English Electric P.1
Варианты:
English Electric - P.1 - 1954 - Великобритания
Страна: Великобритания
Год: 1954


Описание
Фотографии
English Electric Lightning

   В 1963 году образовавшаяся "British Aircraft Corporation" занялась дальнейшей модернизацией перехватчика English Electric Lightning, принятого на вооружение в 1960 году. Его появление возвестило начало новой эры для британских ВВС. Инициатором этого проекта стал В. И. В. "Тэдди" Питтер. Благодаря его дальновидному предложению фирма "English Electric" получила в еще 1947 году контракт на постройку экспериментального сверхзвукового самолета P.1A. Этот самолет с двумя бесфорсажными турбореактивными двигателями Bristol Siddeley Sapphire впервые взлетел 4 августа 1954 года, а в дальнейшем в одном из полетов превысил скорость звука. Были собраны три экземпляра: два для летных испытаний и один для наземных испытаний на прочность. Эти самолеты отличались характерными эллиптическими воздухозаборниками.
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Самолет P.1A - предшественник BAC "Лайтнинга" без носового конуса, РЛС и вооружения
English Electric P.1 WG700 was refurbished at RAF Binbrook in only six weeks. After a long spell exposed to the elements at Henlow it is now to be kept inside the hangars.
The author at the controls of the P.1A WG760 on its first flight with the cambered leading-edge wing - Warton, February 15, 1957.
The technology demonstrator. View of the English Electric P.1 prototype at Boscombe Down in August 1954. The view shows WG760 during its first flight, in the hands of the Roland Beamont, on August 4, 1954.
The second prototype English Electric P.1
The English Electric P.1 will not land at Farnborough owing to Security restrictions. It will fly over on the two public days.
Second prototype English Electric P.1.
The P.1 prototype with the later cambered leading edge modification.
The English Electric P.IA, WG 760, progenitor of the Lightning, perhaps the one really outstanding British fighter of the thirty years following World War II. First flown on 4 August 1954, with 'Bea' Beamont at the controls, the twin 8.100lb s.t. unreheated Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire AS8a5-powered P.1A became the first British aircraft to exceed Mach 1 when it reached Mach 1.02 at 30.000 feet, or 692mph on 11 August just six days into flight testing.
Первый экземпляр P.1A в полете
English Electric’s P.1 was originally conceived in response to Air Ministry Specification F.23/49, which called for a supersonic interceptor capable of destroying high-altitude bombers. The P.1A research protoype, WG760, seen here, first flew in August 1954, but by 1957 the government had begun reshaping its defence policy.
The English Electric P.1 single-seat interceptor is powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires which will probably have afterburning when the P.1 goes into service. It flies faster than sound in level flight without afterburning or any other form of power boosting .
Даже в раннем варианте - без подфюзеляжного топливного бака и с эллиптическим воздухозаборником - в P.1 угадываются черты будущего Lightning.
The English Electric P.1A prototype, WG760, made its first flight on August 4, 1954, and was the basis for the Lightning, the RAF’s first true supersonic fighter, capable of exceeding the speed of sound in level flight. The Lightning would be one of the few survivors of the radical changes in procurement policy during the 1950s.
English Electric P.1А, разработанный в соответствии с той же спецификацией, что и F.D.2, в дальнейшем превратился в истребитель Lightning. Но, несмотря на то, что P.1A и Lightning были очень скоростными, они никогда не использовались для установления мировых рекордов скорости.
Although the English Electric P.1 (P for Pursuit) was first flown by W/C Roland Beamont at Warton, Lancashire, on 4th August 1954, air-to-air photographs (including this one) have been restricted for the past eighteen months. Five prototypes and twenty pre-production P.1As are on order. Power is two 8,000-lb. S.t. Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire axials. All other data is restricted. WG160 is the first prototype.
The English Electric P.1 prototype supersonic fighter to Specification F23/49 photographed on October 10, 1954. ER.110T used F23/49 as a reference point so the five submitted designs might be considered as swing-wing rivals to the P.1.
This fine action study taken at this year's S.B.A.C. Display by the Shell Film Unit reveals the planform of the Sapphire-powered English Electric P.1. This is the second prototype - WG760 was the first - and is one of five which precede the pre-production order for twenty of these supersonic, single-seat interceptors.
The P.1A (WG760) is conducting flight trials with a revised wing shape. This photograph shows that extra area has been added to the wingtips.
P.1A WG 760 is shown with the cranked-wing leading edge and inset ailerons which possibly will be incorporated in production machines.
The second prototype English Electric P.1, WG763, makes a very low, and no doubt very noisy, pass some time after its first flight on July 18, 1955. Fitted with a pair of Aden cannon in the nose, WG763 also incorporated a bulbous belly fuel tank for the two thirsty (although non-reheated) Sapphire engines, mounted one atop the other.
Sequence 1: 112kt at 20,000 ft. Sequence 2: 108kt rolling left. Sequence 3: right stick. Sequence 4: spinning. Sequence 5: pitching down. Sequence 6: yawing left. Sequence 7: yawing left, pitching up and rolling left.
Sequence 8: the end of the first turn but continuing the spin, rolling left into the second turn - 90kt at 18,000ft, having lost 2,000ft in the first turn.
Первый экземпляр P.1A на пробеге после посадки
Other P.1 features shown below are the gunports and ventral bulge on WG 763, and the drooped leading-edge flaps (photo).
English Electric P.1A.
The technology demonstrator. View of the English Electric P.1 prototype at Boscombe Down in August 1954.
P.1A оснащался двумя двигателями Sapphire AS Sa.5, форсированные двигатели установили позже.
Other P.1 features shown below are the gunports and ventral bulge on WG 763 (photo), and the drooped leading-edge flaps.
Lightning lineage at Cosford: from front to back, Short SB.5 WG768, English Electric P.1A WG760 and Lightning F.1 XG337.
The author at the controls of P.1A WG760 at Warton in 1955, before the aircraft had been fitted with the new cambered wing system.
This 1949 wind tunnel model of what was to become the English Electric P. IA of 1954 provides an insight into the vital part the wind tunnel plays in the transition from drawing board to flyable prototype. While recognisable as a precursor of the RAF's Mach 2 Lightning, the tail unit configuration, along with the low mounted wings, caused severe pitch-up forces at transonic speeds. An item of possible interest to trainspotters is the uncanny resemblance of this model's windscreen to that of the Deltic locomotive built for British Rail by another English Electric Division.