British Aircraft Corporation Tsr 2

The TSR2 is one of the greatest 'what-if' aircraft of the Cold War, whose cancellation still generates anger and controversy among aviation fans. It was a magnificent, cutting-edge aircraft, one of the most striking of the Cold War, but fell victim to cost overruns, overambitious requirements, and politics. Its scrapping marked the point when Britain's aerospace industry could no longer build world-class aircraft independently. After the demise of TSR2 the RAF's future jets would be modified US aircraft like the Phantom and pan-European collaborations like Tornado and Typhoon. In this book the eminent air power analyst and ex-Vulcan bomber pilot Andrew Brookes takes a fresh, hard-headed look at the TSR2 project, telling the story of its development, short career and cancellation, and evaluating how it would have performed in Cold War strike roles as well as in the recent wars in the Middle East.

More than forty years after its cancellation, the BAC TSR2 is still a controversial aircraft. Years ahead of its time, it was abruptly cancelled by a new government when flight testing had ony just begun. Built to a demanding RAF requirement , the BAC TSR2 was a revolutionary low-level strike aircraft able to deliver a tactical nuclear weapon at supersonic speed and low altitude to evade enemy radar. This fascinating new book describes in detail the aircraft, its history and the events of its cancellation. Many hitherto unseen photographs and diagrams support the detailed text, which benefits from extensive research in the BAC archives and access to newly rediscovered material.

This is a welcome revised and enhanced second editionof this comprehensive, accurate and honest account of the TSR2 strike aircraft's fascinating story, tracing the project's development from its Cold War origins in the 1950's to its final cancellation in 1965. Aimed at aviation historians and those interested in the history of military technology, the book examines the RAF's TSR2 project in detail, eliminating the many myths and misconceptions that have surrounded this aircraft for decades. Although much has been written about the TSR2's history, a great deal of misinformation has been published on this subject which this book dismisses presenting the reader with a complete and realistic overview of the entire project. This book deals with the facts and not the emotion, speculation and fantasy which has plagued the subject for so long. It presents a detailed, factual and very readable account of the development and subsequent demise of TSR2 project. For this new edition an additional chapter concerning the F-111K, extracts from the TSR2 Crew Manual and other declassified technical TSR2 documentation, has been provided by Tony Buttler, the author of our respected British Secret Projects series who has researched this era of British military aviation for many years.

In Aircraft Stories noted sociologist of technoscience John Law tells “stories” about a British attempt to build a military aircraft—the TSR2. The intertwining of these stories demonstrates the ways in which particular technological projects can be understood in a world of complex contexts. Law works to upset the binary between the modernist concept of knowledge, subjects, and objects as having centered and concrete essences and the postmodernist notion that all is fragmented and centerless. The structure and content of Aircraft Stories reflect Law’s contention that knowledge, subjects, and—particularly— objects are “fractionally coherent”: that is, they are drawn together without necessarily being centered. In studying the process of this particular aircraft’s design, construction, and eventual cancellation, Law develops a range of metaphors to describe both its fractional character and the ways its various aspects interact with each other. Offering numerous insights into the way we theorize the working of systems, he explores the overlaps between singularity and multiplicity and reveals rich new meaning in such concepts as oscillation, interference, fractionality, and rhizomatic networks. The methodology and insights of Aircraft Stories will be invaluable to students in science and technology studies and will engage others who are interested in the ways that contemporary paradigms have limited our ability to see objects in their true complexity.

A detailed yet eminently readable photographic history of the development of the TSR-2, with photographs drawn from the BAE Systems Heritage archive at Warton. It will concentrate on the aircraft development rather than the political background to the story. The author has researched original sources from the BAe archives at Warton Heritage Group, and uses a compelling array of unpublished photographs and material to illustrate the story. This new book will have a wide appeal and will revive the debate about this beautiful but ill-fated aircraft. Although various proposals, under the designation OR (Operational Requirement) 343, were considered for a replacement of the existing Canberra bomber, in 1959 the go-ahead was given to the British Aircraft Corporation submission, named the TSR.2. This stood for Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance 2. As is often the case, the original estimates for the TSR.2 were overtaken by rocketing costs. Two prototype aircraft were completed and the first test flight was made on 27 September 1964 with Roland Beamont at the controls. In the course of testing, the TSR.2 was found to meet easily the demanding performance specification. Aerodynamically the aircraft was trouble-free, though there were continual problems with the engines and the undercarriage. By now, some in the RAF were coming to favour the American General Dynamics F-111 over the TSR.2. The new Labour government, which came to power in 1964, at first denied that it was going to drop the British aircraft but in the budget speech of 6 April 1965, the Chancellor announced the cancellation of the TSR.2 in favour of the F-111 on the grounds that the American aircraft would prove cheaper. Subsequently, this decision was used to berate the Labour government by those of an opposite political persuasion who always found it difficult to accept that Britain was no longer the force in world affairs it once had been. The fate of the TSR.2 was seen by some as a metaphor for the decline of Britain itself. This view was reinforced by the famous aircraft designer Sir Sidney Camm, who said, 'all modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR.2 simply got the first three right.' Although only flown as a prototype, the TSR.2 has become a perennially popular and controversial subject. This book will provide an in-depth and balanced view of the project.

The British Aircraft Corporation was formed from The Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric, Vickers-Armstrong and Hunting in 1960. In its short, seventeen-year, life, the British Aircraft Corporation built some of the most important aircraft and missiles of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond: its best-known products included the Jaguar and Tornado warplanes, Rapier missile and One-Eleven airliner. It was also responsible for the stillborn TSR2 strike aircraft, the 1965 cancellation of which remains controversial to this day. Most famously, the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner came from the BAC stable. BAC was subsumed into British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) in 1977, but many of its products remain in service to this day. This book tells their complete story.