The Lightning’s days were numbered when the new Panavia MRCA (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) first flew on 14 August 1974, just over 20 years to the day since the English Electric P1A prototype took to the air on 4 August 1954. Within a few years, the prospect of an air defence Tornado saw the RAF reducing its Lightning force to just two squadrons in the UK, both located at Binbrook.
However, a couple of airframes had escaped squadron service and alternated between Boscombe Down and Warton on trials. XP693, the original F3 and now a hybrid F6, took up permanent residence at Warton. A further hybrid airframe, XN795, had been rebuilt from its F2 origins to resemble an F2A. It was assigned to assist Tornado development flying, acting as a highspeed chase aircraft and conducting tests of the 27mm Mauser cannon.
Warton was soon reduced to one flying Lightning, in the form of XP693. It joined a small group of aircraft operated by the flight test department at the Lancashire factory airfield, the others being a Buccaneer S2 and occasionally a Hunter T7. As what was now British Aerospace focused on development of the Tornado ADV (Air Defence Variant) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this modification of the e…
