Aeroplane Magazine Lightning Special Issue

Spoken of in hushed tones by those
who remember the type in service
and longed for by those too young to
remember it in flight, the English Electric
Lightning is one of the most iconic British
jets ever built.
The highly swept wings, the bulletlike
nose cone and the ear-splitting
crackle from its reheated Avon
engines combined to make the aircraft
unmistakable. It was the first operational
British aircraft capable of achieving
twice the speed of sound and although
designed primarily as an interceptor to
meet incoming Soviet bombers at heights
up to 60,000ft, it was later developed for
ground attack.
The Lightning was clearly an
aeroplane with much promise and
export potential, yet despite a decade
of development by the boffins at
English Electric, it was struck down
by a very British problem... indecision
and ineptitude by policy makers and
government bodies. Speaking frankly in
his ‘Silver Flash’ article on page 22, the
late Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont (the legendary
test pilot) bemoans the Lightning project
as, “bedeviled by prevarication and
repeated Whitehall U-turns.”
That said, the type served the RAF
gallantly until 1988 and it was still
winning gunnery competitions against all
comers in its last year of service.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who wasn’t
inspired by the Lightning; whether
an aviation enthusiast, a fighter pilot,
a ‘wannabe’ pilot or a six year-old
child, everyone seems to be touched
by the exciting looks and rip-roaring
performance associated with the type.
Today, more than 55 years after it first
flew, the aeroplane still looks ‘right’. Its
aggressive, yet beautiful lines have not
dated over the years and if a Lightning
were sat on the flightline today, few
would believe that it is a contemporary of
the Ford Popular and the Austin Mini!
Through the pages of this book, we
have tried to bring the Lightning story
to life.