![[TSR.2 Prototype flying by]](graphics/tsr2/flyby.png)
A multi-role fighter/bomber which never made it to production.
1957 saw the announcement by the Air Staff that they required a Tactical Strike/Reconaissance (hence TSR) aircraft. However the requirement document was a little more wide ranging than that. The fact that the craft should be capable of missions over the USSR with inflight refueling sugested a certain strategic component to its mission profile. Although officially it was a replacement for the Canberra it was obvious that it was also seen as either a replacement or addition to the V-bombers. Although the UKs nuclear capability had been transfered to the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines the Air Force wished to retain a nuclear capability. Hence the TSR.2 would also be capable of this role.
The specification for this craft stated that it should be capable of a very low level attack at subsonic speeds with a supersonice dash over the target. When flying at high altitudes the plane should be capable of crusing at Mach 2.
1959 saw the first use of the name TSR.2 to describe what had previously been known as OR.339. It was argued that the Canberra had been TSR.1 but some point out that the prototype of the Fairy Swordfish was also TSR.II in its day. It was also decided that one squdron of TSR.2 aircraft should be completed by 1965.
The British Aircraft Corporation was created from Vickers-Armstrong, English Electric and Bristol Aeroplane to design, develope and build this new plane. Then engines where to be built by Bristol-Siddeley Engines which had recently been formed from Bristol Engines and Armstrong-Siddeley.
The project was dogged by bad management, rising costs and slipping deadlines. Pretty much like every defence contract in the history of the world. The first plane finally took to the air on the 27th of September 1964. By now the project cost 240 million pounds and way behind schedule.
In October a new government was voted in and they emidately reviewed the TSR.2 project looking at alternatives such as the American TFX project, later known as the F-111. Later that year the Defence Secretary sugested that TSR.2 and a number of other projects should be scrapped since the TFX would be cheaper. The fact that it was not nearly so far through development did not seam to matter, nor did its escalating costs.
April 1965 saw the cancellation of the TSR.2 announced in parliament. It was said that the cost of development now estimated at 750 million pounds plus the 5 million pounds per aeroplane cast was not cost effective. Denis Healey profetically announced that "Britain can no longer afford to produce combat aircraft for its own armed forces only". It was also at this time that it was revealed that the government intended to purchase the General Dynamics F-111A to fulfil the TSR.2 role.
![[TSR.2 parked on a runway]](graphics/tsr2/parked.png)
Although the project was scrapped the Bristol-Siddely Engines Olympus 22R Mk.320 engines later turned up as the Rolls-Royce Olympus engines, four of which where used to power Concorde. Another survivor from the project was its terrain following radar which later turned up in the Tornado Fighter/Bomber.
Perhapse the ultimate irony is that in 1968 the UK cancelled its option on the F-111 as it had fallen below specification, was badly delayed and had run up expenses eaven greater than those of the TSR.2 project. The role which it should have filled and that the TSR.2 had been designed to fill was finally filled by two aircraft. The F-4 Phantom was to be used for tactical attack and the Buccaneer, rejected in favour of the TSR.2, was to be used for long-range strike.
The various strengths and weaknesses of the planes mentioned above can be seen in the following table.
| Type | BAC TSR.2 | Blackburn Buccaneer S.2 | G.D. F-111A |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engines | Bristol Siddeley Olympus Mk.320 | Rolls-Royce RB168 Spey Mk.101 | P&W TF30-P-3 |
| Thrust | 13865kg | 5105kg | 8380kg |
| Dry Thrust | 8880kg | 5435kg | |
| Wing Span | 11.28m | 13.41m | 19.20m / 9.74m |
| Length | 27.13m | 19.33m | 22.37m |
| Height | 7.32m | 4.97m | 5.22m |
| Wing Area | 65m2 | 47.82m2 | 48.77m2 |
| Empty Weight | 20334kg | 13608kg | 20920kg |
| Maximum Weight | 34500kg | 28123kg | 44780kg |
| Fuel | 25404l | 19090l | |
| Load internal | 6 * 454kg | 4 * 454kg | 2 * 340kg |
| Load external | 2722kg | 5443kg | |
| Maximum Speed | 2185km/h | 2337km/h at 16290m | |
| Low Level Speed | 1352km/h | 1040km/h | 1470km/h |
| Ceiling | +12190m | 17900m | |
| Action radius | 1850km | 2140km | |
| Range | 3700km | ||
| Maximum Range | 6860km | 5090km |
![[TSR.2 takes off]](graphics/tsr2/takeoff.png)
For a start it looks cool. It is an extremely distinctive plane with its long almost missile like feusalage and short wings with downturned tips.
Secondly, from what I can tell through the telescope of history and filter of suposition it was cool. Certainly the table above sugests it would have out performed its sugested and actual replacements in some cases by quite a way.
Finally it demonstraited the traits of a super-cruise capable fighter/bomber before either of those terms had been coined.
![[TSR.2 in full flight]](graphics/tsr2/headon.png)
The TSR.2 is a shining example of what can happen when management don't
pull their weight in supporting the engineering effort. It also demonstraits
the bizzare accountancy logic which states We will kill this project which
is nearly finished and into which we have plowed much money in favour of this
other project which hasn't started yet but costs less than what we have spent
already.
Since writing the original versin of this page I have had a few brief words with someone who was more closely involved with this project than I ever have been. For a start, they where alive at the time and more importantly they where serving with the armed forces. The impression I got was that the TSR.2 was a design many decades ahead its time. What it really wanted to be was a fly-by-wire fighter/bomber. It was so crammed full of gadgetry all of which was at the really pointy end of the cutting edge of technology that it was increadibly expensive to mantain. More importantly its wiring harnes was of such gargantuan proportions that one bullet or piece of shrapnel through one of the cabling conduits would leave it out of commision for weeks while technicians tried to work out exactly which wires had been severed.
If the designers of the time had at their disposal our modern optical-fibre multiple redundent path technology and of course the ubiquitous VLSI chip the story of the TSR.2 may have been very different.
I hope some day to be able to see one of these planes for myself and when I do you can be assured that I will put some pictures up on this page.
Thanks to Emmanuel Gustin whos web page I shamelesly plagerised in compiling the history section.