English Electric Lightning

ZF582 English Electric Lightning F.53 (cn 95281) was one of a batch of thirty-four built for The Royal Saudi Air Force. First flown as G27-46 by Chief Test Pilot Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont on 15 January 1968. The aircraft was delivered in September 1968 to the Lightning Storage Unit (LSU) of the Royal Saudi AF at Riyadh as 53-676. It was not until January 1971 that it would enter service with 6 Squadron and later in life 2 Squadron.

In 1980 it was renumbered 207 and remained in service until 1985. As part of a deal whereby the RSAF purchased newly manufactured Tornadoes, the remaining Lightning fleet was purchased by British Aerospace and flown back to Warton in January 1986 for possible resale. For this exercise the aircraft received British military serial ZF582. In the end there were no purchasers for the Lightnings and they were disposed of by BAe the following year. The cockpit section was saved and, over the years, ZF582 moved around various owners and locations in the country. It’s last journey was to the Bournemouth Aviation Museum in September 2004.

The Lightning was a superb British built supersonic interceptor fighter, loved by its pilots but hated by its engineers. Following the development of the Canberra bomber the English Electric design team – led by ‘Teddy’ Petter – turned their attentions to a supersonic fighter. Design work of a radical new design commenced in 1947, leading to a number of experimental aircraft before the final design. As well as highly swept back wings, the design was unusual in that the two jet engines were mounted above each other in the fuselage. The English Electric P1 had the basic shape of the final aircraft, flying in August 1954. It went supersonic on its third flight. Then followed the P1B which flew on 4 April 1957 – the day the British Government announced that there would no longer be a need for manned fighters! Luckily this did not affect the RAF’s initial order for fifty P1B’s, which officially received the name Lightning in October 1958. Two 30mm Aden guns were fitted in the forward fuselage supplemented by two Firestreak guided missiles. These were needed for the fighter’s main task of intercepting Russian bombers and fighters over the North Sea at heights of up to 60,000 ft. The two Rolls-Royce Avon 210 engines developed massive power for the time (16,300 lb with reheat) which enabled the Lighting to climb vertically on take-off. However the engines were very thirsty and the early Lightnings had very limited flight endurance. In due course an under fuselage fuel tank was fitted. Despite its limitations, pilots described the Lightning as a dream compared with earlier Hunters and Javelins. The downside was the amount of time taken by the ground engineers to keep the aircraft ready on the flightline.

Lightning F1’s entered service with 74 Squadron at Coltishall in June 1960, with four of them displaying at the Farnborough Air Show in September. 56 and 111 Squadrons at Wattisham received their aircraft shortly afterwards. The Lightning F2 entered service with 19 Squadron in December 1962, this version mainly serving with RAF Germany, again providing defence against Russian fighters. The Lightning F3 introduced Red Top missiles, improved radar and later Avon engines. It also had a larger fin fitted. This version replaced the F1s for home defence. The final version for the RAF was the F6 which had a much larger under fuselage fuel tank to improve range. It entered service with 5 Squadron at Binbrook in December 1965, also serving at home with 56, 74 and 111 Squadrons. The RAF’s final Lightnings were withdrawn from service at Binbrook in August 1987, being replaced by Panavia Tornado F3’s.

A major success was the sale of forty Lightning aircraft to Saudi Arabia in December 1965, mainly F53’s plus some T55 trainers. The first RSAF aircraft flew in November 1966 and was later delivered direct under ‘Operation Magic Palm’. The RSAF aircraft are the only Lightnings to have been used in anger, attacking rebels in the south of the country. They remained in service until 1985. Ten Lightnings were also exported to Kuwait in 1968.