The English Electric lightning is a fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s and 1970s it remains the only UK designed and built fighter capable of Mach 2 the Lightning was designed developed and manufactured by English Electric which was subsequently absorbed by the newly formed British Aircraft Corporation later the type was marketed as the BAC lightning it was operated by the Royal Air Force RAF the Kuwait air force kaf and the Royal Saudi Air Force RSAF a unique feature of the lightnings design as the vertical staggered configuration of its two rolls-royce Avon turbojet engines within the fuselage the Lightning was initially designed and developed as an interceptor to defend the V bomber airfields from attack by anticipated future nuclear-armed supersonic Soviet bombers such as what emerged as the tupolev tu-22 but it was subsequently also required to intercept other bomber aircraft such as the tupolev tu-16 and the tupolev tu-95 the Lightning has exceptional rate of climb ceiling and speed pilots have described flying it as being saddled to a sky rocket this performance and the initially limited fuel supply made the Lightning a fuel critical aircraft meaning that its missions are dictated to a high degree by its limited range later developments provided greater range and speed along with aerial reconnaissance and ground attack capability following retirement by the raf in the late 1980s many of the remaining aircraft became museum exhibits until 2024 three lightnings were kept flying at thunder city in Cape Town South Africa in September 2024 the institution of Mechanical Engineers conferred on the Lightning its engineering heritage award at a ceremony at BAE Systems site at Wharton aerodrome topic development topic origins the specification for the aircraft followed the cancellation of the air ministry's 1942 e 20...