Russia’s development of ground to air missiles made this plane obsolete. Ask Gary Powers. It would have been a pilot killer and a waste of time and money.
@@mikeharland3358 it was designed to attack airfields and missile sites to counter that threat to V-bombers. However, it was taking too long and its in-service date was to be the same year as the V-bombers were to be withdrawn (1970). Had it been in service as originally planned (1964-5) it would have been different, but the UK aircraft industry went through serious issues even before the 1957 defence review (Sandys report) massively cut funding, making development continuity almost impossible. So in a sense, it was defeated by surface-to-air missiles, but British ones.
@@MarkBrown-gc6hr not as quickly. A supersonic Buccaneer was proposed but never developed, and was proposed before TSR-2 was cancelled. Whether it could have delivered a product soon enough is another matter. Controversially, to get something with the required capability in 1964, the Mirage IV had the speed, or the A-5 Vigilante. On internal fuel, none had the range to get as far as Moscow, even one way. The Buccaneer was better in that regard, but of course very much slower, although it's not as if the TSR-2 was necessarily supersonic all the way - it was more typical to have a supersonic burst the last few dozen miles to target.
I.M.O. whilst much of the work on getting the thing flying - supersonically on one occasion - had been done, "proof of concept" & more, the still outstanding hurdle at the point of cancellation was the *eyewatering* expense developing/implementing the avionics. And the fact that the plane's requirements had changed during the course of its development didn't help. I suspect that the staggeringly high cost of the F35 is bound up with avionics.
@@daffyduk77 Spot on. Anyone who thinks TSR2 was any where near being fit for purpose should read 'TSR 2, with Hindsight', a fascinating paper produced by the RAF Museum.
My old man worked in the drawing office & was furious that Healy pulled it & made sure all the jigs were scrapped so that it could not be resurected & put into production.It was reckoned to be advanced even twenty years later.
The Zero Zero ejection seat was specifically developed for the TSR 2. An interesting what if, the UK lost a lot of excellent engineering talent both from the sweeping cancellation of this and other programs alongside the domestic rocket program. The F111 which is mentioned in a few comments was also very late and massively over budget - it would have been interesting to see which aircraft arrived first. As for the money better spent on other projects, the RAF got lumbered with the Buccaneer it didn't want which was less capable, the Phantom was a stop gap buy as the F111s didn't turn up and Tornado was a european project that was 20 years latter and involved buying technology that was part of TSR 2 from the Americans. Ive little doubt that subject to airframe life issues TSR2s would have been in service ubtil Typhoon arrived as there was plenty of room for the avionics upgrades that were embodied into the Tornado fleet. XR220 at Cosford is more interesting ar as aside from XR219 (destroyed) it was the only one flight ready (due to fly the afternoon of the defence cut announcement) and has retained a lot of its parts - the avionics racks are mostly complete.
Certainly iconic and divisive. The cancellation opened the door for an aircraft that had been available all along but was rejected by the RAF as it lacked supersonic capability. The Buccaneer. In its Spey powered form it proved that trans-sonic low level operations were in fact preferable. What it lacked was a TFR system. And as the MRCA development aircraft showed, it could've been so equipped.
The Buccaneer was already in service. A supersonic version was proposed but not funded. The RAF did want supersonic strike aircraft, which led to the Tornado.
Ugh, this is such a heartbreaker of a story. Imagine having the TSR-2, the Arrow, and the XF-108 Rapier all in operational service, although losing our Rapier wasn’t as criminal as the tragedy of BAC’s and AVRO’s masterpieces.
They were potentially better than the Vigilante & F111. But under very dubious circumstances, they were never allowed to mature past the prototype faze.
Thanks for mentioning these and non one remembers the XF-108 -- essentially the fighter version of the XB-70. Mach 3, it would have kicked ass if it had have been built.
I remember going over the barriers to touch her and rather than being told off by security, I got a wonderful lecture on how difficult it was to create the landing gear. It was as if he was the protector of a sacred thing. Xxx
Dear Paul, Thanks for this film! Your report captured the essential details of the project to bring the TSR2 into service, although I gather that XR222 is an amalgam of the remaining airframes rather than a development aircraft in its own right. The XR220 which is on show at Cosford is a very much more complete version and was ready to fly on the day that the project was cancelled. It was most unfortunate that the program was cancelled after XR219 had made only 25 flights. Roland Beaumont, (who piloted the aircraft on its maiden flight) was of the opinion that it was a winner, but it is still open to question what would have ensued after the test program was completed. Airfix produced an excellent kit in 1/48 scale which is a very good likeness indeed. Unfortunately, it is not in production at this stage and is therefore quite rare. I have built the model and depicted XR219 (with a number of additional modifications) and you may like to view this on my channel. Regards, Z
I know a former V bomber pilot who sat in the cockpit of the TSR2... The cockpit instrumentation layout was, purposely, very similar to the Canberra bomber... obviously other later and more advanced avionics but the basic layout was similar to allow ease of pilot conversion to the newer aircraft.
It was quite possibly capable of Mach 3 at altitude with those afterburning Olympus engines and high wing loading. Structural overheating would have been the limiting factor.
Beamont Bullshite!!! The Aircraft never went faster than Mach 1.1 or higher than 40,000 feet. In fact it only flew Supersonic once!!! The supersonic run was on the 14th flight were the aircraft and a Chase Lightning took off from Boscombe Down, flew over the Irish Sea and landed at BAC Warton. The Lightning was fitted with a highly calibrated airspeed measurement system and data recorder. The two aircraft were suppose to stay in formation for the whole flight as after landing, the data recordings would removed from both aircraft and compared and that would prove that the TSR2's Airspeed measuring system was up to spec!! Problem was when Beamont started his supersonic run, he failed to check that the Lightning Pilot had heard his radio call before lighting one of his burners. The Lighting Pilot missed the radio call as he was heads down in the cockpit dealing with some form of issue on his aircraft. When the Lightning pilot looked up, he saw the TSR2 accelerating into the distance. The Lightning Pilot then pushed his throttles through the gate and caught up with the TSR2 is very short order!!!! So that story is Bullshite!!!
It’s true. If you watch the vid on the TSR2. On the final flight Beaumont had a vibration prob on one engine & therefore only lit one engine afterburner & pulled away from Dell in the Lightening. He caught up of course as He had 2 afterburners available. Would have been interesting to have seen what the performance was with 2 functioning afterburners on the TSR2. I believe this aircraft with so much potential & room for up to date mods would have still been in service alongside the Buccaneers lifespan. Ironically & thankfully we never got the F111, (a flawed design in my book) & made do with the Buccaneers (a superb aircraft in its own right, which did exactly what it said on the tin),which only became available from the RN due to the demise of fixed wing carriers. As always with us, we compromised, as a result of misdirecting funding etc. A tragic tale of the all round crushing of British industry & no foresight & faith to see things through!!
I was keen to see this video as my father worked on the avionics, the (cutting edge) 'head-up display' in particular on this aircraft. I still remember how furious he was at Harold Wilson (etc.) at the time for the cancellation and the instruction to destroy all tooling and parts.
There wasn't anything cutting edge about the TSR.2 fiasco.. The British aviation industry was dying and BACs reach had extended far beyond its grasp. BAC would never develop a single successful aircraft on its own and would require the government to take ownership in 1977.
Very nice clip on the TSR.2! As a Friends of Duxford volunteer, I made the molds and laid up the glassfibre for the replacement bilateral sideways looking navigation radar panels when XR222 was being refurbished back around 2005. Other volunteers fabricated an aluminum frame for the fasteners. It's fun to revisit the results on here almost 20 years later. As a side note, XR222 was painted flat white and later noted that the original paint was glossier.
My trade in the RAF was developed for this aircraft's avionics and weapon delivery systems so not only was the aircraft complex but needed specialists to operate when dispersed. The trade was eventually disbanded in the 80's but many of us would not rescind our trade name. I would like to say I got to work on the TSR2 but the closest I got was polishing the one at Cosford, summary judgement for happenings during a drunken weekend! Although the aircraft was scrapped they couldn't kill the ideas that went into it and many systems today have basis in that aircraft's planned use, albeit much refined and software driven today.
Thanks Paul, yet another great walk-around. I won’t go into all the “why’s” of its cancellation and over-runs, but much of the issue was that the British Government “made” two companies - English Electric and Vickers - merge to create the plane, and from what I read, hated each other and each wanted to do things their way. Never-the-less, you did mention the short landing capability of the TSR-2 and the full trailing edge blown flaps and huge speed brakes, but, although you can see them in the video, you should mention the flaps on the all-moving tails (they called them tailerones). They were serious about making her stop! I have been fortunate to see both surviving aircraft - XR220 in Cosford and XR222 at Duxford.
Interesting picture of the crew in the cockpit locations. In the rear seat was Don Bowen. I worked with him in the 70s on aircraft development in Canada.
The TSR-2 was the British equivalent of the CF-105 Arrow in so much that both were way ahead of anything America had at the time and both were cancelled due to American interference!
@@shrimpflea Unfortunately in this case it was true. The TSR2 did cost a large amount of money, but then cutting edge technology always does. However, the Aardvark wasn't without problems. l believe the consensus of opinion that TSR2 was 'nobbled' by the very influential American aircraft manufactures are probably true..
So amazing the door wheels wouldn't even close as they we're measured incorrectly,,this is the most exaggerated aircraft ever made,I actually think it looked dated in the 70s.
CRAP. Yanks have a MACH 3 capable aircraft in service at this point. The one thing I detest about most British plane spotters is they are as thick as too short planks.
Excellent video. Thanks for the explanation, why the project was abandoned. But I still think it was a pitty. It shows how brilliant british engineering was in the 50's (and still is).
The project was cancelled because the British Government realised it had been a big rip-off. As flying hours on the prototype accumulated, it became obvious that it had too many problems that would require big bucks to fix, yet was never going to be able to do the missions the RAF wanted to be able to do. It didn't have the range to reach any likely enemy border, or reach a likely target assuming it was mid-air refueled at the border. It didn't have the ability to fly supersonic at a low enough altitude to avoid being shot down. The project was also cancelled because budgeting had assumed that Australia would by it, they need to make and export enough to amortise the development cost. But it didn't meet any need of Australia's airforce either, and so Australia refused to buy it.
For anyone interested in the definitive in-depth review of the TSR2, I highly recommend Damien Burke's book TSR2: Britain's Lost Bomber. No affiliation; it's just a fantastically detailed volume.
The Air Ministry took a "Christmas tree" approach to aircraft specifications where they would dangle many extraneous and conflicting requirements onto the key criteria. This made the aircraft difficult and expensive to design and develop. Given the long list there was for TSR2, it is a surprise that it wasn't expected to operate under water...
@@JohnSmith-ei2pzalthough there were only two different airframes, which was a requirement for only one of the four services that ordered Tornado, the RAF. The equipment fit and some of the software was service specific. The MarineFlieger requirements were different to the Luftwaffe which were different to those of the Italian airforce which were different to those of the RAF. I am not sure but I think the midlife upgrades from GR1 to GR4 were probably more divergent across the four services. The difference between TSR2 and MRCA is the former was for one country whereas the latter was originally going to be more than the three countries that were involved. The single biggest problem was coordination of the different manufacturers and developers across the three countries plus outside contractors for the various avionics.
Another great vid, just note that the Olympus 320 used in the TSR.2 bared no resemblance to the Olympus 100s, 201/202 and 301 used in the Vulcan, and the 593 again in concorde shared nothing except the name. there is i Belive still bits of a 320 burried in the walls of one of the test cells at Patchway after it made an uncomanded dissasembley of its self at high power settings.
Australia considered the British aircraft Corporation TFX (Tactical Fighter Experiment/Air Force/Navy Carriers/even Ground Attack). It morphed into the TSR-2 (Tactical Strike Reconnaissance-2), eventually opting for the General Dynamics F111 for similar missions, few of which seemed successful in American eyes. Australia kept them until years after US Airforce abandoned them. The Aussie F111 limped on until about 2011. thanks again.
I would not say that the Australian / RAAF F111C's "limped into 2011". They served Australia with distinction. Yes they (in the majority) never saw combat action, although a few of the second hand F111A's purchased in May 1982 had served with the USAF in the Vietnam conflict. Oh and they did not limp into 2011. Retirement day was December 2, 2010. HARS Aviation Museum (at Shellharbour Airport) has tail number 109 the last F111 with its engines operating. What would have happened if Australia had ordered 24 TSR2 aircraft no one will ever know.
This aircraft spent a long time at Cranfield Bedfordshire to instruct students in systems design. 30 years ahead of it's time. I stood under the bomb doors with my hair just touching, I was 6' tall at the time, and looking in the bomb bays was a marvel or a nightmare for a plumber.
Even though the end result of the cancellation of the TSR program was an improved Blackburn Buccaneer you could say that the money saved ended up being channelled into the Tornado program.
Beautiful design and fabrication. I as an American object to all the interference the United States has engaged in against Great Britain. A separate issue is that UK should have given greater support to it's industry. The Harrier was to be upgraded to a truly world class fighter though the politicians killed it I think while it was in production. I have flown extensively on British Airways on their Beautiful 747s and 777s. That is my experience and contribution to British Aviation.
The truth is the Americans did not directly to destroy the British aircraft manufacturers beyond producing superior aircraft at a reasonable price and the cancellation of the Sybolt nissile. By the time the TSR-2 came along the British economy could no longer support its development. Apart from the cancellations due to the cancellation of the Skybolt some ten major aviation projects were cancelled prior to the cancellation of the TSR-2.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 The United States actively destroyed British global trade during WWII. The United States opposed the British Commonwealth and even today destroys British Petroleum in Russia. The British economy could not support well look at what we did to the Concorde? Canada should be a tremendous British resource the fact that Canada seems to offer little strength to England appears to exhibit a weakness in English Society.
@@josephpiskac2781 Concorde was half-French and we honoured international agreements in those days. As for Canada, they are not a British asset and have not been so since becoming an independent nation, and even before that they didn't have to follow whatever Britain wanted (under the Statute of Westminster. That selfsame document allowed Irish Free State, still part of the Empire at that point, to remain neutral in WW2. PS only fools mistake Britain with England.
You are totally right about the destruction of all planes and machinery, i worked for a retired RAF administrator who told me in 1970 he burnt the relevant paperwork to the air ministry from the American government telling them just that, also in the paperwork was a veiled reminder that the Aardvark F111 had already been sold to the Australian airforce (which it hadn’t) and the TSR2 would be in direct competition, remember we owed the Americans money and the new government in the UK needed more money, this is fact, i even emailed James Paterson author of ‘empire of the clouds’ about it who was too late to put it in his book
"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: Span, Length, Height and Politics. TSR2 simply got the first three right." - Sir Sydney Camm. We are very fortunate a couple of airframes remain given the destruction at the time. I recall for many years this sat outside at Duxford looking quite sad but a hugely significant airframe. I might be wrong but sure I read somewhere Thatcher's Govt revisited the programme viability briefly in the 80's. Like the Avro Arrow and others I am sure, a great 'what if' ?
Camm talked Bollocks as well. Politics didn't kill this aircraft, what killed it was it didn't Work!!! The whole design was plagued with design flaws that were not fixable. In the Archives of BAC Warton is a Classified BAC report about the problems with the aircraft written in January 1965, three months before the project was cancelled. It was kept Secret from the Government and the RAF. Had the RAF known the full extent of the issues they would have pulled the plug immediately.
@@richardvernon317 Oh boy! You've really got it in for this aircraft haven't you? Show us the *actual contents* of this "classified BAC report" then please?
l recall there was a TSR2 on Foulness Island.... l believe it was used as gunnery target practice..What an ignominious end for such a beautiful aircraft...
That question? "Britan's best ever aircraft never made?" - well it was made. I remember the way the British aviation industry was betrayed by Westminster. And I saw the TSR-2 planes being trucked off to the scrap merchants. As recall it might have been a political matter involving "war debts" so you ended up with American Phantoms, and Germany got Star-fighters and many funerals of pilots. TSR-2 had a special cold war role that no other plane would properly meet, and none did. Those times we thought anything was possible - even going to the moon, but this was not about supporting the ingenious British designs and builders, it was political. Political just like Concord was - and so Concord became a British French build. I recall development of the Harrier too, but Britain licensed that plane to the USA. We saw British aviation suffocated all but to death.
Ross King Prof. of Sustainability Management, BMP - I witnessed this in action at the time. Imv cancellation was a manifestation of the impact of the upper tier of the post-War class system on UK aerospace, automotive and local engineering and banking, with its focus on the City, country seats, tousling for office while a small subsection was discretely preparing for neo-liberal arrival in the 70s. Imv, its almost too late but time to recognise this and wake up. Happy to consider invitations to speak.
The American's tried the same thing with Concord & ensured it would never be successful by limiting its supersonic range over their airspace & refusing to buy them. Yet somehow people keep on about how they're our closest allies ......... only when it suits their needs!!
i AGREE and these low born friendly fire yansk cant win a war without begging the UK to help them and worse they KNOWINGLY funding the IRA via Noraid. THe only good yank is a silent one!"
Excellent work Paul! I love not watching and doing video tours of aircraft especially in museums! Greta job my friend and this is such a great video and the Imperial War Museum Duxford is Definitely on my list of aircraft museums to visit and “vlog tour” around it! 😁
I started work for BAE at Strand Rd in ‘85. I was recruited by the then works manager who had been with the company for eons, including time as the manufacturing / production engineer on TSR2 He was the first person I ever met who showed any criticism of this aircraft. The point he made was that the airframe, in particular, but the whole air system in general was so complex and so far ahead of its time it would have bankrupted the company. The success rate of producing the integrally machined skins was in the low 10’s of percent. The aircraft was just to advanced for BAE to build at that time.
BAC attempted to build TSR.2... The entire country went bankrupt in 1965. BAC was bankrupted by Concorde, the company's second colossal failure sent BAC tits-up and it was forced to merge with Hawker Siddeley becoming a government owned company called British Aerospace (BAe) Early test flights of the TSR.2 were more than disappointing and revealed that that BAC was incapable for meeting the design requirements TSR.2 was a humiliating boondoggle...
Minor point, but as Bee Beamont related it to me the problem with his vision was caused by engine vibration, unfortunately at exactly the power setting needed in the circuit. He played with the throttles to identify the RPM range that caused the issue and landed with asymmetric power. The undercarriage problems were several, but the important one was that aerodynamic loads were causing microswitches that controlled the retraction/extension process to fail to operate correctly. This made it impossible to retract the gear or left the bogie assembly hanging vertically rather than rotating to the horizontal. However, in this case Bee was able to touch down gently and use the runway to rotate the wheels to the normal position.
Takeoff in a short distance? I'd like to see that compared to the F-111 in a fly-off competition. The one thing I can see this plane does better than the F-111 is the seating arrangement, which the US Navy buggered up for the F-111.
Hi Paul. Being a avid lover of the F 1-11 ( especially its dump and burn )....this has now left me wondering if in a " sliding doors " moment of time , this plane had become the more successful of the 2, and the F 1-11 got relegated to history instead ? I guess, thats one for the Multiverse.... Lovely looking plane though, and thanks for explaining the gold windows.... the reality of why they were gold, is a stark reminder of the nature of a nuclear war 😢
Always remember a comment in an article about the TSR2 and the story of the whole project "once again a country's armed force has found it's most dangerous adversery is so often it's own politicians!"-so very true! Thank so much for the post Auckland New Zealand 2023
In the case of the TSR-2 it was the cuts to aircraft funding in 1957 causing part of the delays, plus the selection of Polaris that killed it. By 1964 the RAF didn't want it either as it would have been too late into service (1970) to do the mission specified in its OR which ended in 1970.
Years ago I put a lot of time into improving a 1 to 48 vacuform kit of this aircraft. This walkaround proves it still stands up to scrutiny. Such videos would have helped though. The time I spent sorting out the right panel lines on the basis of the limited material available was already a Herculean task. 😉
UK are brilliant at making prototypes but my past experience from 13 years of working on IUKADGE/RAF ground-equipment (Improved UK Air Defence Ground Environment) for many years, not being from UK myself), was that ex. the radios were not really refined for serial production, but you surely have some brilliant ideas and engineers for those prototypes. We used to joke about parts of the IUKADGE, which surely was groundbreaking engineerings work in the 80´s should have been sent to the US for refinement and then to Japan for serial production to the sites, now that would have made a perfect EW-site :-D My thoughts are it's a bit the same with the TSR-2 at the stage where it was when scrapped as you are on about with the distance from prototype to operational AC, but what a nice plane (and unfortunately, what a sad ending to it)
On my first visit to Duxford I couldn't believe my eyes that a TSR2 was exhibited, as I knew it had been shelved before it was in production. The first thing that struck me was how small the wing surface area was, in comparison to the adjacent Concorde (which wasn't that much bigger). How it could take off was a mystery. It's a lot bigger than the Tornado which has many design similarities.
If that is what you have to tell yourself in order to make excuses for why the program failed go for it. The FACTS are the F-111 was a better aircraft that cost less. Hell even the A-5 Vigilante was a better aircraft than the TSR-2.
@@Bellthorian i agree, but the UK never bought any of those jets , UK Goverment in the 70's was shite , they poured money into the Nimrod project but canceled it , its radar thought phone boxes were travelling at 400 knots , so we ended up buying E3 Senrtys AWACS.
It went supersonic once with only one engine on reheat & left it’s English Electric Lightning chase plane behind. Criminal we never got see it’s full potential 😏
A reality check needed yes the TSR2 was a technical marvel BUT the specification it was built to.was already obsolete before it was rolled out. In the late 1950's and early 1960's other nations had very advanced aircraft that were left behind by the changes in the threats they faced. UK requirements would have been better met by the proposed advanced development of the Buccaneer which would have allowed more time for an even more advanced Tornado and money to fund UK civil aviation aircraft designs and engines
What a lot of people don't know is that the KGB had become extremely successful in penetrating these high-tech military programs, at the time, and stealing high value jet fighter technology. As an example, the Canadian Avro program was completed penetrated and its technology was used for the creation of the MiG25. Various fighter jet programs' information (including full built air crafts) had to be destroyed to limit KGB espionage.
How about the YF-12 ? After learning from a retired USAF chap , that YF-12 pre and post flight requirements were insane , yes , a fighter with the flight parameters of YF-12 would be very critical to have today , at the time , YF-12 was a first strike offensive weapon system with hilarious levels of requirements , and the accountants always get a say in these matters .
The YF-12(A-12) was in a completely different class and performance envelope than TSR.2. More spacecraft than aircraft at Mach 3.3 and over 90,000 feet.
Sadly I think the cancellation was actually a good decision. The prototype revealed (like the F-111) many problems that would have taken years and a lot of money to resolve. And the operational requirements had ridiculous cost drivers e.g. specifying a short take off capability for a supersonic long-range low-level nuclear strike aircraft! The electronics were indeed leading edge on paper, but most systems were never tested and they were valve based! Even if they actually worked as promised, reliability and maintenance would have been huge and costly issues. The Buccaneer (short-term) and MRCA Tornado (long-term) made a lot more sense. If at great cost TRS.2 had become operational in the early 1970's, a decade later it would surely have started to look like a white elephant, with no obvious replacement.
You state in the video that the aircraft was some way from service. The reality is somewhat different. Over 30 test flights had been conducted in XR219 and the bugs mostly ironed out (Particularly that with the landing gear which had caused multiple issues). The expensive part of the programme was already behind it and it was a matter of refinement through later test flights before production. In terms of performance, TSR2 may well have exceeded the stated spec - On the only occasion it went supersonic, the escorting Lightning fighters couldn't keep up with it on full reheat whilst the TSR2 only had reheat engaged on one engine! (Bear in mind that the Lightning was one of the fastest interceptors in the world at the time). Australia was also looking at TSR2 to replace their Canberras which with the RAF order would have decreased production costs - This is what brought the attention of the Americans who were looking to sell F111 overseas. When the Labour government came to power, one of the first things they did was cancel TSR2 - Sources close to the government at the time have since stated this was because the UK needed an IMF bailout and the Americans were threatening to block it if the project continued, this would also explain the total destruction of the ability to manufacture in future if another government decided to do so. The government then ordered F111 - Ironically, this order was cancelled a few years later when F111 fell victim to delays, cost overruns and also some crashes where the sweep wing technology failed. With a gap in RAF capability, the Royal Navy Buccaneer was adopted as a stop gap until another aircraft could fill the gap - This was eventually the Panavia Tornado but not until the 1980's. The RAF could have had the most capable strike aircraft in the world with TSR2 at the time but political interference killed it, just as it had done with the Canadian Avro Arrow before it. Apart from the Hawk trainer, the UK has never independently produced a combat aircraft since as the jobs lost and constriction of the military aircraft industry after TSR2 has made it all but impossible
The test program revealed a deeply flawed aircraft with very disappointing performance, well below specification requirements even without the years of remedial engineering and testing needed the TSR.2 would have been completely obsolete upon introduction to RAF operational service.
Like this one too sir. I like planes and u tube has breathel life into more than a few that never saw production. The avro arrow is another. Do any of those air frames still exist?
The TSR.2 was one of many shameful and humiliating failures in British aviation history... that has been repainted by revisionist authors as the greatest aircraft ever built... pure British science fiction.
Australia considered buying the TSR-2 but the US had been Australia's most important ally since 1942. The F-111 had a fine record of service with the RAAF until 2011 and most of us wish that it was still flying. The Wilson Labor government cancelled the TSR-2 along with its policy of withdrawal from "East of Suez" which was not well received in Australia at the time. The reality is that in the early 60s, Australia knew that, unlike the USA, Britain's days as a global power were numbered. I suspect that elements within the RAAF and Dept of Air in Canberra also remembered the difficulty Australia had in obtaining modern aircraft from Britain in WWII which has been documented by numerous historians such as David Horner and David Day. Lord Beaverbrook was responsible for Australia building the Beaufort which its test pilot had described as a terrible bombing platform and the Spitfires Churchill had promised after the destruction of Darwin arrived in 1943 in worn out and obsolete condition after diversion to North Africa for six months.
XR 222 is a rebuild. All airframes bar one were destroyed, that being XR 220 which as you point out, is in Cosford. 220 was due to have its maiden test flight on the afternoon the project was officially cancelled, meaning only the first prototype XR219 ever flew. That had the sad end of being filled with concrete and used for target practice
Yes I filmed xr220 last month and plan to publish a video. While I couldn’t get into the cockpit, more of it is open so the film should include more details.
It was another sell out to cancel the TSR2 My late uncle was one of the designers working on the project and he claimed that most of the teething issues had been overcome or had progress so far that resolutions were going through final testing. Another sell out to USA false promises like the cancellation of the new service rifle of the time (EM2 ?) due to the USA wanting the 7.62 round.
TSR.2 was an unmitigated design failure... a proper British bodge job. BAC was an epic disaster, the company never produced a single successful aircraft design on its own...
The TSR was victim of political sabotage by the labour party especially MP Roy Jenkins who wanted it cancelled infavor for the F 111 I would not be surprised if he was not taking back handers for this decision. So they wanted the F111 but it ran into more design problems that made that made it overrun and even more expensive so much that it too was canceled and the RAF had to use the Buccaneer. It is a perfect example of political short sightedness. The avionics developed for it went on to be used in the Panavia Tornado.
The OR was for a nuclear strike bomber to hit airfields and SAM sites to allow the vulnerable V-bomber force to operate, with an in-service date. In 1963, the projected in-service date was 1970, and that year the UK signed the deal for Polaris, to be fully operational in 1970, with the V-bomber force to be withdrawn. So in 1963 it was dead unless export orders could be found, and those did not materialise. Since 1964 was an election year, its demise was not announced but except as a potential research platform it was over as soon as Mountbatten signed the Polaris deal for the Royal Navy.
The real reason was because the Labour Party and the trade union movement at that time had been completely infiltrated and captured by the Soviet Union and communist sympathizers and active communist agents within its ranks. The Soviets didn’t want Britain to have a nuclear strike capability that far superior to theirs so they ordered its destruction. This was carried out by the incoming Labour gov.
It may have not have gone the distance. But it looks the part being a interments of death, delivering a nuclear bomb to Moscow.!!! Good video Paul, as always!!!
My father was in the RAF at Cranwell just after the TSR2 was cancelled and the Secretary of State for Defence and executives from General Dynamics came to a dining in event and so the story goes things got really heated to the point they left the event early
My old man was in aircraft all his life & thought it a tragedy,he worked in the drawing office designing the tanks & I still have the newspaper clippings he saved at the time highlighting Dennis Healy's treachery.
@@nicholasmorrill4711 Well done your old Man mate, yeah Healy & his defence cut's. The start of destroying British Defence industry from with in during the 70s & 80s with Thatcher in all British Industry.
Unfortunately the test program revealed a deeply flawed and disappointing aircraft. BAC was a collection of failed British companies with far too many managers and too few competent engineers. BAC would never develop a single successful aircraft on its own.
@@nicholasmorrill4711Healey kept the British aircraft industry on life support through a shambolic series of failed aircraft and the collapse of the British economy he delayed the demise of the industry for an entire decade without resorting to nationalization. There were no foreign sales no money to increase subsidies to BAC, the economy collapsed and Britain was bankrupt and had no credit to borrow, it defaulted on its war debts in 1964-65 and again in 1968. Britain could not afford to buy a boondoggle like TSR.2.
I have always liked this plane very much, I think it is very elegant. It is in my group of beautiful planes. Even in the hangar, he is in the good company of similar aviation legends. Thanks for the video.
I would argue that the decision to cancel the TSR2 was the correct one. Once it would have gone into service with the RAF I doubt more than 150 would have been ordered. No export sales as development and running costs would have made it too expensive (See EE Lightning - 64 against hundreds of Mirage, Phantom and MIG 21 sales) and the money saved from this programme went into SEPECAT Jaguar, Hawker Harrier and Panavia Tornado RAF development programmes and Royal Navy's development of the Blackburn Buccaneer and Phantom acquisitions, which I would say was of far more value to the country than an aircraft that would have been dead by the early 80s with little more than 10 years of actual service.
The main reason the EE Lightning didn't enjoy more export sales was because the British Government of the day (Labour) actively dissuaded potential buyers from choosing it - the Luftwaffe were particularly interested in buying Lightnings - until the UK Government advised them that they intended to cancel the program. Instead the got F104's and a lot of pilot widows. Gotta love politicians...
@@jackaubrey8614 Jack - the Luftwaffe signed off on the F104 deal in 1960, for 916 aircraft. It began entering West German service in 1961. This was during McMillan's Tory Government. Labour didn't gain office till 1964. Lightning entered RAF service in 1960. McMillan's Government issued the infamous 'missiles, not jets' 1957 Defence White Paper which threatened to kill the Lightning Programme, it was this Paper that also announced the forced amalgamation and downsizing of Britain's aircraft companies.
It's an absolute tragedy that this never went into production. It could have been a world beater. Thank you for the video.
Russia’s development of ground to air missiles made this plane obsolete. Ask Gary Powers. It would have been a pilot killer and a waste of time and money.
@@mikeharland3358 it was designed to attack airfields and missile sites to counter that threat to V-bombers. However, it was taking too long and its in-service date was to be the same year as the V-bombers were to be withdrawn (1970). Had it been in service as originally planned (1964-5) it would have been different, but the UK aircraft industry went through serious issues even before the 1957 defence review (Sandys report) massively cut funding, making development continuity almost impossible. So in a sense, it was defeated by surface-to-air missiles, but British ones.
@@mikeharland3358 it was designed to operate at very low level, so 1960s SAMs weren't a huge threat to it.
@@wbertie2604ultimately the Buccaneers filled that role as they had terrain following radar and could deliver nukes to Moscow.
@@MarkBrown-gc6hr not as quickly. A supersonic Buccaneer was proposed but never developed, and was proposed before TSR-2 was cancelled. Whether it could have delivered a product soon enough is another matter. Controversially, to get something with the required capability in 1964, the Mirage IV had the speed, or the A-5 Vigilante.
On internal fuel, none had the range to get as far as Moscow, even one way. The Buccaneer was better in that regard, but of course very much slower, although it's not as if the TSR-2 was necessarily supersonic all the way - it was more typical to have a supersonic burst the last few dozen miles to target.
I knew someone who worked on this plane. He always told me about how advanced the TSR2 really was. Years ahead of anything else in terms of avionics.
I.M.O. whilst much of the work on getting the thing flying - supersonically on one occasion - had been done, "proof of concept" & more, the still outstanding hurdle at the point of cancellation was the *eyewatering* expense developing/implementing the avionics. And the fact that the plane's requirements had changed during the course of its development didn't help. I suspect that the staggeringly high cost of the F35 is bound up with avionics.
@@daffyduk77 Spot on. Anyone who thinks TSR2 was any where near being fit for purpose should read 'TSR 2, with Hindsight', a fascinating paper produced by the RAF Museum.
My old man worked in the drawing office & was furious that Healy pulled it & made sure all the jigs were scrapped so that it could not be resurected & put into production.It was reckoned to be advanced even twenty years later.
The Zero Zero ejection seat was specifically developed for the TSR 2.
An interesting what if, the UK lost a lot of excellent engineering talent both from the sweeping cancellation of this and other programs alongside the domestic rocket program.
The F111 which is mentioned in a few comments was also very late and massively over budget - it would have been interesting to see which aircraft arrived first.
As for the money better spent on other projects, the RAF got lumbered with the Buccaneer it didn't want which was less capable, the Phantom was a stop gap buy as the F111s didn't turn up and Tornado was a european project that was 20 years latter and involved buying technology that was part of TSR 2 from the Americans.
Ive little doubt that subject to airframe life issues TSR2s would have been in service ubtil Typhoon arrived as there was plenty of room for the avionics upgrades that were embodied into the Tornado fleet.
XR220 at Cosford is more interesting ar as aside from XR219 (destroyed) it was the only one flight ready (due to fly the afternoon of the defence cut announcement) and has retained a lot of its parts - the avionics racks are mostly complete.
Certainly iconic and divisive. The cancellation opened the door for an aircraft that had been available all along but was rejected by the RAF as it lacked supersonic capability. The Buccaneer. In its Spey powered form it proved that trans-sonic low level operations were in fact preferable. What it lacked was a TFR system. And as the MRCA development aircraft showed, it could've been so equipped.
The Buccaneer was already in service. A supersonic version was proposed but not funded. The RAF did want supersonic strike aircraft, which led to the Tornado.
A gorgeous, gorgeous plane. Amazing how small the back of the Lancaster looks compared to it!
I have never found the words to express my fury. This was the start of the mess our country is in now!
😂 It’s all the foreigners fault..
The fall and decline of the UK. Grasping at straws. Inability to look at things objectively. Sad and delusional.
@@johndavies4919 We used to be called Great Britain once.
@@johndavies4919 What an arrogant comment.
@@johndavies4919 obviously a labour commie in our midst
One of the most beautiful combat aircraft ever made - BAC (Vickers) TSR-2! 👍👍👍
No an extremely long & ugly a/c!
@@JohnSmith-ei2pz it looked sleek and futuristic, not like the ugly X-32!
Ugh, this is such a heartbreaker of a story. Imagine having the TSR-2, the Arrow, and the XF-108 Rapier all in operational service, although losing our Rapier wasn’t as criminal as the tragedy of BAC’s and AVRO’s masterpieces.
The Arrow was OBSOLETE which is why it was canceled. The TSR-2 while a good aircraft was inferior to both the F-111 and the A-5 Vigilante.
They were potentially better than the Vigilante & F111. But under very dubious circumstances, they were never allowed to mature past the prototype faze.
And the XB-70...
Thanks for mentioning these and non one remembers the XF-108 -- essentially the fighter version of the XB-70. Mach 3, it would have kicked ass if it had have been built.
@@Bellthorian Thanks for the shot in the reality arm of the Arrow. The Arrow was only advanced in two realms and NO ONE talks of them.
I remember going over the barriers to touch her and rather than being told off by security, I got a wonderful lecture on how difficult it was to create the landing gear. It was as if he was the protector of a sacred thing. Xxx
Dear Paul,
Thanks for this film!
Your report captured the essential details of the project to bring the TSR2 into service, although I gather that XR222 is an amalgam of the remaining airframes rather than a development aircraft in its own right. The XR220 which is on show at Cosford is a very much more complete version and was ready to fly on the day that the project was cancelled.
It was most unfortunate that the program was cancelled after XR219 had made only 25 flights. Roland Beaumont, (who piloted the aircraft on its maiden flight) was of the opinion that it was a winner, but it is still open to question what would have ensued after the test program was completed.
Airfix produced an excellent kit in 1/48 scale which is a very good likeness indeed. Unfortunately, it is not in production at this stage and is therefore quite rare. I have built the model and depicted XR219 (with a number of additional modifications) and you may like to view this on my channel.
Regards,
Z
I know a former V bomber pilot who sat in the cockpit of the TSR2... The cockpit instrumentation layout was, purposely, very similar to the Canberra bomber... obviously other later and more advanced avionics but the basic layout was similar to allow ease of pilot conversion to the newer aircraft.
I heard that a Lightning was used as a chase plane on some flights and the TSR2 only needed one afterburner on to lose the Lightning.
It was quite possibly capable of Mach 3 at altitude with those afterburning Olympus engines and high wing loading. Structural overheating would have been the limiting factor.
Not what actually happened
Beamont Bullshite!!! The Aircraft never went faster than Mach 1.1 or higher than 40,000 feet. In fact it only flew Supersonic once!!! The supersonic run was on the 14th flight were the aircraft and a Chase Lightning took off from Boscombe Down, flew over the Irish Sea and landed at BAC Warton. The Lightning was fitted with a highly calibrated airspeed measurement system and data recorder. The two aircraft were suppose to stay in formation for the whole flight as after landing, the data recordings would removed from both aircraft and compared and that would prove that the TSR2's Airspeed measuring system was up to spec!! Problem was when Beamont started his supersonic run, he failed to check that the Lightning Pilot had heard his radio call before lighting one of his burners. The Lighting Pilot missed the radio call as he was heads down in the cockpit dealing with some form of issue on his aircraft. When the Lightning pilot looked up, he saw the TSR2 accelerating into the distance. The Lightning Pilot then pushed his throttles through the gate and caught up with the TSR2 is very short order!!!! So that story is Bullshite!!!
It’s true. If you watch the vid on the TSR2.
On the final flight Beaumont had a vibration prob on one engine & therefore only lit one engine afterburner & pulled away from Dell in the Lightening. He caught up of course as He had 2 afterburners available.
Would have been interesting to have seen what the performance was with 2 functioning afterburners on the TSR2.
I believe this aircraft with so much potential & room for up to date mods would have still been in service alongside the Buccaneers lifespan.
Ironically & thankfully we never got the F111, (a flawed design in my book) & made do with the Buccaneers (a superb aircraft in its own right, which did exactly what it said on the tin),which only became available from the RN due to the demise of fixed wing carriers.
As always with us, we compromised, as a result of misdirecting funding etc.
A tragic tale of the all round crushing of British industry & no foresight & faith to see things through!!
@@andrewwmacfadyen6958 What actually happened ?
I was keen to see this video as my father worked on the avionics, the (cutting edge) 'head-up display' in particular on this aircraft. I still remember how furious he was at Harold Wilson (etc.) at the time for the cancellation and the instruction to destroy all tooling and parts.
There wasn't anything cutting edge about the TSR.2 fiasco..
The British aviation industry was dying and BACs reach had extended far beyond its grasp.
BAC would never develop a single successful aircraft on its own and would require the government to take ownership in 1977.
Very nice clip on the TSR.2! As a Friends of Duxford volunteer, I made the molds and laid up the glassfibre for the replacement bilateral sideways looking navigation radar panels when XR222 was being refurbished back around 2005. Other volunteers fabricated an aluminum frame for the fasteners. It's fun to revisit the results on here almost 20 years later. As a side note, XR222 was painted flat white and later noted that the original paint was glossier.
One of my favorite aircraft, thanks for the video Paul, love your work mate!
12 out of 10 for this one Paul no more words needed
My new favourite video! Keep up the good work Paul 👍
My trade in the RAF was developed for this aircraft's avionics and weapon delivery systems so not only was the aircraft complex but needed specialists to operate when dispersed. The trade was eventually disbanded in the 80's but many of us would not rescind our trade name. I would like to say I got to work on the TSR2 but the closest I got was polishing the one at Cosford, summary judgement for happenings during a drunken weekend! Although the aircraft was scrapped they couldn't kill the ideas that went into it and many systems today have basis in that aircraft's planned use, albeit much refined and software driven today.
What a beauty she is, seen the one at cosford last weekend❤
Another great video, Paul. Awesome job.
Thanks Paul, yet another great walk-around. I won’t go into all the “why’s” of its cancellation and over-runs, but much of the issue was that the British Government “made” two companies - English Electric and Vickers - merge to create the plane, and from what I read, hated each other and each wanted to do things their way. Never-the-less, you did mention the short landing capability of the TSR-2 and the full trailing edge blown flaps and huge speed brakes, but, although you can see them in the video, you should mention the flaps on the all-moving tails (they called them tailerones). They were serious about making her stop! I have been fortunate to see both surviving aircraft - XR220 in Cosford and XR222 at Duxford.
Great video! It was such a pity that the American's had to sabotage it. I guess no one would have bought the F111 if this had gone into production.
Australia was the only export customer fir the F-111.
@@JBofBrisbane The UK bought it too, but it was then cancelled due to further defence cuts
Interesting picture of the crew in the cockpit locations. In the rear seat was Don Bowen. I worked with him in the 70s on aircraft development in Canada.
The TSR-2 was the British equivalent of the CF-105 Arrow in so much that both were way ahead of anything America had at the time and both were cancelled due to American interference!
And the Labour Government 🙄
How original, always blame Amercia for your failed projects.
@@shrimpflea Unfortunately in this case it was true. The TSR2 did cost a large amount of money, but then cutting edge technology always does. However, the Aardvark wasn't without problems. l believe the consensus of opinion that TSR2 was 'nobbled' by the very influential American aircraft manufactures are probably true..
So amazing the door wheels wouldn't even close as they we're measured incorrectly,,this is the most exaggerated aircraft ever made,I actually think it looked dated in the 70s.
CRAP. Yanks have a MACH 3 capable aircraft in service at this point. The one thing I detest about most British plane spotters is they are as thick as too short planks.
Excellent video. Thanks for the explanation, why the project was abandoned. But I still think it was a pitty. It shows how brilliant british engineering was in the 50's (and still is).
The project was cancelled because the British Government realised it had been a big rip-off. As flying hours on the prototype accumulated, it became obvious that it had too many problems that would require big bucks to fix, yet was never going to be able to do the missions the RAF wanted to be able to do. It didn't have the range to reach any likely enemy border, or reach a likely target assuming it was mid-air refueled at the border. It didn't have the ability to fly supersonic at a low enough altitude to avoid being shot down.
The project was also cancelled because budgeting had assumed that Australia would by it, they need to make and export enough to amortise the development cost. But it didn't meet any need of Australia's airforce either, and so Australia refused to buy it.
Looks out of this world . Thank you for presenting this
For anyone interested in the definitive in-depth review of the TSR2, I highly recommend Damien Burke's book TSR2: Britain's Lost Bomber. No affiliation; it's just a fantastically detailed volume.
Yes, A book that destroys all the Myths about the aircraft and why it was cancelled. Short Summary being the Bl**dy thing didn't work!!!
Went to Duxford last Monday. I can’t for the life of me remember seeing this one.
I’m American and it breaks my heart this never went into production. Our government puts so much pressure on our Allie’s to buy our hardware.
One of my favourite aircraft! I noticed it in the background of a previous video and thought yippie
I met someone whose father worked on the TSR2. He said it was cancelled because the Americans said they would recall Britain's war debts if it wasn't.
The Air Ministry took a "Christmas tree" approach to aircraft specifications where they would dangle many extraneous and conflicting requirements onto the key criteria. This made the aircraft difficult and expensive to design and develop. Given the long list there was for TSR2, it is a surprise that it wasn't expected to operate under water...
Just like the Tornado a jack of all trades!
There was provision for a snorkel I believe..
So what is wrong with a supersonic strike bomber which you could start using a hand crank, and take off from your back lawn?
@@JohnSmith-ei2pz Originally called the Multi Role Combat Aircraft
@@JohnSmith-ei2pzalthough there were only two different airframes, which was a requirement for only one of the four services that ordered Tornado, the RAF. The equipment fit and some of the software was service specific. The MarineFlieger requirements were different to the Luftwaffe which were different to those of the Italian airforce which were different to those of the RAF. I am not sure but I think the midlife upgrades from GR1 to GR4 were probably more divergent across the four services. The difference between TSR2 and MRCA is the former was for one country whereas the latter was originally going to be more than the three countries that were involved. The single biggest problem was coordination of the different manufacturers and developers across the three countries plus outside contractors for the various avionics.
Another great vid, just note that the Olympus 320 used in the TSR.2 bared no resemblance to the Olympus 100s, 201/202 and 301 used in the Vulcan, and the 593 again in concorde shared nothing except the name. there is i Belive still bits of a 320 burried in the walls of one of the test cells at Patchway after it made an uncomanded dissasembley of its self at high power settings.
I was going to make a similar comment about the engines.
I remember seeing parts from scrapped TSR2s that appeared at Coley’s yard in Hounslow.
Thanks Paul always enjoy your videos, keep them coming
Brilliant engineering and a crying shame it wasn't developed.
Australia considered the British aircraft Corporation TFX (Tactical Fighter Experiment/Air Force/Navy Carriers/even Ground Attack). It morphed into the TSR-2 (Tactical Strike Reconnaissance-2), eventually opting for the General Dynamics F111 for similar missions, few of which seemed successful in American eyes. Australia kept them until years after US Airforce abandoned them. The Aussie F111 limped on until about 2011. thanks again.
The F-111 was an AWESOME attack aircraft. It is overlooked in Desert Storm but it was the workhorse attack aircraft for the USAF in that campaign.
I would not say that the Australian / RAAF F111C's "limped into 2011". They served Australia with distinction. Yes they (in the majority) never saw combat action, although a few of the second hand F111A's purchased in May 1982 had served with the USAF in the Vietnam conflict. Oh and they did not limp into 2011. Retirement day was December 2, 2010. HARS Aviation Museum (at Shellharbour Airport) has tail number 109 the last F111 with its engines operating.
What would have happened if Australia had ordered 24 TSR2 aircraft no one will ever know.
This aircraft spent a long time at Cranfield Bedfordshire to instruct students in systems design. 30 years ahead of it's time. I stood under the bomb doors with my hair just touching, I was 6' tall at the time, and looking in the bomb bays was a marvel or a nightmare for a plumber.
Even though the end result of the cancellation of the TSR program was an improved Blackburn Buccaneer you could say that the money saved ended up being channelled into the Tornado program.
and Jaguar
@@dcanmore and 50 Buccaneers.
Beautiful design and fabrication. I as an American object to all the interference the United States has engaged in against Great Britain. A separate issue is that UK should have given greater support to it's industry. The Harrier was to be upgraded to a truly world class fighter though the politicians killed it I think while it was in production. I have flown extensively on British Airways on their Beautiful 747s and 777s. That is my experience and contribution to British Aviation.
The truth is the Americans did not directly to destroy the British aircraft manufacturers beyond producing superior aircraft at a reasonable price and the cancellation of the Sybolt nissile. By the time the TSR-2 came along the British economy could no longer support its development. Apart from the cancellations due to the cancellation of the Skybolt some ten major aviation projects were cancelled prior to the cancellation of the TSR-2.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 The United States actively destroyed British global trade during WWII. The United States opposed the British Commonwealth and even today destroys British Petroleum in Russia. The British economy could not support well look at what we did to the Concorde? Canada should be a tremendous British resource the fact that Canada seems to offer little strength to England appears to exhibit a weakness in English Society.
@@josephpiskac2781 Concorde was half-French and we honoured international agreements in those days. As for Canada, they are not a British asset and have not been so since becoming an independent nation, and even before that they didn't have to follow whatever Britain wanted (under the Statute of Westminster. That selfsame document allowed Irish Free State, still part of the Empire at that point, to remain neutral in WW2.
PS only fools mistake Britain with England.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 Neil main issue with TSR2 was it was loaded with design flaws across the board that could not be fixed.
@@richardvernon317 yes, there were flaws. But if the economy had been sound we might have solved them and not cancelled it.
There were parts for the TSR @ The number one school of technical training many decades ago.
You are totally right about the destruction of all planes and machinery, i worked for a retired RAF administrator who told me in 1970 he burnt the relevant paperwork to the air ministry from the American government telling them just that, also in the paperwork was a veiled reminder that the Aardvark F111 had already been sold to the Australian airforce (which it hadn’t) and the TSR2 would be in direct competition, remember we owed the Americans money and the new government in the UK needed more money, this is fact, i even emailed James Paterson author of ‘empire of the clouds’ about it who was too late to put it in his book
"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: Span, Length, Height and Politics. TSR2 simply got the first three right." - Sir Sydney Camm. We are very fortunate a couple of airframes remain given the destruction at the time. I recall for many years this sat outside at Duxford looking quite sad but a hugely significant airframe. I might be wrong but sure I read somewhere Thatcher's Govt revisited the programme viability briefly in the 80's. Like the Avro Arrow and others I am sure, a great 'what if' ?
Camm talked Bollocks as well. Politics didn't kill this aircraft, what killed it was it didn't Work!!! The whole design was plagued with design flaws that were not fixable. In the Archives of BAC Warton is a Classified BAC report about the problems with the aircraft written in January 1965, three months before the project was cancelled. It was kept Secret from the Government and the RAF. Had the RAF known the full extent of the issues they would have pulled the plug immediately.
@@richardvernon317 Oh boy! You've really got it in for this aircraft haven't you? Show us the *actual contents* of this "classified BAC report" then please?
I was lucky enough to see the TSR-2 take off once from Filton. I was about 11 years old then.
Great video I’ve just subscribed very interesting and informative there’s a TSR2 at RAF Cosford near me so glad they were preserved.👏👏
l recall there was a TSR2 on Foulness Island.... l believe it was used as gunnery target practice..What an ignominious end for such a beautiful aircraft...
That question? "Britan's best ever aircraft never made?" - well it was made. I remember the way the British aviation industry was betrayed by Westminster. And I saw the TSR-2 planes being trucked off to the scrap merchants. As recall it might have been a political matter involving "war debts" so you ended up with American Phantoms, and Germany got Star-fighters and many funerals of pilots. TSR-2 had a special cold war role that no other plane would properly meet, and none did. Those times we thought anything was possible - even going to the moon, but this was not about supporting the ingenious British designs and builders, it was political. Political just like Concord was - and so Concord became a British French build. I recall development of the Harrier too, but Britain licensed that plane to the USA. We saw British aviation suffocated all but to death.
Ross King Prof. of Sustainability Management, BMP - I witnessed this in action at the time. Imv cancellation was a manifestation of the impact of the upper tier of the post-War class system on UK aerospace, automotive and local engineering and banking, with its focus on the City, country seats, tousling for office while a small subsection was discretely preparing for neo-liberal arrival in the 70s. Imv, its almost too late but time to recognise this and wake up. Happy to consider invitations to speak.
The American's tried the same thing with Concord & ensured it would never be successful by limiting its supersonic range over their airspace & refusing to buy them. Yet somehow people keep on about how they're our closest allies ......... only when it suits their needs!!
i AGREE and these low born friendly fire yansk cant win a war without begging the UK to help them and worse they KNOWINGLY funding the IRA via Noraid. THe only good yank is a silent one!"
Excellent work Paul! I love not watching and doing video tours of aircraft especially in museums! Greta job my friend and this is such a great video and the Imperial War Museum Duxford is Definitely on my list of aircraft museums to visit and “vlog tour” around it! 😁
Thank you Paul, a very nice and informative video.
I started work for BAE at Strand Rd in ‘85.
I was recruited by the then works manager who had been with the company for eons, including time as the manufacturing / production engineer on TSR2
He was the first person I ever met who showed any criticism of this aircraft.
The point he made was that the airframe, in particular, but the whole air system in general was so complex and so far ahead of its time it would have bankrupted the company. The success rate of producing the integrally machined skins was in the low 10’s of percent.
The aircraft was just to advanced for BAE to build at that time.
BAC attempted to build TSR.2... The entire country went bankrupt in 1965.
BAC was bankrupted by Concorde, the company's second colossal failure sent BAC tits-up and it was forced to merge with Hawker Siddeley becoming a government owned company called British Aerospace (BAe)
Early test flights of the TSR.2 were more than disappointing and revealed that that BAC was incapable for meeting the design requirements
TSR.2 was a humiliating boondoggle...
Minor point, but as Bee Beamont related it to me the problem with his vision was caused by engine vibration, unfortunately at exactly the power setting needed in the circuit. He played with the throttles to identify the RPM range that caused the issue and landed with asymmetric power. The undercarriage problems were several, but the important one was that aerodynamic loads were causing microswitches that controlled the retraction/extension process to fail to operate correctly. This made it impossible to retract the gear or left the bogie assembly hanging vertically rather than rotating to the horizontal. However, in this case Bee was able to touch down gently and use the runway to rotate the wheels to the normal position.
Thanks for the extra info
Takeoff in a short distance? I'd like to see that compared to the F-111 in a fly-off competition. The one thing I can see this plane does better than the F-111 is the seating arrangement, which the US Navy buggered up for the F-111.
Hi Paul.
Being a avid lover of the F 1-11 ( especially its dump and burn )....this has now left me wondering if in a " sliding doors " moment of time , this plane had become the more successful of the 2, and the F 1-11 got relegated to history instead ?
I guess, thats one for the Multiverse....
Lovely looking plane though, and thanks for explaining the gold windows.... the reality of why they were gold, is a stark reminder of the nature of a nuclear war 😢
The F-111 was superior in every way so I doubt that would happen.
gold leaf in the windows is to reflect heat, ie Concorde, and to dissipate radar ie, f18 f35
111...
@@Bellthorian F-111 had some serious design issues, but they were no way as bad as what was embodied in TSR2
@@Bellthorian And maintained @ BAe Filton
I never realised that a TSR2 had survived - I'd heard that that all aircraft and associated equipment were destroyed (by order!).
It's not even the only one that survived, there's another but I forget where or how complete it is.
@@owensmith7530 Part of an airframe at Brooklands.
@@richardvernon317 And there's a complete one at RAF Cosford as the video said.
Always remember a comment in an article about the TSR2 and the story of the whole project "once again a country's armed force has found it's most dangerous adversery is so often it's own politicians!"-so very true! Thank so much for the post Auckland New Zealand 2023
In the case of the TSR-2 it was the cuts to aircraft funding in 1957 causing part of the delays, plus the selection of Polaris that killed it. By 1964 the RAF didn't want it either as it would have been too late into service (1970) to do the mission specified in its OR which ended in 1970.
If you can get hold of a copy, for it makes for an interesting read, "The Murder Of TSR-2" by Stephen Hastings. It's all about the politics of TSR-2.
Thanks for the suggestion
Years ago I put a lot of time into improving a 1 to 48 vacuform kit of this aircraft. This walkaround proves it still stands up to scrutiny. Such videos would have helped though. The time I spent sorting out the right panel lines on the basis of the limited material available was already a Herculean task. 😉
UK are brilliant at making prototypes but my past experience from 13 years of working on IUKADGE/RAF ground-equipment (Improved UK Air Defence Ground Environment) for many years, not being from UK myself), was that ex. the radios were not really refined for serial production, but you surely have some brilliant ideas and engineers for those prototypes. We used to joke about parts of the IUKADGE, which surely was groundbreaking engineerings work in the 80´s should have been sent to the US for refinement and then to Japan for serial production to the sites, now that would have made a perfect EW-site :-D My thoughts are it's a bit the same with the TSR-2 at the stage where it was when scrapped as you are on about with the distance from prototype to operational AC, but what a nice plane (and unfortunately, what a sad ending to it)
On my first visit to Duxford I couldn't believe my eyes that a TSR2 was exhibited, as I knew it had been shelved before it was in production.
The first thing that struck me was how small the wing surface area was, in comparison to the adjacent Concorde (which wasn't that much bigger). How it could take off was a mystery. It's a lot bigger than the Tornado which has many design similarities.
For all you modellers out there, the one at Cosford has an engine on display alongside and also several panels open.
My Dad worked on TSR2 and Concorde.
Another very interesting video, thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Test bed for terrain following radar which ended up in the tornado. Did its job.
Stunning aircraft
The way our government kow-towed to the neurotic yanks in the 50's and 60's was sickening.
If that is what you have to tell yourself in order to make excuses for why the program failed go for it. The FACTS are the F-111 was a better aircraft that cost less. Hell even the A-5 Vigilante was a better aircraft than the TSR-2.
@@Bellthorian i agree, but the UK never bought any of those jets , UK Goverment in the 70's was shite , they poured money into the Nimrod project but canceled it , its radar thought phone boxes were travelling at 400 knots , so we ended up buying E3 Senrtys AWACS.
Well, they had our arm twisted behind our back as a nation, because we owed them a hell of a lot of money after WWII.
TSR 2 dumped because the yanks said that there pile of shit was superior and they were envious of its obvious
they still do
It went supersonic once with only one engine on reheat & left it’s English Electric Lightning chase plane behind. Criminal we never got see it’s full potential 😏
A reality check needed yes the TSR2 was a technical marvel BUT the specification it was built to.was already obsolete before it was rolled out. In the late 1950's and early 1960's other nations had very advanced aircraft that were left behind by the changes in the threats they faced.
UK requirements would have been better met by the proposed advanced development of the Buccaneer which would have allowed more time for an even more advanced Tornado and money to fund UK civil aviation aircraft designs and engines
My favourite aircraft ever.
What a lot of people don't know is that the KGB had become extremely successful in penetrating these high-tech military programs, at the time, and stealing high value jet fighter technology. As an example, the Canadian Avro program was completed penetrated and its technology was used for the creation of the MiG25. Various fighter jet programs' information (including full built air crafts) had to be destroyed to limit KGB espionage.
Thanks Paul👍✈️🇳🇿
Kinda looks like the Avro Arrow, and the same tragic ending. Maddening.
How about the YF-12 ? After learning from a retired USAF chap , that YF-12 pre and post flight requirements were insane , yes , a fighter with the flight parameters of YF-12 would be very critical to have today , at the time , YF-12 was a first strike offensive weapon system with hilarious levels of requirements , and the accountants always get a say in these matters .
The YF-12(A-12) was in a completely different class and performance envelope than TSR.2. More spacecraft than aircraft at Mach 3.3 and over 90,000 feet.
Sadly I think the cancellation was actually a good decision. The prototype revealed (like the F-111) many problems that would have taken years and a lot of money to resolve. And the operational requirements had ridiculous cost drivers e.g. specifying a short take off capability for a supersonic long-range low-level nuclear strike aircraft! The electronics were indeed leading edge on paper, but most systems were never tested and they were valve based! Even if they actually worked as promised, reliability and maintenance would have been huge and costly issues. The Buccaneer (short-term) and MRCA Tornado (long-term) made a lot more sense. If at great cost TRS.2 had become operational in the early 1970's, a decade later it would surely have started to look like a white elephant, with no obvious replacement.
One of the highlights of visiting Duxford was seeing this remarkable aircraft. It is stunning and beautiful.
Your videos are so interesting!
I see a lot of TSR-2 in jaguar, the nose, tall undercarriage, overall shape has shades as well
I’ve been told that there are some TR2 carcasses buried at the end of the runway at Warton in western Lancashire where they were built ….
Amazing, Paul 🙂
I need to go to Duxford IWM. This was my dads favourite plane.
Yep it's a brilliant museum! You might need two days, though!
You state in the video that the aircraft was some way from service. The reality is somewhat different. Over 30 test flights had been conducted in XR219 and the bugs mostly ironed out (Particularly that with the landing gear which had caused multiple issues). The expensive part of the programme was already behind it and it was a matter of refinement through later test flights before production. In terms of performance, TSR2 may well have exceeded the stated spec - On the only occasion it went supersonic, the escorting Lightning fighters couldn't keep up with it on full reheat whilst the TSR2 only had reheat engaged on one engine! (Bear in mind that the Lightning was one of the fastest interceptors in the world at the time). Australia was also looking at TSR2 to replace their Canberras which with the RAF order would have decreased production costs - This is what brought the attention of the Americans who were looking to sell F111 overseas. When the Labour government came to power, one of the first things they did was cancel TSR2 - Sources close to the government at the time have since stated this was because the UK needed an IMF bailout and the Americans were threatening to block it if the project continued, this would also explain the total destruction of the ability to manufacture in future if another government decided to do so. The government then ordered F111 - Ironically, this order was cancelled a few years later when F111 fell victim to delays, cost overruns and also some crashes where the sweep wing technology failed. With a gap in RAF capability, the Royal Navy Buccaneer was adopted as a stop gap until another aircraft could fill the gap - This was eventually the Panavia Tornado but not until the 1980's. The RAF could have had the most capable strike aircraft in the world with TSR2 at the time but political interference killed it, just as it had done with the Canadian Avro Arrow before it. Apart from the Hawk trainer, the UK has never independently produced a combat aircraft since as the jobs lost and constriction of the military aircraft industry after TSR2 has made it all but impossible
The test program revealed a deeply flawed aircraft with very disappointing performance, well below specification requirements even without the years of remedial engineering and testing needed the TSR.2 would have been completely obsolete upon introduction to RAF operational service.
Like this one too sir. I like planes and u tube has breathel life into more than a few that never saw production. The avro arrow is another. Do any of those air frames still exist?
The TSR.2 was one of many shameful and humiliating failures in British aviation history... that has been repainted by revisionist authors as the greatest aircraft ever built... pure British science fiction.
Australia considered buying the TSR-2 but the US had been Australia's most important ally since 1942. The F-111 had a fine record of service with the RAAF until 2011 and most of us wish that it was still flying.
The Wilson Labor government cancelled the TSR-2 along with its policy of withdrawal from "East of Suez" which was not well received in Australia at the time. The reality is that in the early 60s, Australia knew that, unlike the USA, Britain's days as a global power were numbered.
I suspect that elements within the RAAF and Dept of Air in Canberra also remembered the difficulty Australia had in obtaining modern aircraft from Britain in WWII which has been documented by numerous historians such as David Horner and David Day. Lord Beaverbrook was responsible for Australia building the Beaufort which its test pilot had described as a terrible bombing platform and the Spitfires Churchill had promised after the destruction of Darwin arrived in 1943 in worn out and obsolete condition after diversion to North Africa for six months.
Thatcher destroyed the F1-111! When the wall was torn down!
XR 222 is a rebuild. All airframes bar one were destroyed, that being XR 220 which as you point out, is in Cosford. 220 was due to have its maiden test flight on the afternoon the project was officially cancelled, meaning only the first prototype XR219 ever flew. That had the sad end of being filled with concrete and used for target practice
Yes I filmed xr220 last month and plan to publish a video. While I couldn’t get into the cockpit, more of it is open so the film should include more details.
It was another sell out to cancel the TSR2
My late uncle was one of the designers working on the project and he claimed that most of the teething issues had been overcome or had progress so far that resolutions were going through final testing.
Another sell out to USA false promises like the cancellation of the new service rifle of the time (EM2 ?) due to the USA wanting the 7.62 round.
TSR.2 was an unmitigated design failure... a proper British bodge job.
BAC was an epic disaster, the company never produced a single successful aircraft design on its own...
Plus the tsr 2 was so well built parts were used in future training ..
Great video as always, such a waste of good aircraft, would like to see you so a walk round of the avro arrow
Best ever plane made by Britain was the mosquito. . This one was impressive . But nobody really knows how good it would have been
The TSR was victim of political sabotage by the labour party especially MP Roy Jenkins who wanted it cancelled infavor for the F 111 I would not be surprised if he was not taking back handers for this decision. So they wanted the F111 but it ran into more design problems that made that made it overrun and even more expensive so much that it too was canceled and the RAF had to use the Buccaneer. It is a perfect example of political short sightedness. The avionics developed for it went on to be used in the Panavia Tornado.
The OR was for a nuclear strike bomber to hit airfields and SAM sites to allow the vulnerable V-bomber force to operate, with an in-service date. In 1963, the projected in-service date was 1970, and that year the UK signed the deal for Polaris, to be fully operational in 1970, with the V-bomber force to be withdrawn. So in 1963 it was dead unless export orders could be found, and those did not materialise. Since 1964 was an election year, its demise was not announced but except as a potential research platform it was over as soon as Mountbatten signed the Polaris deal for the Royal Navy.
The real reason was because the Labour Party and the trade union movement at that time had been completely infiltrated and captured by the Soviet Union and communist sympathizers and active communist agents within its ranks. The Soviets didn’t want Britain to have a nuclear strike capability that far superior to theirs so they ordered its destruction. This was carried out by the incoming Labour gov.
It may have not have gone the distance.
But it looks the part being a interments of death, delivering a nuclear bomb to Moscow.!!!
Good video Paul, as always!!!
Not its mission!!!
What a sad end to it. Great video. Thanks
My father was in the RAF at Cranwell just after the TSR2 was cancelled and the Secretary of State for Defence and executives from General Dynamics came to a dining in event and so the story goes things got really heated to the point they left the event early
Sadly we will never know how great this aircraft could of been. A massive step forward's in Aircraft Tech.
My old man was in aircraft all his life & thought it a tragedy,he worked in the drawing office designing the tanks & I still have the newspaper clippings he saved at the time highlighting Dennis Healy's treachery.
@@nicholasmorrill4711 Well done your old Man mate, yeah Healy & his defence cut's. The start of destroying British Defence industry from with in during the 70s & 80s with Thatcher in all British Industry.
Unfortunately the test program revealed a deeply flawed and disappointing aircraft.
BAC was a collection of failed British companies with far too many managers and too few competent engineers.
BAC would never develop a single successful aircraft on its own.
@@nicholasmorrill4711Healey kept the British aircraft industry on life support through a shambolic series of failed aircraft and the collapse of the British economy he delayed the demise of the industry for an entire decade without resorting to nationalization.
There were no foreign sales no money to increase subsidies to BAC, the economy collapsed and Britain was bankrupt and had no credit to borrow, it defaulted on its war debts in 1964-65 and again in 1968.
Britain could not afford to buy a boondoggle like TSR.2.
@@jasonrushton5991By 1977 the defense industry in Britain was little more than a welfare employment scheme
What a beautiful aircraft.
hello paul i see the 748 prototype was retrie at pinal airpark , can we donate that plane to the museum
Can't remember which museum,but stood under open bomb bay probably 55yrs ago..it was going mouldy inside even then!
I have always liked this plane very much, I think it is very elegant. It is in my group of beautiful planes. Even in the hangar, he is in the good company of similar aviation legends. Thanks for the video.
I would argue that the decision to cancel the TSR2 was the correct one. Once it would have gone into service with the RAF I doubt more than 150 would have been ordered. No export sales as development and running costs would have made it too expensive (See EE Lightning - 64 against hundreds of Mirage, Phantom and MIG 21 sales) and the money saved from this programme went into SEPECAT Jaguar, Hawker Harrier and Panavia Tornado RAF development programmes and Royal Navy's development of the Blackburn Buccaneer and Phantom acquisitions, which I would say was of far more value to the country than an aircraft that would have been dead by the early 80s with little more than 10 years of actual service.
The main reason the EE Lightning didn't enjoy more export sales was because the British Government of the day (Labour) actively dissuaded potential buyers from choosing it - the Luftwaffe were particularly interested in buying Lightnings - until the UK Government advised them that they intended to cancel the program. Instead the got F104's and a lot of pilot widows. Gotta love politicians...
@@jackaubrey8614 Jack - the Luftwaffe signed off on the F104 deal in 1960, for 916 aircraft. It began entering West German service in 1961. This was during McMillan's Tory Government. Labour didn't gain office till 1964. Lightning entered RAF service in 1960. McMillan's Government issued the infamous 'missiles, not jets' 1957 Defence White Paper which threatened to kill the Lightning Programme, it was this Paper that also announced the forced amalgamation and downsizing of Britain's aircraft companies.
I remember well the controversy surrounding the project!
Another technological opportunity missed!