ABOUT THE E-STORE >>

The Lightning Preservation Group Aviation Merchandise and Memorabilia Shopping cart has been setup to help raise funds for the Q Shed which will act as a museum. The Lightning Preservation Group (LPG) maintain and run two F6 EE Lightnings (XR728 and XS904)

Please select a link to browse the English Electric Lightning and other Aviation Merchandise. All prices are for delivery to UK mainland. For other countries please forward your order and we will advise the relevant postage rate. The additional amount can be sent via our "Donation" box on the home page

Click here to enter store >>

Stewart Scott: English Electric Lightning--Volume 2 The Lightning Force (692 pages) ISBN 1-904514-10-3

In support of the Q-Shed Appeal, Stewart has kindly agreed that the LPG may sell the second volume of his definitive history of the Lightning at a substantial discount.

The recommended price of £75 plus £8 post & packing has been slashed to £59 with FREE post & packing.

Stewart Scott's exhaustive and authoritative work on the English Electric Lightning continues in the style of Volume 1; he has gone to great lengths to access primary source documents and has contacted 300+ former Lightning pilots and engineers to hear their accounts.

This second volume of his trilogy chronicles every aspect of the Lightning and the Lightning Force. At nearly twice the size of Volume 1, this second volume contains some 800 illustrations comprising photographs, line drawings and diagrams. It examines at some length the extended range developments which heralded the introduction to service of the F.6 and it also looks at the background to the conversion of part of the F.2 fleet to the F.2A version. This first section concludes with a brief look at the careers of some of the experimental and production test pilots involved in Lightning development. A section on Lightning radar tactics and training, the work of two very experienced former Lightning pilots, is followed by a massively comprehensive account of the work of the Lightning Force and its supporting engineering establishments. Finally, a sixty-page section detailing the individual history of each F.3, T.5 and F.6 is followed by several useful appendices.

(Incidentally the publisher and the author have completely sold out of copies of Volume 1. Being half the size of Volume 2 (345 pages) it was originally priced at £35 plus p&p, however on the rare occasions a copy appears on eBay it usually 'goes' for £90 upwards, some have made well over the 'ton'.)

We Accept Cheques

Aviation Merchandise Payment can also be made by cheque made payable to:LPG and send to:Chris Norris - Linford House, Old Newark Road, Coddington, Newark, Notts, NG24 2QF

DELIVERY AND PAYMENT

Please allow for up to 21 days delivery
Prices are based on UK delivery and for all other countries please contact us

DONATIONS FOR Q-SHED

Now more than ever, we need YOUR support NOW in order to be able to complete this project. The "Q"shed, once complete, will form a unique museum of everything
Lightning as well as stopping the aircraft deteriorating thereby keeping these historic aircraft serviceable and available for you, the public, to enjoy.

If you have the time, then please attend one of the Open Days. If you wish to make a donation any amount however small will be welcome.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EE LIGHTNING

Developed from the English Electric P1 the Lightning was a revolutionary design with 60 degree wing sweep, vertically stacked tubo jet engines with afterburning, all flying tailplane and powered non-reversible control surfaces.

It was the first all British aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight and was the first supersonic aircraft to enter service with the R.A.F. It was equipped with the Marconi AI23 air bypass radar and had a fully integrated weapons system. It carried two Red Top of Firestreak heat seeking anti aircraft missiles and two 30mm Aden cannons. At the time of entering service the all round performance was vastly superior to anything the Americans could offer but technical complexity and maintenance cost force N.A.T.O. to favour the American F104 Star Fighter over the Lightning.

Consequently the German and Italian airforces were equipped with the 104 and the R.A.F. went its own way with the Lightning. The Star Fighter had such a limited safety envelope that it was ultimately responsible for over 250 aircrew deaths. The Lightning was also responsible for the largest single British export order with the sale of 24 aircraft and all the supporting infrastructure to Saudi Arabia. But despite this the total number of Lightnings built was only 330. The lightning was developed only to the F6 version (F53 Saudi airforce) as the Sands report at that time suggest that fighter aircraft technology was obsolete and all future air defence would utilise surface to air missiles.

This was a great pity as English Electric Lightning already had plans for performance improvements to mach 3, a swing wing version for carrier operation, improved weapons load and duration. The Lightning was loved by the pilots who mastered it, but was extremely demanding with very high workload. It has a top speed of 2.2 mach and can achieve altitudes in excess of 85,000 feet with an initial rate of clime of over 50,000 feet per minute. It turns extremely well at all altitudes and is always predictable.With a power to weight ratio better than one, the Lightning can literally go straight up. This of course has its price and that was limited duration, only 50 minutes on internal fuel.

At full power the fuel is consumed at a rate of 1.5 gallons per second. This situation was improved significantly by in-flight refuelling and Lightnings frequently flew for up to 5 hours duration when scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft as far as Iceland or the Faeroes Gap. Of the pilots selected to train on the lightning only one in three completed the course successfully and qualified to operational level. To this day the Lightning is still the fastest aircraft to be operated by the R.A.F. Maintenance on the aircraft was always difficult and was once described as a bit like standing outside your house and repairing your washing machine through the letterbox. Consequently it was not loved by the engineers who worked on it.

Their standing joke was that English Electric should have stuck to making washing machines. The lightning successfully defended our air space for twenty-eight years and during that time was almost unknown to public, with the exception of aviation enthusiasts. It has now passed into history but lives on by the efforts of amateur groups such as the Lightning preservation group who maintain two aircraft in working order.

For those with both the cash and the nerve it is still possible to fly in a Lightning at Cape Town in South Africa where the Thunder City organisation have now recovered four aircraft to flight. This regrettably will never be the case in the U.K. as the civil aviation authority has categorically said no to Lightnings flying on the civil register.

ENGLISH ELECTRIC LIGHTNING MERCHANDISE | LIGHTNING VIDEOS | DVD

Kits | Die Cast Models | ENGLISH ELECTRIC LIGHTNING DVDs | CDs | SQUADRON PRINTS | PHOTO PRINTS | KEY RINGS | JUMPERS | T-SHIRTS | JIGSAW | DVDs