The Electric Lightning: Britain’s Mach 2 Masterpiece

few aircraft can stir emotions and Inspire or quite like the cold war crates and chief amongst them is the English electric lightning a Marvel born of British Ingenuity who is an astonishing machine for its time capable of producing Feats of speed acceleration and climb so insane the modern fighter jets struggle to match it it really was lighting my name and Lightning by nature but this raises a question if the lighting was so good why is it now not but a curious relic of a bygone age littering air museums up and down the green and pleasant land of the UK well that question and more we bring to you today as we bring you the concise history of This Magnificent warbird so let's waste no time and let's jump in [Music] [Music] the Cold War era of volatile Park where a nuclear-tipped Sword of Damocles hung over mankind set the stage for an intense technological race one in which the world's capitalist and communist superpowers provide for any and every technological Edge that they could get that might bring military victory over their opponents amidst this tense Tableau no aspect of military technology garnered more significance than the development of advanced aircraft the very instruments that could rain nuclear Devastation upon the enemy while shielding one's Homeland from similar disaster just before we continue with today's video I do want to tell you about something that will change your life as it has changed my life and that is today's sponsor sheath underwear sheath makes the most comfortable boxer briefs that you've ever worn if you're tired of boxes that are too loose or briefs that are too tight sheath is your absolute savior I'm wearing sheath right now I didn't just take this pair in fact unworn not just clean not show you my clean worn sheath would be a bit weird look since being sponsored by sheath my underwear drawer is just full of sheath everything else has been thrown away because there is no other underwear that you will ever need while they're so 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promo code Mega 20 of your order and now back to today's video this ceaseless Endeavor of aerial Supremacy ball witness to remarkable innovations that spurred the evolution of Aviation at an unprecedented Pace the formidable aircraft conceived during this period were not just instruments of war they were pivotal chess pieces in the grand strategy of Cold War Dynamics it was amidst this exigent fervor to progress that the drawing boards of the English electric company burst a Marvel of British Aeronautical Engineering the lightning it was an aircraft with a single purpose to intercept and neutralize potential Airborne aggressors before they could reach their targets as such the lightning was fast really bloody fast its top speed clocked in at an incredible 1500 miles per hour that's roughly twice the speed of sound this for reference allowed it to fly from London to Edinburgh in less than a quarter of an hour but it wasn't just fast at the top of the dial either it was also an aircraft with exceptional acceleration having a rate of climb of 20 000 feet per minute the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest in 90 seconds this power courtesy of the Rolls-Royce Avon jet engine this may sound strange to those of you in the know because the Avon also powered aircraft such as the Hawker Hunter and super Marine Swift both aircraft that struggle to even break as a sound barrier so what made the Lightning's engines quite so different for starters it had two of them and had them arranged on top of each other rather than side by side which offered some slight aerodynamic advantages but really the difference was in a little something the Lightning's avons had that those inside the Hunter and the Swift didn't after Learners these clever devices operate on a simple yet effective principle injecting additional fuel into the Jet's exhaust this fuel then combusts with the excess oxygen left over from the initial combustion and results in a substantial increase in thrust akin to a sprinter taking a deep breath before the final burst of speed and look speed was all well and good but what about its weapons firstly it boasted two 30 millimeter Aiden cannons nestled within its belly known for their devastating power power and reliability these cannons could tear through enemy aircraft with ruthless efficient the piece to resistors however was its missiles with it initially being equipped with fire streak and later Red Top air-to-air missiles these british-made missiles were meticulously designed for lethal Precision implying Advanced infrared homing guidance systems to find and destroy enemy aircraft by following the heat put out by their engines but all these missiles it was the red top that truly stood out boasting guidance and explosive capabilities far beyond that of the fire streak these missiles were the Lightning's main tool for combat because despite the impressive power of the Aidan cannons it was significantly shorter range than missiles and thus only really served as a backup weapon after all while engaging risky dogfights when you can dispatch your threats from afar so now that we know what made the lightning such a phenomenal aircraft let's take a look at how it performs by looking at its service history foreign [Music] Hall in Norfolk England on the 23rd of December 1959. their job initially was a simple one to familiarize RAF Pilots with the full rigors of SuperSonic flight before the jet was properly rolled out across the RAF now when you considered that many Pilots at that point in the war were Second World War veterans who had started their careers on hurricanes and Spitfires that maxed out at a third of the lightning speed such as slow and steady roll out did make perfect sense even Britain's earlier jets would have struggled to truly prepare Pilots for the Lightning's insane performance since they topped out at only half of the lightning speed and even then only if they were lucky the rollout however went well and by May 1960 enough Pilots have been familiarized with the lightning that it could be formally accepted into service to say it was well received would be a little bit of an understatement its weapons worked great and its Pilots loved how surprisingly easy it was to fly even with its mind-bending performance but it wasn't without its teething issues and his extensive maintenance regime coupled with RAF mechanics unfamiliarity with the type meant that most squadrons struggled to get more than 20 flight hours per month out of their Linings this improved quickly however as ground teams quickly learned their way around the aircraft and by the end of 1960 most Lightnings were happily delivering 100 flight hours per month and those 100 hours per month was certainly not short of drama imagine that you're a lightning pilot your satina plush padded Wing back chair in your mess enjoying a leisurely coffee and a browse on the daily paper when all of a sudden the Call Comes A Soviet aircraft is approaching British airspace and it needs intercepting you leap out of the comfort of your chair and within five minutes your higher the Mount Everest and traveling at twice the speed of sound all while wondering if this was the time that it was going to get real whether the Soviets were actually going to have a go at dropping the bomb on your country this sort of thing was the Lightning's bread and butter a feat of performance that would have been the reserve of Science Fiction only years earlier and now it was nothing but a daily chore nestled among the endless interceptions however are a few interesting stories that shed extra light on the reality of the lightning service one particularly interesting incident comes from West Germany in 1972 when the the aircraft would gain its first kill but not in the way you might imagine for you see it wasn't a Soviet bomber nor even a Soviet fighter that would earn the lightning its first kill mark but a British Hawker siddly Harrier the aircraft had been on routine Patrol when it had struck a bird killing its engines with no Runway and gliding distance the pilot followed procedure and bailed out but it overlooked one small detail it was pointing towards East Germany now this was bad for a couple of reasons it might hit someone on the ground and Spark a diplomatic incident or more scarily still it might end up being recovered presenting the Communists with a treasure Trove of Western military Secrets oh no naturally this was unacceptable so it fell to a lightning to intercept which thanks to overloading its engines the point of borderline melting it managed to do just before the Harrier drifted over the Border blowing it up in the nick of time another interesting incident occurred during operation Sky Shield 3 at 1962 multinational exercised aimed at testing NATO air defense networks against dissimulated Soviet attack one of the many people taking part in this exercise was an American pilot who was flying a Lockheed due to spy plane designed to fly so high to be all but untouchabled by enemy air defense networks and interceptors this appears to have made YouTube Pilots or at least this YouTube pilot somewhat complacent because when he got hit on his radar that something was approaching him very quickly to his rear he paid it little heed and continued onwards he was most surprised a few minutes later when he turned to his left and there right next to him at the edge of space was a lightning whose One Pilot seemed particularly pleased with himself on account of the gesture that he was making with his middle finger another interesting interception came in 1984 when a British air tours l1011 TriStar carrying over 200 passengers lost radio contact and veered off course over West Germany and started zigzagging the general direction of East Germany aligning was immediately scrambled to investigate the situation and soon enough it pulled alongside the stricken airliner all attempts to re-establish radio contact failed but after having confirmed that all was otherwise well on board with the tried and tested thumbs up method the lightning then guided it back down to the ground manually through the use of hand signals and aerobatic Maneuvers to show the way averting what could have been a potential disaster the lightning also had some limited success on the export Market finding its way to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait triggered by the north Yemen Civil War and resultant air incursions into Saudi airspace while Egyptian forces Saudi Arabia sought to improve its air defenses and thus ordered 40 Linings in December 1965 oh where they subsequently successfully curtailed Egyptian Air Force intrusions conversely Kuwait procured 14 Lightnings in December 1967 and had very poor results the Kuwaiti government simply had neither the money nor the know-how to successfully operate the aircraft and after years of all but no operation they were pulled from service in 1977 where they subsequently sat languishing in a hangar at Kuwait International Airport before being destroyed in the Iraqi invasion of 1990. now despite its interesting career all good things must come to an end and by the mid-1970s this once revolutionary aircraft was starting to look a bit Antiquated and so thought began to give it a replacement its speed always still phenomenal make no mistake and in fact the lightning Remains the fastest aircraft everfielded by the RAF to this day but the rest of it was rapidly showing its age with more modern jets having better radar better weapon systems and better ranges they were gradually phased out between 1974 and 88 being replaced by the F4 Phantom [Music] so we've already learned some interesting stuff about the lining but if we really want to get a feel for it there is only one place to turn to the people who flew it so now let's take the time to look at some stories from the men who flew this Mighty Machine a particularly interesting perspective comes from Brian Carroll who flew both the lightning and British service and the much newer F-15 and Australian service in particular he draws attention to what we discussed earlier regarding the lightning outperforming its successes in the speed Department stating the following the overall impression was that both aircraft had very similar performance in handling characteristics both were a joy to fly considering the age difference the Lightning's performance was totally outstanding and when it finally bowed out of service it could still out climb most of its successes its initial rate of climb was 50 000 feet per minute while the f-16's rate was 40 000 feet per minute and the tornado's rate was 43 000 per minute so the lightning reigned Supreme and do note that there are some discrepancies in what Carol States the performance of the lightning was compared to what other sources claim with his estimation seeming slightly optimistic but that is neither here nor there his claiming an equivalency and performance between the lightning and its successes and his overall positive impression of the aircraft is what we're interested in here another quote this time from veteran pilot Ian Black offers a slightly more mooted perspective of the lightning and allows us to Garner more insight about exactly what made it so Antiquated by the 1980s he said the following in 1960 it was probably state of the art but by 1988 it was positively prehistoric it was hopeless at low level Overland and difficult at low level Over the Sea at height the targets would often be doing in excess of 0.9 Max so oh the combined speed of a fighter and Target would be around 20 miles a minute with a maximum pickup range on an average Target of 18 to 20 miles this gave you less than a minute from initial contact to engagement it also had a very limited electronic countermeasure capability interestingly this nicely complements Carol's opinion as black doesn't claim it didn't have fantastic straight-line performance he just explains why by the 1980s uh just wasn't enough anymore he went on further to say something similar regarding the Lightning's weapons again the weapon system always state of the art in the 1960s but by 1988 it was prehistoric the system had potential a data Lake where the ground controllers would perform The Intercept with a pilot flying to the Target hands off the weapons were fine against lumbering Soviet bombers up at altitude but not great in a high G combat scenario against other Fighters he then went on further still to discuss issues the lightning had always had even when it was otherwise a top-of-the-line aircraft to quote lack of fuel was the obvious one from a handling point of view it was gloriously overpowered something few aircraft have with its highly swept wing and lack of maneuver combat flaps or slat the aircraft was flown in the light heavy Buffet position which masked any seat of the pants feeling of an impending stall it actually had a few vices but could be a handful on Landing with its Big Fin and drag shoot which made the aircraft tokin to a weather clock on a strong crosswind Landing tires were also very thin by necessity to fit into the wings so it didn't last long end quote interestingly Black's perspective is uniquely negative among lightning Pilots most of whom have the kind of glowing praise that we saw from Carol there is certainly negativity to be found but rarely to that degree for example veteran pilot Roger colbrook loved his lining specifically but expressed doubts in the capabilities of the overall lightning Force to respond to the Soviet threat if war broke out to quote him there were unfortunately flaws within our Mega strategy for one thing the Soviet hordes when they arrived were likely to outnumber Us by a ratio of approximately 30 to one other than the implausible scenario that the Soviets would play ball do the decent thing be thoroughly British and orbit patiently while we re-armed and refueled we faced something of a David and Goliath struggle I sometimes speculated on the reaction of doubting leader of fighter command in the Battle of Britain to our plan perhaps he would have said nothing perhaps his cold hard stare accompanied by the lifting of one eyebrow would have sufficed other veterans are less extreme either way and simply offer a grounded and reasonable explanation of what it was like to fly the lightning on its routine interception missions with one such example people being the following quote from Jerry Parr before long the distinctive outline of Two tu-95s started to come into view these Soviet machines appeared formidable and menacing the crew appeared to be equipped with dark leather World War one type flying helmets as if borrowed from the Red Baron himself sometimes the pilots would slow down suddenly or swerve Dangerously In attempts to throw off interceptors I drove alongside one of the Bears he seemed though fairly docile and I was unaware of any particular reaction I speculated whether these two aircraft were Cuba Bound By Now however as ever in a lightning time began to press I noted the tail numbers of the Bears performed a positive Breakaway and initiated a climb the lightning now accelerated through Mach 1 towards Mach 2 and Beyond soon they were far behind me now as we bring today's video to an end how should we as contemporary Aviation enthusiasts remember the lightning how should it reside in our Collective memory wizard groundbreaking Marvel a bold Testament to The Audacity Of Human Ingenuity continually pushing the frontiers of aviation technology was it a competent yet flawed machine shining brightly Lee in spite of all perhaps because of its imperfections was it a symbol of nationalism a point in Pride for rosie-eyed Brits to look back on and remember a time when the nation was more powerful in the world or was it just simply a really cool really quick airplane in many ways the lightning was all of those things it meant different things to different people and thus can be interpreted through many lenses each as valid as the next history is after all completely subjective the beauty of the lightning as with all things truly lies in the eye of the beholder there isn't a definitive right or wrong way to understand it so as we conclude today's video Let's Open it to you what are your thoughts your impressions your stories related to the lightning we'd love you to let us know in the comments below and thanks for watching thank you [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 151,871

Keywords: english electric lightning afterburner, electric lightning jet, english electric lightning vertical take off, english electric lightning documentary, electric lightning, english electric lightning, english electric lighting, jet fighter in action, british supersonic jet, supersonic british aircraft, supersonic english, british jet fighters 1960s, supersonic airplane, english electric, supersonic aircraft

Id: a7tn0P4BYMQ

Length: 17min 3sec (1023 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023