The £120 million stealth fighter jet went off the ramp at HMS Queen Elizabeth and into the Mediterranean without becoming airborne last November. A long-awaited investigation has now concluded that it is almost certain that a “single engine intake gap” remained inside the engine intake at the time of launch. This “caused a restriction in the flow of air to the engine so that it was unable to produce enough power for take-off”, an interim report by the defense safety authority found. The “intake gap of an engine” is the cover placed across the intake — where the
