The Men Who Flew the English Electric Lightning

The early 1950s were a boom time for British aviation. The lessons of six years of war had been learned and much of the research into jet engines, radar and aerodynamics had begun to reach fruition. In Britain, jet engine technology led the world, while wartime developments into swept wing design in Germany and their transonic research program were used to give western design teams a quantum leap in aircraft technology. At English Electric, ‘Teddy’ Petter’s design team were keen to capitalise on the success of their Canberra jet bomber and rose to the challenge of providing a high speed interceptor for the RAF. Martin W. Bowman describes the career of the Lightning in detail using first-hand accounts of what it was like to fly and service this thoroughbred. Illustrated with over 200 colour and b/w photographs, appendices listing Lightning squadrons, production totals, individual aircraft histories and with the first in-depth analysis into why a third of all Lightnings were lost, ‘The Men Who Flew the English Electric Lightning’ is a fine record of the last truly great all-British fighter. AUTHOR: Martin W. Bowman is one of Britain’s best-known aviation historians and authors. His previous books have included works such as Legend of the Lancaster, Confounding the Reich, Duxford and the Big Wings, Clash of Eagles, Lost Wings of World War I and numerous titles in the exhaustive Air War series providing extensive coverage of operations carried out on D-Day and during the Market-Garden offensive at Arnhem. He lives in Norwich.