BAC Lightning F/A 8

Gallery Article by Andrew Newstead on Jan 4 2010

Silly Week 2010

 

Sorry this is just a drawing but I'm a little tied up over the next few weeks to actually build (always next year).

After the cancellation of TSR 2 the British aircraft industry went into a major lack of confidence.  The only other high-tech project under way at the time was Concorde and the French were worried about our ability to follow through after the TSR 2 debacle. What was needed was a quick project to restore self belief in the industry, preferably on the cheap!

The Lightning was being developed in service into the F6 model at the time and a bright spark in the drawing office at Warton realised that if they increased the wing area the aircraft would gain a useful payload increase that could be used for ground attack ordinance. Given the RAF were looking at acquiring an aircraft of this type BAC's management thought it was worth a shot and would help to buck  up morale after the TSR 2.

As we all know this role was filled by the Hawker Siddley Harrier and the joint Jaguar project, both of which eventually found their way into the BAC aircraft line up so this project did not proceed much beyond drawings but could wonder.

Andrew Newstead

Photos and text © by Andrew Newstead