Shortly after the sale of the Rolls-Royce Nene, to the Soviets, the MOD realized their serious and grievous error. Fortunately, Britain's famous MI6 was already on the case. They had managed to infiltrate Mikoyan-Gurevich Industries and their development of the I-310 project (MiG-15). In one of the grandest acts of espionage, the MI6 agents copied the plans, and then modified them by making false measurements to cause continuous disruptions of the I-310 project. Through a series of British agents the plans made it to the Ministry of Defence and English Electric aircraft company. English Electric then started construction of P.101A, which would later become the Thunderbolt. By the time the Soviets discovered the leak, the British agents were long gone and so they cancelled the I-310 project. The P.101A's first fight was on December 30th, 1947, and the production Thunderbolt's first flight was a year later. The Thunderbolt was armed with one ADEN 30mm cannon and two Bofors 20mm cannons. The Thunderbolt served in RAF and colonial air forces til it was replaced by the venerable Hawker Hunter.
Basically, a repainted MiG-15. Cause I can, lol!
