By: viscount - 28th July 2013 at 16:31
Although always a source to be used with a certain degree of scepticism, Wikipedia also quotes the 337 figure.
Production figures for military aircraft are notoriously tricky to pin down exactly – even if you were at the hangar doors counting them out!!
By: ozplane - 28th July 2013 at 16:18
A sombre thought but I seem to recall that about 85 were involved in accidents and crashes. Something like 25%.
By: Zebedee - 28th July 2013 at 15:50
According to UK Serials the P1A’s were as follows…
95001 WG760 EE P.1 A f/f 04/08/54, to 7755M 02/07/1962, pres. RAF Museum, Cosford, Shropshire History
95003 WG763 EE P.1 A f/f 18/07/1955, to 7816M 30/07/1963, to Manchester MoSI 17/08/1982 History
95002 WG765 EE P.1 A Static test airframe
From the RAF Museum:
“1 Apr 50
Two flying prototypes and one static test airframe ordered for evaluation
from English Electric to contract No.SP/6/Acft/5175 CB7 (a).”
Lightning Association has a little additional info here:
http://www.lightning.org.uk/histp1p1b.html
Zeb
By: Wokka Bob - 28th July 2013 at 14:54
Thanks for the additions, yes sideslip, Bryan Philpott’s book gives the best breakdown and is endorsed by Mr Beamont as well!!
Plough, thanks for your correction, I must stop thinking about how much change I have in my pocket at the moment!:apologetic:
Arthur Read’s Modern Combat Aircraft 5 (1979) only comes up with 337.
Putnam’s EE Aircraft and their Predecessors lists 340.
The final book I looked in (Mr Beaumonts ‘EE P1 Lightning’) has a total of 340 produced but only 2 P1A’s?
Some conflicting information on the Saudi contract (additions, losses and the F52/54 aircraft) add to the confusion.
As has been said, there can be many interpretations and we are looking at how many were built (340 now?).
So we await any advance on this.:dev2:
By: plough - 28th July 2013 at 13:52
………according to Brian Barrymore Halfpenny
Bruce Barrymore Halpenny 😉
By: Sideslip - 28th July 2013 at 09:18
Wokka Bob, according to Bryan Philpott’s book there were 3 P 1As. WG760, WG763, & WG765 which was a structural test airframe and never flew.
By: Wokka Bob - 27th July 2013 at 22:36
Total Build according to Brian Barrymore Halfpenny (ISBN 0-85045-562-6) = 339
P.1A – 2 prototypes
P.1B – 3 prototypes
20 Development Batch aircraft
F.1 – 19
F.1A – 28
F.2 – 13 (5 converted to Mk 52s).
F.2A – 31
F.3 – 63 (1 converted to F.53, 2 to F6)
T. 4 – 21 (3 x prototypes)
T. 5 – 23 (1 converted to F.55)
F. 6 – 62
F.53 – 46
T. 55 – 8
By the way, the link in the above post shows 337 total build!:confused:
By: viscount - 27th July 2013 at 21:47
Quick google finds 337 (typo amended from 377 having read next post!) as an answer – but I bet other sources come up with different answers! The real trick is to work out precisely which source is the absolutely correct one!
An answer is in the final few lines of this webpage:
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=229
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July 27, 2013 at 9:22 pm