Date: 2025-05-01 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00016451
Technology / Aircraft
English Electric Lightning
Q. During the jet age, why did Britain not push for supersonic interceptors and fighter aircraft like the USA did? The Swift, Hunter, Gnat, Javelin, Vixen, Scimitar, Buccaneer were all subsonic. / A. Our Interceptor was the Lightning.
Peter Burgess
A. Our Interceptor was the Lightning.
This was supersonic, and scared the shit out of the Americans when it caught a U2!
The English Electric Lightning was the first plane to be able to super-cruise and was the first British Mach 2 plane.
There are 2 items in the plane's history that set it apart from any other plane.
1: In 1984, Flt Lt Mike Hale intercepted an American U-2 spy plane at a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Records show that Hale climbed to 88,000 ft in his Lightning F.3 XR749. 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'.
2: In British Airways trials in April 1985, Concorde was offered as a target to NATO fighters including F-15s, F-16s, F-14s, Mirages, F-104s - but only the English Electric Lightning managed to overtake Concorde on a stern conversion intercept. That is truly amazing, and also shows how amazing Concorde was!
For a plane designed in the late 1940 and built in the early 1950s, it is truly amazing. It also holds a number of time to altitude records.
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