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The prototype, known as the English Electric P.1, was built to satisfy the British Air Ministry's specification coded F23/49 and flew for the first time from RAF Boscombe Down on 4th August 1954. The designer was W.E.W. Petter, formerly chief designer at Westland Aircraft. Limitations of fuel capacity dominated this aircraft's design particulars, for unlike other fighters, its fuselage was nearly all engines and ducting, and thus could not hold much fuel. Hence all available room was adapted to the purpose of holding fuel. The 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 so are on top. When the aerodynamic principle of the area rule became standard practice, a ventral tank was added to the fuselage, so the plane could carry more fuel while being more aerodynamic. The first operational aircraft, a mark F.1, arrived at Coltishall in Norfolk in December 1959. It served initially with 74 Squadron. 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 during the 1960s. The withdrawal of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms from Royal Navy service enabled these longer range aircraft to be transferred to the RAF and more efficient Panavia Tornados also arrived to defend UK airspace. Lightnings were therefore slowly phased out of front-line service between 1974 and 1989. In their final years of UK service all RAF Lightnings were based at 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 F.3 and F.6 and the twin seat trainer variants T.4 and T.5, all constructed by British Aerospace and distinguished from earlier versions by their flat topped fins. The F.3 was first flown on 16th June 1962 and the longer-range F.6 on 16th June 1965. The versions sold to Saudi Arabia were essentially similar to the T.5 and F.6 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. The arrangement of the two Avon turbojets, one above the other, remains an unusual configuration, yielding a slab-sided design. Slender flat wings swept rearwards at sixty degrees serves to further emphasise the fuselage. Many Lightnings are conserved in museum collections where they delight visitors with their clean sleek lines, evocative of the high speeds that they once attained.
Specifications (F.3A/F.6)
Units Using the LightningRoyal Air Force
ComparisonLightning’s performance is excellent not just by 1950's or 1960's standards but compared with modern operational fighters. Its initial rate of climb is 50,000 ft per minute. The Mirage 111E climbed initially at 30,000 ft per minute; the F-4 Phantom managed 32,000 ft per minute; the MiG-21 could only manage 36,090 ft per minute; the initial rate of the F-16A is 40,000 ft per minute, and the Tornado F-3 43,000 ft per minute. Although the official ceiling was 60,000 ft, Brian Carroll, a former RAF Lightning pilot, ex-Lightning Chief Examiner reports taking an F-53 Lightning up to 87,300 feet at which level "Earth curvature was visible and the sky was quite dark". 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 in his F3 Lightning. 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. Carroll reports in a side-by-side comparison that the F-15C Eagle is "almost as good, and climb speed was rapidly achieved. Take-off roll is between 2,000 & 3,000 feet, depending upon military or maximum afterburner-powered take-off. The Lightning was quicker off the ground, reaching 50 feet height in a horizontal distance of 1,630 feet". In British Airways trials, Concorde was offered as a target to NATO fighters including F-15s, F-16s, F-14s, Mirages, F-104s - but only the Lightning managed to overhaul Concorde on a stern conversion intercept. During these trials Concorde was clocked at 57,000 ft and travelling at Mach 2.2
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