Few British aircraft since the Supermarine Spitfire have inspired such love and devotion as the English Electric Lightning. Designed in the 1950s, at a time of urgent need for faster interceptors, the Lightning was a long-lived servant of the UK during the Cold War period. Only 337 examples were built, but its legacy lives on in the relatively large number of survivors, a few of which are kept in ground running condition.
As great a success story as it was, things could have been even better. While words like ‘performance’, ‘presence’ and ‘power’ could be attached to the big, twin-engined, Mach 2 jet, other words like ‘potential’ and ‘politics’ would also dog this astonishing aircraft. This meant that improved versions, with more modern radar and weapons, would never be approved. For many, the slender lead British aviation had was burned on the pyre of politics, and it could be argued that poorer performing rival aircraft would reap the rewards in the export market.
Germany and Britain led the world in jet fighter development towards the end of World War Two, with the Nazis a nose ahead aerodynamically. After the war’s end, the UK would become the frontrunner, but her lead in the initiation of …
