The English Electric P.1A celebrates the 70th anniversary of its maiden flight on 4 August 2024.
Mention English Electric’s Lightning – Britain's first and only entirely home-grown Mach 2 fighter – and thoughts can’t be far from the revolutionary P.1 that sowed the seeds of this revered fighter aircraft. While much has been written about the relationship between these machines and the refinements needed to turn one into the other, the P.1A prototype, WG760, was a far cry from the concept originally envisaged, which included finlets on the tips of the V-shaped tailplane.
Tracing its roots back to a Ministry of Aircraft Production specification in 1942 calling for an aircraft capable of 1,000mph (1,609km) in level flight, released when supersonic research was at the forefront of the minds of aircraft manufacturers, the radical design included a high-mounted tailplane and the hallmark ‘stacked’ engine arrangement to reduce the aircraft’s frontal area. While the basic layout conceived by Teddy Petter, leading designer Frederick Page and aerodynamicist Ray Creasey remained unchanged, it evolved during 1948 to further improve its performance towards Mach 2.
On 29 March 1949 the British Ministry of Supply (MoS) granted English Elect…
