The Frightening: English Electric Lightning Story 

A Lightning pilot famously said "the wings are only there to keep the navigation lights apart". This marvellous jet could catch the Concord and proved the invincible U2 Spy planes could be 'got at'. At RAF Biggin Hill air shows, when a child I remember seeing the Lightning. We saw the Lightning coming 'on the deck' then about 250 yards from the crowds turning to vertical and switching on after burners. I'll never forget the tremendous roar, the double orange glow and the sheer speed the thing disappeared aloft in its vertical climb, awesome, breath-taking.

Built by a country with an aviation industry and an identity. It doesn't exist anymore. Cheers!❤️

My Father flew these, he said he had taken it to 68.000 ft, and for first 20 flights he was always trying to catch up on a scramble launch, he flew A number of types from Vampire, Hunter, Phantoms on exchange he flew then new F15 which had better technology but was not as fast as his Lightning which was a particularly quick Bird in his words, he died a happy fulfilled man in 2012

If you’ve never seen one of these pull up on full burner from the deck to the heavens like a homesick angel, you have not truly lived.

My dad took me to the Farnborough air show a couple of times in the 1960’s The stars of the shows were the V bombers ( Victor, Valiant and Vulcan ) and the English Electric Lighting. The Lighting would come barrelling from afar up the runway in level flight at breakneck speed, then point its nose to the heavens and turn on its afterburners, the raw power was breathtaking, as you not only heard the almighty deafening thunder of its engines, but felt it deep in your chest and through the ground in your feet. 60 years later I still recall it with awe.

One of my favourite planes. I was fortunate enough to see one in action at an airshow many years ago. The way it went into a vertical climb and just went up at an unbelievable rate was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

I saw the lightening at thunder city in Cape town it was just awsome display of pure roar power that you can never forget. ❤️ Best of British. 🇬🇧

I remember seeing one at an airshow at RAF St.Anthan in South Wales many years ago. At the end of the show when aircraft were departing the Lightning took off and did a wide circuit of the runway. It came back in at low level, the pilot opened the throttles and pulled back on the stick. The aircraft went vertical in a virtually cloudless sky, I watched it until it disappeared from sight. what a magnificent aircraft. I can't remember the year but it must have been in the last year or so of its service life. Probably around 1987 or 1988.

I got paid to play with these at Binbrook. It had been my favourite plane since seeing it at the 1964 Farnborough airshow... Happy days 🎉

I was lucky enough to witness 2 Lightnings taking off side by side at night and using afterburners at RAF Binbrook in the 80's. We were operating a couple of RN Seakings from one of the QRA hangers as part of an exercise out in the north sea. The QRA hanger was at the end of the runway so we watched the aircraft take off travelling away from us down the runway. One of the most impressive sights I have ever seen

I was lucky enough to get two rides in a T5 with 5 sqdn from Binbrook. Rather than clutter up the comments here, the whole story is over in the comments section of Mark Felton's RU-vid Lightning video. I'll just say, it was one of the best days of my life! 👍

Fascinating and interesting account. Apart from one error. The Chief Engineer on Lightning was Freddie Page (later Sir Frederick Page when he became chairman of British Aerospace. Freddie also worked on the Canberra designing the undercarriage with only a slide rule. Got it right first time. He then did a lot of work on TSR2 and Concorde. I know this because he told me himself. He was my father in law. Wonderful and brilliant man, modest to a fault. Also a double first from Cambridge. RAF Leuchars had them in the 70's and when they were scrambled in pairs, the Physics library of St. Andrews University where I was studying for my degree literally shook.

One of the most under-appreciated jets of that era.

I grew up in the air force. I would spend all day on the roof of our building in Luqa Malta right opposite the airfield, I would tune a radio in to listen to the (can't remember if it was the pilot or ATC, you could only pick up one) loved the lighting, loved watching it go vertical after take off. The Canberras used to tow targets for them

I always loved the lightening, I remember them being lined up at FAR gutesloh in Germany ready for action.When I went home on leave ,about 1973/4 looking very smart

The lightning has been No.1 in my opinion since I marvelled at them as a small boy at the Middleton St. George RAF Air Pageant in the very early 1960s. An amazing plane that did it's job so well, with the Red Top, it never had to fire in anger.

As it was designed as an interceptor, it's main feature was it could climb vertically at supersonic speeds.

What a time in history and privilege to see these daily during my service at RAF Binbrook during this aircrafts final two years in the mid 80's.

I was lucky enough to have been serving in the RAF, during the cold war, as an aircraft fitter. I LOVED this aircraft and still believe it could hold its own today speed wise! One day 2 of us were on VAS duty at our base (visiting aircraft) so were told a Lightning was due in for 'juice' (fuel) so we wandered out to meet the bowser and sure enough a while later it came in. It stopped the pilot got out and we had a chat and asked if he could give us a 'beat up' when he left - he replied telling us sorry fuel is very critical. So sadly we sent him of but we watched his rotate and he stood it on its tail and lit the burners. OMG that could climb! In seconds we wouldnt see it (probably up around 40,000 feet) and we heard him depart (or so we thought)😟 Anyway we were walking back in across dispersal and we could hear 'a jet' somewhere. My oppo said to me " im getting a prickly feeling in my neck somethings not right" 🤔we stopped and looked around seeing a dot approaching across the empty dispersals VERY LOW. We looked at each other and dived flat on the concrete as the Lighting came SCORCHING over us ( looked like he was about 10 feet off the deck!!)😮 He pulled up and circled back waggling his wings as he headed back in the direction of Binbrook! NEVER FORGOT THAT DAY if only mobile phones had been around THANK YOU Flt Lt ...........! YOU KNOW who you are👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏 Those were the days when they could 'get away' with impromptu burn ups🤣😂🤣😅 Many years later I had saved up to go to SA to Thunder City and fly in the 2 seater 'T bird'. Sadly she crashed due to a fuel fire and the plane and the pilot - Dave Stock were lost, when his ejection seat failed - he flew the aircraft AWAY from population. RIP Dave and 'High Flight' "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings" A brave and superb pilot to the very end.

My Dad flew lightning in Cyprus, and to this day, I will never forget watching him go vertical off the runway and climb to 50,000 in less than a minute!!!

As a child I would see the Lightning taking off at RAF Gutersloh, I also remember looking out of my bedroom window when it was getting dark and watching Phantoms take off with their afterburners on at RAF Laarbruch but my favourite was always the groups of three Vulcans taking off at RAF Scampton and feeling the ground vibrate.

As a child I use to go to watch these wonderful aircraft at Coltishall in Norfolk, absolutely fantastic the sound and those afterburners...Wonderful days!

Love when these go vertical 😮

This is my favourite aircraft. And I worked in the hangar where they were built for thirty years. A truly British aircraft, a delight to to see and hear. I have many great memories of this aircraft and the Cambera while I worked on Tornado and the Typhoon at Samlesbury in Lancashire.

The most comicbook/Thunderbirds looking plane Britain ever produced.. like something out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon *Love* this aircraft ❤🇬🇧

I always enjoyed a lightening display at airshows, usually leaving by just going straight up!

i was in the raf and only public schoolboys could fly this. for regular pilots we had the buck and the javelin. they did this to make sure all radio communications were in posh accents. this is why i left the raf in 1968

Your quality of production is impressive. I especially like how you include the covers of the books that were your sources. Really looking forward for your future content

The radar was called the AI 23, standing for Airborne Interceptor. The gunsight was the Pilot Attack Sight or PAS. The radar was controlled by a complex throttle handle covered in switches and knobs of differing shapes and textures. Development of the system was carried out at the Ferranti Flying Unit at RAF Turnhouse, Edinburgh, using two modified Canberras and a flying DC3 laboratory with the radar in the nose and the PAS mounted in the rear cabin and looking forward via an optical periscope

My brother-in-law was an SAC at Leuchars during the time of the Lightning. I remember him being very fond of that plane.

An icon indeed. As a boy, I witnessed a supersonic low level flypast by one at RAF Biggin Hill. All I remember was the boom and the two orange dots disappearing rapidly into the distance. I now live near (ex) RAF Manston where the local museum has an ex RCAF Lightning on show, and everytime I drive past it I nod my head in awe.

When these were first introduced my father was RAF Regiment "crash crew". The crash crew teams asked about the cockpit layout, ejector seats and other details, and were told "that's all secret, we can't tell you". The response was to inform the MOD that should one have an 'unfortunate landing", then the crash crew teams would not go in to rescue the pilot. They would limit themselves to spraying the aircraft. It wasn't too long before they were given the details they needed.

My father, still living, was a Lightning technician, and always described the plane as jet engines with a jockey on top.

Great account of British aviation history. Thanks a lot.

I remember them at RAF leconfeild when i was at camp in 1963 ,we all had a great time 😊😊

1983 june aprox ... i saw a lightning doing aerobatics over RAF Swinderby during a RAF basic training pass out to se a aircraft drifting and going vertical 40 yrs later i still remember the flight

What a superb documentary - superbly narrated and chock full of interesting and enlightening ( excuse the pun ) information. Glad that I found this gem of a channel.

Great video! I really admire "first 2 Mach" fighters of the era... Lightning, Mirage III, Mig-21, Saab Draken and F-104 all flew as proto around 1955, all started as interceptors and turned to multirole... but the strangest thing, all had comparable performance data from very different aerodynamic concepts.

I recently saw one of these again close up at the Scottish museum of flight. I'd seen them in flight when I was a kid and found them really impressive then, but now.... they're terrifying. The Lightning looks as if they just strapped some poor sod on top of two enormous engines with a couple of rockets stuck under a couple of stubby wings and... there you go, pal, let's see what you can make of that! You'd have had to be completely insane just to get into the cockpit, let alone try to fly it. The most remarkable thing about them was that they worked incredibly well. It was, without doubt, the best short range fast interceptor jet in the world for over a decade and if Western European countries had had any real independence in the matter they'd all have taken it. Instead they took the American Starfighter. The poor Germans took over 900 Starfighters and a third of them crashed. No wonder it was called the 'Widowmaker'. The USAF axed their own Starfighters just as quickly as they could. The Europeans and the Canadians were stuck with it. They'd all have been better off with the Lightning.

Excellent video, Thank you.

I was extremely fortunate as a very young man to be given a ride in a Lightning from RAF Wattisham with 111 Squadron. Something never to be forgotten and to this day thought of with some degree of jealousy by current RAF pilots I believe.

I can't believe you only have 991 subs. I thought this was produced by a massive channel. Got my subscription for sure

The Lightning has been admired by me since I saw one do a display at the Coventry Airport show in the late in the late 1960s.

My first view of this channel. This was really good, thank you.

A plane which could go faster than Concorde and fly higher than the American U 2 spyplane.

Incredible aircraft. I never got to work on it during my time in the RAF, although I did work with guys who did. Moving into Aircraft Design I worked at Samlesbury for a bit where EE was based in the 50s.

I was based at RAF Binbrook from 1985 till 1988, what memories I have of this time - I was also on attachment in Cyprus, Akrotiri when one crashed in a village near the airfield

What a sound they made.

Awesome plane, great video. Thanks

Great video!

As one Lightning pilot once said. "I was in complete control of that aircraft right up to the point I released the brakes".

Very fond of the Lightning Interceptor, because when in the RAF (1961-1975) and stationed at RAF Akrotiri Cyprus (1965-67) I was a Teleg so worked in our Comms Centre in signals, which was placed right down near the runway. I (and others) used to nip outside to the fence, or climb up on the flat roof of our building and when on the night shift to watch pair of Lightnings take off on their Dawn Patrol at 06:00, and if on the evening shift we would watch the Dusk Patrol 18'00 pair take off. They would roar off down the runway in full-reheat, then shoot just about vertically into the sky to go on their patrols, and what a wonderful sight and sound of the pair disappearing into the skys, at a high rate of knots to reach their operational height.... Great stuff....and happy days back then....

I remember the Lightening when in the RAF in the 80s.I was on Harrier Gr3s in Germany and LTF used to come to our Squadron at Gutersloh.

One fact missed here was that the lightning was the first to be able to 'Supercruise' ie go at Mach1.+ without reheat.

Let alone the beautiful lines of this plane it was the best against the imminent threat.❤

I remember them doing circuits and bumps at Manston in the 70's. You knew what it was because of the two engine nozzles, one above the other. I also remember fast taxi runs at Bruntingthorpe.

Britain once had a world leading aerospace industry and could make our own nuclear reactors. Oh how far she has fallen.

Like most schoolboys at the time, i made a collection of balsa wood models of planes of the 40s and 50s. The P1 was far and away the easiest. Just look at that shape!

i have sat in one of these,was at r.a.f.bimbrook many moons ago...20% airframe...80% engine.

Used to watch them flying from Samlesbury in Lancashire when I was about 10 living in Blackburn. There is still one on a pedestal next to the A59 at the back of the factory.

I was working for Marconi and based at an RAF staion in Norfolk in the early 70's. We met a number of Lightning air crew and they told stories of how the pilots loved to fly over the US airforce bases as the american Phantoms were taking off , put the afterburners on and just dissapear straight up. One of my colleagues managed to get a flight in a two seater Lightning.

I was an air cadet and saw two lighting,s fly down the runway faster than sound, amazing to see such an aircraft zoom past us in total silence, amazing

The Lightning. I love this aircraft. I was in the RAF and one took part in my Flight's Fly Past. Per Ardua Ad Astra.

The Lightning also pioneered HOTAS technology.

The Lightning Aircraft was stationed at RAF Binbrook in 1975 or 1976 when I was a 5 or 6 year old. My dad used to joke when I was naughty to go and play on the runway. One day he got a phone call from the Military Police saying that I had been picked up near to the runway watching Lightnings taxi by and take off. I had a plastic bowl, a butter knife and some plasticine. Funnily enough after that day my dad never said that I should go and play on the runway! 🤣

I saw it fly at the Farnborough Air Show in the early 60's, its rate of climb was staggering, it just went straight up.

Great video - it must take bloody ages to make these .

An iconic beauty.

One of my best childhood memories two lightings few low over our house, I had clmbed to the top of the large pear tree in our garden when they flew over I felt as if I almost could have touched them! For me it will always be my favourite fighter plane

I'd go as far as saying that the English Electric Lightning was one of the best aircraft the RAF had in it's armory from the 60's to the 80's when it was retired.

Great Video.

It wasn’t a Head Up Display, it was a radar predicted gunsight with a rudimentary horizon.

My older brother did some of his national service at RAF Wharton, in the 50s, next to an English Electric factory. Sent us photos of the early P1 which would have been a serious breach if caught, but of course he wasn't.

I used to see the Lightning fly overhead most days in the 60s and early 70s and often hear the sonic boom which was permitted back then before we became over protective! As part of the ATC I was lucky enough to be able to visit BAE at Warton (or British Aircraft Corporation as it was called then) and stand by the runway as a lightning took off - it was an unbelievable experience and its rate of climb made it look almost like a vertical takeoff. I remember on many days seeing the TSR2 flying around and glinting in the sunlight.

OUTSTANDING Aircraft! Even today!

Fortunate to live not far from RAF Binbrook , We use to bike out and watch The Lightnings take off. Also Bike to RAF North Coates to look at the blood Hound Missiles, All pointing out towards the north Sea, Some where on launch pads others where on trolleys, (Trailors). waiting to be loaded after the First line had been fired.

How does the Lightning stack up? I'm also a relic from that era, it is my favourite plane. I remember visiting the Tactical Weapons Conversion Unit as the Lightning was being phased out and the Tornado was being brought in, interesting times and interesting opinions were voiced on comparable capabilities. Imho the Lightning was a tool for a situation that is perhaps again becoming a relivent problem for today's UK Air Defence, such as it is of course. 🇬🇧

The lightning is my second, most favorite aircraft of all time, behind the F4 phantom. I call the Lightning the “English double barrel shotgun“. She was fast, but had short legs. A very different design that proved successful.

Beautiful plane

Best story involving this aircraft I ever heard was the mechanic who accidently took one for a spin when he was testing the systems. Forgot the blokes name but it's well worth looking in to.

What a Game Changer the EEL was! 👌 🇬🇧✌

Scared me witless at Farnborough in the 60's.! Pilot Roland P Beamont stacked the Lightning and the earth trembled! I was a young guy sat on my fathers shoulders! The frightening Lightning!

The EE/BAC Lightning was the first truly modern combat jet and was ahead of everything else. The US watched and learned and the ultimate lightning was the F15 which copied the low wing loading, simple wing, weapon system concept, high thrust to weight and care free handling of the Lightning. My favourite was the F2A Lightning. Longest range with x4 Aden cannon based in Germany in the early seventies. Contrary to popular myth, the Lighting was not complex and hard to maintain, it was just the first truly modern combat jet the RAF had and as such the technicians and ground crew had to adapt to ideas and technology novel at the time. Once mastered the maintenance of the Lightning was no more onerous than all the modern jets that came after it. The RAF has a tendency to knock British technology and aircraft whilst remaining silent about the short comings of anything sourced from the Yanks. The fact the Lightning was kept in service along side the Phantom which was supposed to replace it says it all.

I remember seeing some descriptions of the AI-23 displays and I was amazed that anyone could work out the interception geometry while flying the aircraft. A point defence interceptor, essentially one-shot since missiles would be fired in pairs. Always short of fuel. It wouldn’t be my choice for a ground attack machine (limited weapon load, next to no loiter time, limited view from cockpit, densely packed airframe vulnerable to ground fire)

Sexiest jet airframe we (🇬🇧) ever made IMO

Have worked on these here in Cape Town... ex-Thundercity planes

As a kid i always thought this was 1 fugly looking aircraft...now as an adult i can appreciate its service and place in avation history and love it..

Also one of the first to have a HUD as standard, if not the first.

Certainly frightened me in the day

The Lighting I believe had the first radar controls on throttle and stick before anyone else.

The best looking aircraft we have ever made. The reason they were polished is no paint was available then that would adhere to the wings due to the heat generation at mach speeds.

I worked on these at RAF Wattisham (111 & 29 Squadrons) and then on 56 Squadron in Akrotiri (Cyprus).

I guess that explains why this fighter's frame was used for the Rapier in the Wing Commander movie.

Sum said it's like Riding a rockit sled on rails or a bullet from a gun great video 👍👍👍👍

Saw a 3 ship display in Cape Town about 18 or so years ago. Fantastic.

この飛行機は好きだ。模型も作った。 エンジンが上下2段、翼の上に燃料タンク‥‥実に魅力的。 ウエストランドライサンダーもいいね。 模型を作る者としては割と不恰好なのを作ってくれるイギリスは好きだな。

6:37 meaning that this IR homing missile was a tail chaser only as they all were at that time and for decades to come. The point is that Blinder was fast and would easily outrun a Javelin vectored to intercept it.

It could exeed the sound barrier in vertical flight 😊

It was beyond its time

Minor things, but I'm afraid there are rather a lot: The 'Miles M52' shown at 3:14 is actually a Bell X-1, although the M52 is now known to have been a major influence on its design. In the mid-1950s aircraft procurement was actually overseen by the Ministry of Supply, not the Air Ministry, so that was a logical place for Petter to go. The photo and drawing of the 'P1A' at 3:50 is actually a production Lightning with a 60 degree wing and over-wing aux tanks; the P1A also of course also had no nose radome. In fact the 40 degree wing was only present in the initial P1 plans and the prototype P1A and B (WG760, WG763) were both built with a 60 degree wing. No actual P1 airframes were constructed before these. The P1B photo at 5:15 is actually XA847, which I see you later label correctly at 5:40. XG337 was a production F1. It was one of the P1As (WG760) that went supersonic on its first flight on 4 Aug 54 but this was not immediately noted due to errors in the instrumentation. The 'position error' wasn't the position of the aircraft but arose from the location of the sensors on the airframe and the influence of local airflow and pressure. Once the corrections had been made the first flight was found to have exceeded Mach1 and similar corrections were applied from then on. The first P1B flew in April '57. 'Fairey' is pronounced 'Fairy' as in children's stories. It was the P1A that was subject to a limit of Mach 1.51 due to directional stability concerns. The P1B was designed to address those issues and was duly flown to Mach 2.0 on 25 Nov 58. P1B development preceeded knowledge of the Tu22. The Javelin carried Firestreak IR-guided missiles with a rear aspect only capability. But the Red Top missile eventually fitted to Lightning had dubious performance which in some instances could give head-aspect only homing, and then only for supersonic targets with significant skin heating. The radar was the Ferranti Air-Intercept Type 23, aka AI 23, not 'A 123'. It is correctly labelled at 7:46 and you read out its name in full so why persist with A 123?. For a homing radar 'conical' refers to the motion of the antenna, which has a rapid spinning nutational scan. It's not the signals that are in some way conical. The HUD system did not project information onto the canopy but onto a special screen, as you show. The aerodynamic function of the intake cone is precisely to keep shock waves out of the engine! Having mentioned the need for an improved missile over the Javelin, you then credit the Lighting only with Firestreak, that same rear-aspect weapon. The larger tail fin was in fact to improve stability when the larger Red Top missiles were carried, once they became available. The RAF refer to sqns just as '74 Sqn' not 'the 74 Sqn' and a sqn is not a command, That would be 'Fighter Command'. The job of Fighter Command and the Lightning was not just to defend airfields, although these would be prime targets for a Soviet attack. To be clear, Germany did not operate the Lightning, ever. RAF Lightnings did though serve in Germany. The export versions were operated by Saudi and Kuwait. I blame Reuters for publishing an incorrect photo of the South African crash of former RAF T5 XS451 (re-registered ZU-BEX) in November 2009. The first clue is that the picture is clearly not a of Lightning, the second is that the crash occurred 10 miles from the airfield, not in front of a crowd. Nevertheless this makes it unlikely Brian Cox flew in it in 2010, even if the programme was broadcast that year. Apart from all that, it's always great to see Lightnings.