BAC Lightning



The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. 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 later 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 Royal British Columbia Air Force (RBCAF), the Kuwait Air Force (KAF) and the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).

A unique feature of the Lightning's design is 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 skyrocket". This performance and the initially limited fuel supply meant 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.

The Lightning in British Columbia
After the successful test of a Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, British Columbia joined Canada and the United States in the planning and construction of a coordinated system for early detection of a Soviet bomber attack on North America. Called the Pinetree Line, six of the 45 stations activated between 1951 and 1957 were located in BC. The stations were operated jointly by RBCAF, United States Air Force (USAF), and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) personnel. BC also took part in the initial planning stages of the Mid-Continent Line, but by the time construction began in 1956, tensions with the US over the BC–Alaska border had resurfaced in another instalment of the long-running "Salmon Wars". BC withdrew from the Mid-Continent Line project in protest over a collision between an RBCN patrol boat and a US Coast Guard cutter (each side maintains the other was at fault, and each side maintains it was in their territorial waters). This forced a replanning of the line, with the stations originally to have been in BC relocated to the Yukon in Canada.

The Soviet threat was still there, however, and something needed to be done. Despite the difficulties between the US and BC, and despite BC's withdrawal from the Mid-Continent Line project, the US nevertheless invited BC to join the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) formed by Canada and the US in 1958. BC, however, was reluctant to join; the initial British Columbian position - playing along with public opinion - was that the border dispute had to be settled before any other BC–US matters could be dealt with. Over the next few years, the US continued to try to convince BC to join, but BC became further reluctant; through informal contacts with the RCAF, along with previous experience with the Pinetree Line, the RBCAF came to the conclusion that as willing as the US was to fund the construction of new radar stations, it was not very forthcoming with the information gleaned by those stations.

Nevertheless, the BC government and Chiefs of Staff were fully aware that facing the Soviet threat would be much easier if the effort were coordinated with the USAF and the RCAF; politics played a role, however, and as long as public opinion was strongly anti-American, as it was in the 1956–1959 period, Prime Minister W. A. C. Bennett was unable to do anything that seemed to be bowing to American pressure (at least, not if he wanted to be re-elected!). By 1962, however, BC quietly began discussing joining NORAD, and in late 1963, the US State Department accepted American responsibility for the accident between the USCGC Dexter and the HMBCS Skidegate in a statement that was carefully worded to avoid mention of whose jurisdiction the incident took place in. This went over reasonably well with the BC public, and there was little reaction when, in 1964, BC officially joined NORAD.

As part of BC's contribution, the RBCAF had to raise two interceptor squadrons. The US recommended that the RBCAF get the F-104 Starfighter for these squadrons, suggesting that having a common type between the three participating air forces would be a good thing, and also suggesting that BC could buy Canadian-made CF-104s from Canadair. The RBCAF agreed with the line of reasoning, but reserved the right to decide for itself, and in the event considered several other aircraft alongside the F-104.



Two CF-104s, along with RCAF crews, arrived in BC in 1965 to assist the RBCAF in extensively testing the type; RBCAF testers also travelled to the UK, Sweden, and France to test the BAC Lightning, the SAAB Draken, and the Mirage III respectively. Later in the year, a number of RBCAF pilots were sent to Edwards AFB in California, where they received training on the F-104. By this point, the officers who had been in Europe had returned to BC, and it was taken as a given that the RBCAF would be getting Starfighters to fulfil BC's portion of NORAD air defence efforts.

Thus it came as a considerable surprise when in September of 1966 the RBCAF announced it was placing an order with British Aircraft Corporation for 24 Lightning F.6 single-seat interceptors and 4 Lightning T.55 two-seat trainers to equip the two interceptor squadrons. The Americans were a bit miffed, and some suggested that BC never had any intention of buying the F-104 and that the whole affair was orchestrated as a way for BC to thumb its nose at the US while appearing not to do.

2 Sqn RBCAF ("Thunderbird"), which had stood down after the end of the war, was the first to equip with the Lightning, receiving their aircraft in 1967 and deploying to RBCAF Dease Lake; 1 Sqn RBCAF ("Raven") converted to the Lightning later that year and deployed to RBCAF Kemano, both in the extreme north-west of BC near the Alaska Panhandle. The Lightnings remained in service in BC as front-line interceptors until 1985, after which the four T.55 trainers were transferred away from the squadrons to the Flight Training School at RBCAF Comox. They remained flying there until 1991, after which they were retired and sent to various technical colleges around the Dominion for use as instructional airframes.

Only three F.6s have been preserved, one at the Air Force Museum in Abbotsford, one as the gate guard at RBCAF Kemano, and one - kept airworthy - owned by a private collector in Cranbrook.