English Electric Lightning (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The English Electric Lightning was designed in the 1950s to fly short-range missions against incoming bombers.   Later aircraft like the American F-104 Starfighter and the Russian MiG-21 "Fishbed" were designed for the same role, and the Fishbed even had the same sort of "shock cone" mounted in the nose air intake to regulate the flow of air into the engine at different speeds.

The British had done a lot of work on supersonic flight during World War Two and almost became the first country to break the sound barrier, however they cancelled their research program because of a lack of funding and a mistaken belief that their straight-winged research aircraft couldn't fly faster than the speed of sound.   However by this time they'd developed the "shock cone" for the nose intake and also the "all-moving" tail, which was put onto the American X-1 and allowed Chuck Yeager to control the plane aboveMach 1.   British development slowed down for several years, and when they finally developed a supersonic fighter they went straight from sub-sonic aircraft to the Lightning, which was capable of flying at twice the speed of sound.

The Lightning had several unique design features, including twin engines which were mounted one above the other, reducing the frontal area of the plane and therefore making it able to fly faster.   The wheels retracted outwards into the wings, so fuel drop tanks were mounted on top of the wings rather than underneath, giving a very unusual appearance to the aircraft.

The Lightning was used by the RAF and also by the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Kuwait Air Force.   Three are in civilian hands in South Africa and still fly regularly at air shows, and if you have enough money then you can even take a ride in the back seat of one of the trainer versions!