WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

Test pilot George Aird ejected from his Lightning F1 aircraft, 1962. This is the story behind the famous picture of the test pilot George Aird ejected from his Lightning F1 fighter plane. The picture was taken by Jim Meads on September 13, 1962. It was published in newspapers all around the world at the time and many people thought it was fake until the Ministry of Defence tried to put a “D Notice” on the photograph banning its publication, which confirmed that it was indeed real and not a fake. The aircraft in the photograph was XG332. It was built in 1959, one of 20 pre-production Lightnings. The Lightning was the only British designed and built fighter capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2 to serve with the Royal Air Force. A unique feature of 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 fr