cheddar cheese
Major General
The TSR2 (The initials stood for Tactical Strike and Reconaissance 2) can deservedly be called the greatest plane never built. Originally concieved as a replacement for the RAF's Canberra bomber, the design process started in 1956 with a protracted series of proposals and counter-proposals between aircraft manufacturers and the now-defunct Ministry of Supply. With the cost of developing modern aircraft soaring, it became necessary for companies to pool their resources in order to compete, and it was the merging of English Electric with Vickers to form the British Aircraft Corporation, or BAC, that secured the tender to develop the TSR2. The process of tendering had not actually been so protracted that this contract was not actually awarded until January 1960, with the first flight scheduled to be January 1963 and the plane to be in service by 1966.
The government of the day was keen that the management of the project proceed efficiently from now on and to this end looked at American methods of product management, implementing their results with the TSR2 - with disastrous consequences. A nightmare of bureaucracy was born. At one meeting the chairman was concerned that there were too many people present and requested that they reconvene with only essential personnel present; more people turned up for the second meeting than had been at the first! At another the Ministry of Supply had a three hour meeting to decide the positioning of a single switch in the cockpit, only to have it pointed out to them by the cheif test pilot Roly Faulk that the position fixed on made it impossible to reach!
Not suprisingly under the circumstances, the project slipped into delay and overspend and it was not until May 1964 that the first prototype was ready to commence trials. To complicate matters, there was an election looming, and, with the cancellation of the whole project a very real possibility, all the stops were pulled out to get the prototype airborne. Despite dire warnings from the engine manufacturers the flight was duly made on the 27th of September of that year. The flight itself was successful, even though it was impossible to retract the undercarriage!
As time progressed the numourous problems with the TSR2 were slowly ironed out, and from the mass of problems began to emerge an aircraft of quite glittering performance. The undercarriage problem was finally rectified after the 10th test flight, and on flight 14 the aircraft went supersonic for the first and only time, this being achieved with only one engine in afterburn. Things, however, were not well with the project as a whole and on Budget Day, 6th of April 1965, the project was scrapped without warning, to be replaced with F111's bought from the Americans. All toolings and drawings were destroyed, and parts scrapped with only two incomplete prototypes surviving.
In 1981 the government briefly looked at reinstating the TSR2 project, but with the Tornado about to enter service this was soo quietly shelved, perhaps because a brief comparison revealed the TSR2 to be still the superior machine 16 years down the line!
After 14 test flights the TSR2 finally exceeded the speed of sound, but figuratively speaking, the project never got off the ground.
Although it was commissioned in 1959, the TSR2 underwent a long and protracted phase of design and the fir5st prototype was not revealed until 1964.
(All information from the book Speed and Power, all pictures scabbed from people off Google.)
The government of the day was keen that the management of the project proceed efficiently from now on and to this end looked at American methods of product management, implementing their results with the TSR2 - with disastrous consequences. A nightmare of bureaucracy was born. At one meeting the chairman was concerned that there were too many people present and requested that they reconvene with only essential personnel present; more people turned up for the second meeting than had been at the first! At another the Ministry of Supply had a three hour meeting to decide the positioning of a single switch in the cockpit, only to have it pointed out to them by the cheif test pilot Roly Faulk that the position fixed on made it impossible to reach!
Not suprisingly under the circumstances, the project slipped into delay and overspend and it was not until May 1964 that the first prototype was ready to commence trials. To complicate matters, there was an election looming, and, with the cancellation of the whole project a very real possibility, all the stops were pulled out to get the prototype airborne. Despite dire warnings from the engine manufacturers the flight was duly made on the 27th of September of that year. The flight itself was successful, even though it was impossible to retract the undercarriage!
As time progressed the numourous problems with the TSR2 were slowly ironed out, and from the mass of problems began to emerge an aircraft of quite glittering performance. The undercarriage problem was finally rectified after the 10th test flight, and on flight 14 the aircraft went supersonic for the first and only time, this being achieved with only one engine in afterburn. Things, however, were not well with the project as a whole and on Budget Day, 6th of April 1965, the project was scrapped without warning, to be replaced with F111's bought from the Americans. All toolings and drawings were destroyed, and parts scrapped with only two incomplete prototypes surviving.
In 1981 the government briefly looked at reinstating the TSR2 project, but with the Tornado about to enter service this was soo quietly shelved, perhaps because a brief comparison revealed the TSR2 to be still the superior machine 16 years down the line!
After 14 test flights the TSR2 finally exceeded the speed of sound, but figuratively speaking, the project never got off the ground.
Although it was commissioned in 1959, the TSR2 underwent a long and protracted phase of design and the fir5st prototype was not revealed until 1964.
(All information from the book Speed and Power, all pictures scabbed from people off Google.)
The TSR2 was a brilliant design but, as usual, politicians with NO military service had their fingers in their arses. And their other hand gripping every last penny](/forum/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall ](*,)")
