English Electric Lightning T-55

Item#: 60156

FDM is proud to know that this English Electric Lightning T-55 will be displayed with pride in someone’s home or office.

English Electric Lightning T-55 History:

The only all-British supersonic aircraft to enter production, and the last all-British single-seat fighter, the English Electric Lightning defended United Kingdom air space for more than twenty-five years. It's astounding performance and docile handling wowed airshow audiences and won the hearts of all the pilots that flew it. Almost cancelled at one point, it suffered from chronic underdevelopment throughout much of it's career and this adversely affected it's export potential. Following the cancellation of the Miles M.52 supersonic programme in 1946 and the record breaking flight by the Bell X-1 in October 1947, design studies for a manned supersonic research aircraft began at English Electric in July 1948 under Chief Designer W.E.W. Petter (designer of the Westland Whirlwind fighter of World War 2 and of the Canberra bomber). On 12 May 1949 English Electric was awarded a contract by the Ministry of Supply to proceed with detail design work on it's proposal, designated P.1 (Project 1) by the company.

On 4 August 1954, the first P.1A prototype (WG760) made it's maiden flight at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. The new aircraft handled extremely well, and exceeded Mach 1.0 in level flight on 11 August 1954. The second P.1A prototype (WG763) joined the flight test programme on 18 July 1955. This aircraft featured two Aden guns in the upper nose and a bulged ventral fairing to accommodate an additional fuel tank. WG760 was then fitted with a simple afterburner (reheat) and resumed flight testing on 31 January 1956. It eventually reached a top speed of Mach 1.53. Th first P.1B (XA847) fighter version took to the air from Warton on 4 April 1957, and went supersonic on the same flight. On the same day Defence Minister Duncan Sandys announced that all fighters then in development for the RAF would be cancelled and replaced by anti-aircraft missiles - except for the English Electric P.1 which had advanced too far to cancel. Mach 2 was first reached by XA847 on 25 November 1958. The first of 20 pre-production aircraft (XG307) made it's maiden flight on 3 April 1958. The large number of test aircraft allowed development to progress rapidly and without major problems. In August 1958 it was announced that the name 'Lightning' had been chose for the type, and this was officially conferred in October. XM134 was the first full production Lightning F. Mk 1, making its first flight on 29 October 1959. Controller (Aircraft) release, certifying the aircraft fit for service, was achieved in December of that year, with a handful of aircraft going to the AFDS (Air Fighting Development Squadron) of the Central Fighter Establishment. No.74 at Coltishall received it's first Lightning F. Mk 1s on 29 June 1960. The slightly improved F. Mk 1A version served with Nos.51 and 111 Sqns.

The last version of the Lightning for RAF service was the F. Mk 6. Initially designated F. Mk 3A, this variant embodied a whole series of improvements aimed at improving operational effectiveness. The outboard wing leading edge was kinked and cambered to increase wing area and the wing structure was strengthened to take underwing pylons, although these were never actually fitted to RAF aircraft. A new fuel system with a longer and deeper ventral tank of double the previous volume was installed. The front portion of the tank could house two 30 mm Aden cannon or more fuel. The prototype F. Mk 6 (XM697), a converted F. Mk 3, first flew on 17 April 1964. The first production Mk 6 flew on 16 June 1965, and entered RAF service in December 1965. The first 13 aircraft were F. Mk 3 aircraft converted on the production line to F. Mk 6(Interim) standard before the full version reached production. These early aircraft were later upgraded to full F. Mk 6 standard. The F. Mk 6 served with Nos.5, 11, 23 and 74 Sqns. In a parallel upgrade, 30 F. Mk 2s were upgraded to near F. Mk 6 standard during 1966-70 under the designation F. Mk 2A. The only external difference with the Mk 6 was the retention of the gun muzzle outlets in the nose.

By designing a twin-engined aircraft with the fuel volume of a single engined aircraft, English Electric produced a relatively light and extremely powerful fighter, but with the inevitable consequence of a lack of range. Subsequent versions began to tackle this problem with an increasingly bulged ventral tank, but fuel usage was always a worry for Lightning pilots. At the same time, penny-pinching development funding meant that it took until the Mk 6 before a wing stressed to carry weapons pylons and external fuel tanks was fitted. The Lightning was never fitted with a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), or adapted to carry Sidewinder missiles, and in it's final years was forced to rely on it's gun armament to supplement it's ancient Red Top missiles. The mechanical complexity of the Lightning was of a entirely different order to that of it's predecessors and gave the RAF a major maintenance challenge upon it's introduction into service. On the other hand, pilots converting to the Lightning found it to be a delight to fly - fast, agile and responsive. Fifty years after it's first flight, audiences at three different locations around the world can still enjoy the unique combination of speed and control that made the Lightning in it's heyday a deadly threat to enemy aircraft.