English Electric Lightning

[DamienB]

Don't forget, the Lightning was never designed as a fighter, it was a Proof of Concept aircraft, that was so bloody good, the MOD wanted it because it outperformed EVERYTHING else in the air or on the drawing board.

That's not the case at all.

The original idea was Petters, who could see his own Canberra was tricky work for the current frontline fighters. The government gave EE a contract for research into a supersonic fighter (ER.103) able to deal with modern bombers (SB.5 produced to test various wing and tail configurations and compare with wind tunnel model results); they were so impressed with the results they issued a spec (F.23/49) covering a supersonic fighter and so EE upgraded their design, got the contract to produce 3 aircraft - and produced the P.1s. The P.1B was the next step - and had guns - and the Lightning followed on in short order. The Lightning was from day one going to be a fighter.