Spoken of in hushed tones by those who remember the type in service and longed for by those too young to remember it in flight, the English Electric Lightning is one of the most iconic British jets ever built. The highly swept wings, the bulletlike nose cone and the ear-splitting crackle from its reheated Avon engines combined to make the aircraft unmistakable. It was the first operational British aircraft capable of achieving twice the speed of sound and although designed primarily as an interceptor to meet incoming Soviet bombers at heights up to 60,000ft, it was later developed for ground attack. The Lightning was clearly an aeroplane with much promise and export potential, yet despite a decade of development by the boffins at English Electric, it was struck down by a very British problem... indecision and ineptitude by policy makers and government bodies. Speaking frankly in his 'Silver Flash' article on page 22, the late Roland 'Bee' Beamont (the legendary test pilot) bemoans the Lightning project as, "bedeviled by prevarication and repeated Whitehall U-turns."
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