 During four years spent working at Farnborough, Multhopp and Winter's studies of swept-wing planforms resulted in the design of a unique high-speed research aircraft to be powered by the Rolls-Royce AJ65 Avon.The salient features included jettisonable wheels (landing was achieved with a retractable skid landing gear), a prone pilot position in the nose with the cockpit enclosure centered in the nose (four windows framed the circular intake), a T-tail and mid-mounted swept-wing, swept at 40˚.The RAE supersonic research vehicle designed in 1947–1948 and intended for speeds up Mach 1.24 at 36,000 ft, may have inspired parts of the design of "Teddy" Petter's Lightning fighter.