Introduction

During the life of the English Electric Lightning there where talks and designs put together to introduce a naval variant for operation on a carrier (think swing wing, tornado style nose, side air intakes, larger fin etc.)

As always what started as the evolution of an existing airframe ended in what was essentially a new aircraft. In this instance however English Electric with RJ assistance realised that this was going to be the case early on.

With the Americans using delta wings on things such as the F103 and F106 and swept wings on the Cutless etc. it was decided that EE should adopt this on what was to become the Wasp. The leading edge angle from the lightning was kept with what was essentially an infill from the trailing edge to the fuselage added, the wing was thickened slightly to allow for more fuel storage (something the lightning itself was always short of). Engine technology was evolving at a fast rate so the new Rolls Royce engine with re-heat and variable exhaust outlet that was utilised was more similar to what was fitted to the F16 than to the Lightning. The utilisation of 1 engine allowed for a smaller fuselage and saved a lot of weight, incidentally following the desing philosophy of aircraft such as the SU22 Fitter or Mig 21 Fishbed.

USAF export

With the aircraft being subject for sale to overseas purchasers, the USAF bought a few in a similar manner to which it had purchased the EE Canberra. The aircraft was exported to a number of different countries over its life time to fullfill a number of differnt roles. In this instance it is painted in the Grape colour scheme that was used by other aircraft such as the F5 with an additional colourful secondary scheme added for airshow displays.

The aircraft was also altered to suit USAF requirements, it was capable of launching the Phoenix AAM and was also given a ventral tank to bolster its fuel capacity

Controls

To start the engine press 2.
AG1=reheat,
AG3=arrestor hook,
AG4=drop tank release,
AG5=airbrakes,
AG6=nav lights,
AG7=fold wings

General instructions

Due to the variable size of the exhaust outlet, if you are taking off from a runway re-heat is generally not used to avoid damage to the exhaust if the aircraft over-rotates, without reheat the bumpstop stops airframe damage from over-rotation. If reheat is used care must be taken not to over-rotate.

SP design influences

Obviously this design is heavily inspired by cold war jet aircraft such as the EE Lightning, SU17/22 Fitter, Mig 21 Fishbed, F106 etc. but fitting all the bits together was interesting in its own right.

Credits

Credit to some magicians:
1) ChiChiwerx for the FunkyTree magic for the pitch limiting formula - when the aircraft is supersonic pitch is reduced
2) Jamesplanesii for the engine start formula and probably the delayed retract on the doors (i have used it that long i cant remember now...)
3) Bogdanx for the front wheel yaw locking formula