. In fact I think, everything that would be more or less immediately noticeable on a finished build. I think that it is worth the additional expense on a kit that seems to be out of production right now. I am minded to create a slightly more detailed build video series of this kit and hope that this will be of interest to those who tune in to my on screen perambulations.

Manufactured by the BAC consortium, but marketed under the original “English Electric” name, the Lightning was first designated P1. The P1 arose from the ashes of specification E24/43 around which the Miles M52 was so nearly developed towards the end of the second world war. The need for a supersonic interceptor aircraft was well recognised even then and new specifications were issued that challenged the British aircraft industry to produce an answer.

English Electric’s reputation is prodigious- the Canberra saw service around the world for more than forty years, (NASA still operate a variant to this day). It seems that no aircraft has so far seen service for longer. The TSR2 was developed to a point where it started to show some of its quality before it was cancelled. The expertise marshalled within EE was clearly world class.

Additionally, English Electric had an excellent reputation for high quality manufacturing and produced other aircraft under license in addition to designing its own output. For example it built around 1/3 of all of the Handley Page Hampden fleet as well as a significant volume of Halifax bombers together with numbers of Vampire fighters over a period of 12 years between 1940 and 1952.

Despite the recognition that there was a need for a “transonic” fighter aircraft, the project that resulted in the Lightning took around 12 years to come to fruition. The earliest known diagram of what might be called a precursor to the Lighting is from 1948 and shows an aircraft with somewhat swept wings, a “T” tail setup and a cockpit set towards the very front of the aircraft. It does not really look like the P1 at all. Within a very short period, (weeks in fact) several other diagrams were created which would indicate that significant work was being undertaken, some of which appears to have happened even before the award of a development contract. In those days this sort of design activity before contract award was quite regularly done. Aircraft makers were in competition and wanted to gain advantage over potential adversaries which in those days were numerous. Given the potential profits to be made on the sale of aircraft for the armed services, money spent in developing for a contract in this way was considered cash well spent. Speculative activity of this kind would often be recouped in orders placed by the government.

The subsequent suggested variants involved designs with one, two and even three engines, some with a “V” shaped tail arrangement which included small stabilising elements at the extreme ends of the fins sometimes known as a “butterfly tail.” All were abandoned in favour of the eventual final design which incorporated the P1 open nose intake, mid mounted wing with a 60 degree sweep back, large delta shaped vertical stabiliser and the horizontal tail plane being set below the mainplane rather than above it. The upper position of the tailplane was abandoned as it was seen in wind tunnel tests that the sweepback of the mainplane would critically interfere with airflow over the tail section in some circumstances.

As an aside, it is a great pity that the Gloster Aircraft Company did not establish the drawbacks of a high horizontal tail stabiliser (in delta and high wing sweepback aircraft) when they were developing the Javelin. After coming into service in 1956 with the RAF, the high tail plane configuration was found to be dangerous in some areas of the flight envelope- particularly in a phenomenon known as deep stall. Steps were taken to ensure that the aircraft was not flown at high angles of attack with the flaps down but sadly, deep stall cost the life of pilot Peter Lawrence. I salute his bravery in fighting to regain control of his aircraft to the very end.

At the early stages, the Lightning nose section was not as we see it today- that was to arrive a little later during the processes undertaken to enhance performance. The familiar “shock” cone arrangement appeared on the P1B variant and brought about an improvement to supersonic performance, moving top speed from Mach 1.56 to Mach 1.68 which came about despite an increase in weight. A further point on the plus side of the equation was that the cone provided a very convenient place to house the required gun ranging radar. The sharp eyed will note also that the P1B also introduced the bubble canopy which allows better all around vision- a huge advantage when dogfighting. This new set up also provided for a choice of additional armaments- up to four canons, but an option as well for two guns and two Bluejay missiles. Clearly an improvement with much value.

It is notable that the test pilot to fly the Canberra, Lighting and The TSR2 was none other than Roland Beamont and he was involved in the EE P1 project from a very early stage. It would also appear that he was viewed by the Ministry of Supply as an inexperienced test pilot at that stage and accordingly they suggested that the test flights be carried out by experts from the RAE. It would seem that Roland had an ally in AVM Geoffrey Tuttle who wrote to the MoS telling them that “you will know that the ace of aces on delta aircraft from RAE was sent down to fly the Javelin. He was such an expert that he crashed it.” An unequivocal response you might say. Tuttle did however suggest that test flights be carried out at Boscombe Down which seems to have quelled the objection to Roland Beamont somewhat.

The P1 first took to the air (at the hands of Roland Beamont) in August 1954- exactly seventy years ago as of the writing of this piece. The original aircraft used Armstrong Sapphire engines with no reheat and, despite that, the P1 exceeded mach 1 in level flight on its third sortie- the first British aircraft to do so. The Armstrong Sapphire engines were replaced with Rolls Royce Avon units in the P1B, but both engine types gave problems- engine fire warnings were chief amongst them. The “one above the other” engine arrangement, unique amongst jet aircraft as far as I am aware, introduced many maintenance issues throughout the life of the fighter in addition to presenting fire hazards from fuel and hydraulic lines being arranged so close to a pair of hot engines.

Also (and the subject of much merriment on the part of Punch magazine) was the unscheduled loss of cockpit canopies. One incident was at in excess of mach 1 making the pilot, (a gentleman called De Villiers) the fastest open cockpit pilot in the world- a record I believe he holds to this day.

In 1960 the Lightning, as it had then become known, finally entered service with number 74 squadron at RAF Coltishall. Developments followed on a regular basis throughout Lightning’s life, essentially up the F.6 variant. There was a later trainer, the T.55 and you may reference all of the variants here:

https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/history.php

The payoff for English Electric/ BAC was that the result of their work created an interceptor fighter that was in service for twenty eight years; an excellent record by any measure. Even more so when one considers that the expected life span for the aircraft was ten years! Some records set by the Lighting have yet to be surpassed to this day which is a further tribute to the attention to detail of Teddy Petter and his team at English Electric.

No Lightning aircraft now fly although there are still some operating aircraft that undertake what are known as “fast taxi” runs. Thunder city in South Africa flew the last one to be operated up until 2009. It was in a two seater trainer variant (T.5 originally designated XS451) that Brian Cox climbed to 60,000 feet alongside test pilot Dave Stock who flew the aircraft. Brian captured this adventure on film for his series “Wonders of the Solar System.” At this altitude it is possible to see two remarkable things- the so called “thin blue line,” (our atmosphere) and also the curvature of the earth. It is most unfortunate that Dave perished in XS451 at an airshow not long afterwards following a hydraulic failure and a failed attempt to eject from the stricken Lightning.

Thunder City ceased operations shortly after this incident and its fleet of aircraft were grounded. The owner, Mike Beachy-Head died suddenly in 2017 and the aircraft remaining in the collection were then sold on. Some are under restoration, but it unlikely that the remaining two lightnings will ever fly again. In actual fact a pair of Lightning undercarriage wheels were sold to the Thrust SSC project for use on their supersonic car.

So it is that iconic aircraft fade somewhat from public view. Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters and all manner of other vintage aircraft still fly, but those that were (and to some extent, still are) at the very edge of the operational envelope are, (for sound reasons) one by one barred from flying. Examples remain in museums and also model companies and modellers play their part in preserving both the reality and the mystique that surround so many aircraft produced in what has become known as “the new Elizabethan era.” This was a time when the British Aircraft industry was at its very zenith, a height not really reached since that time.

There is a possibility that the British Aircraft industry may again aspire towards the dizzy heights of cutting edge fighters in the form of the new Tempest, but much depends upon the government of the day. Developing cutting edge fighting machines is very, very costly and sadly the Labour Party who have recently assumed the reins of power in the UK have a poor record for supporting the armed services and more importantly the development of new technology for defence. It is a short sighted view indeed that seeks to reduce defence spending when the world is currently a more dangerous place.

If the new Tempest enters service, then the British aircraft industry will have continued a in magnificent tradition and scale modellers will have another British aircraft to look forward to. We can only hope…