The most detailed tour of the BAC TSR-2

Guided tour around the BAC TSR2 on display at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands (RAF Cosford). British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 #aviation #airplane #plane
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[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks for watching everyone. Please give the video a thumbs-up as it tells youtube that you like this type of video and helps support the channel. I've got more British videos coming including the Valiant, BAC 1-11, Trident, Vickers Viscount, Monarch and more.

[@CaymanIslandsCatWalks]

I’m so late to the party shaggers! ❤❤

[@christopherfinn7986]

As a Buccaneer nav, 1974 to 1989, with over 2000 hrs on the aircraft I always look at the TSR2 on the aircraft I should have flown. At least in the Bucc I could see where I was going. And I have 125 cats and traps in my logbook which I wouldn’t have got on TSR 2 ! Chris.

[@brianford8493]

so low even a seagull couldn't spend time under it ....all hail the Buccaneer.✌️

[@markrainford1219]

I worked at a customers house many years ago. The neighbour had the front end of a Buccaneer in his back garden. He had converted the cockpit to a flight simulator games console.

[@brianford8493]

@markrainford1219 Brilliant

[@christopherfinn7986]

@@well-blazeredman6187 We got the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile, which was outstanding, and an Inertial Nav system - Plus a modern ESM and defensive aids suite in about 1984. But we were only in the maritime role then (I was the weapons leader on 208 Sqn). We didn’t get the updated radar presentation, with a freeze frame facility, nor the tie-in between the Pavespike pod which would have been so useful in Gulf 1.

[@well-blazeredman6187]

@@christopherfinn7986 Thank you.

[@stevenlane9272]

Great video, I'm going over to Cosford on Saturday and can`t wait to see TSR2!!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Have fun!

[@Luke_Nuke-em]

I live 10 mins away from RAF Cosford. The TSR2 has been one of the main attractions for years. Bravo November is there now which has an awesome back story

[@hordboy]

That is a beautiful airplane, not only in design, but also its upkeep. 👏

[@Kenfrommumbai73]

I work at RAF Cosford ( not at the museum) I often go over in my lunch to have a walk around, I love looking at TSR2, I had the honour of meeting Jimmy Dell one of the test pilots of the TSR2 in the mid 80’s when my dad worked at Namma in Munich. I actually have Jimmy Dell’s flying log book..

[@69waveydavey]

Everybody forgets the human side of this, my Grandad worked on Canberra, Lightning and TSR2 on Radio and Radar electronics. When it was cancelled a bunch of them left for the US and there he stayed, Boeing, Lockheed, TI. Back then it made the local paper for my Dad to ring him after getting married, I only met him a handful of times and sooner or later I'll see him on a photo hopefully.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Yes a terrible “brain drain”

[@Hjd10]

@@69waveydavey, I remember there were some Super Techs who were originally trained to work on the TSR2 (essentially all trades), but the project was cancelled. My old boss trained as one back in the day although he retired in the early 2000’s.

[@nigelfirth1782]

Fascinating, and coincidentally, the current edition of Aeroplane magazine has an extended article on TSR2 which details the cabinet meeting discussing the cancellation of the project. I recommend it if you are interested in our aviation history.

[@willmo1725]

Cool plane sir. Feels like the acro arrow. So many amazing planes that never entered service. Thanks for the show.

[@Lensman864]

The 2nd human here! I've seen the Duxford TSR-2 many times and also visited RAF Hendon several times. This video has motivated me to visit RAF Cosford because I'm only 2 hours away!

[@Hjd10]

@@Lensman864, you won’t regret going to Cosford there are some fantastic aircraft. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to visit.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Cheers human! haha yes I seem to attract a few bots and I'm not sure what they have to gain by commenting. Yes you definitely need to visit RAF Cosford, it's brilliant! I've got a few more videos coming from there. You'll need a full day so get there early.

[@JJUK-uz3zg]

I saw the TSR 2 many times during my time at PEE Shoeburyness. I was there from 1971 to 1973. Both the fuselage and 219 aircraft were on the hard standing at X5 battery, never moved in the two years I was there. They were still there when I returned to Germany in September 1973.

[@FlywithMagnar]

The TSR-2 is the British "what if" counterpart to the Canadian CF-105 Arrow.

[@rattywoof5259]

Yes, just as the Blue Streak rocket was the 'what if' of the UK space industry, murdered by Tony Benn.

[@philPJS]

The CF-105 was actually the TSR2 .......

[@andy.robinson]

Awesome! I live down the road from Cosford. This place will give you enough content for years! 😉

[@MichaelCairns-fv2vi]

The huge american XB Valkerie had similar turned down wing tips..wouldve been fantastic seeing them in the air together

[@badcommando4219]

Love going to RAF Cosford to see the TSR 2. Mega Video Mate!

[@HunterN3rd]

allways love your videos, gives me the opportunity to oogle some planes id never get to lay my eyes on. also love your style of narration. please keep up your great work!

[@well-blazeredman6187]

Fabtastic video, Paul. I had the pleasure of walking around one of these at Duxford, many years ago.

[@rocketpunchgo1]

These videos are the absolute best. Hoping for a Fairey Delta 2 sometime!

[@VAZSFV4]

Thanks!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thank you! :)

[@scotthaskin1509]

Thanks Paul for the video, i visited the UK for the first time this past September and was lucky enough to visit Cosford and see the TSR-2 and many other British aircraft I had never seen! Keep up the great work!

[@AlanRowlandson]

A great video!!! I had the honour of being an exchange Navigator from the RAAF F111 to the RAF Buccaneer in the early 80's. The layout of the cockpit was interesting and challenging for the crew, but the aircraft was a beaut! I am very glad NATO did not go to war during my time there, but if it had, the Bucc would have been my weapon of choice.

[@andrewpattie358]

It's a fantastic video

[@zackaryshipard8572]

Great video love watching them keep up the good work :D

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks, will do!

[@occamsrayzor]

Thank you for an excellent and informative look at this magnificent aircraft. I remember when the TSR2 cancellation was announced and I took it quite personally, even though I was still a kid. It's still one of the most elegant aircraft ever built.

[@davidreding8813]

I sympathize. I'll never forget my disappointment when the XB-70 was canceled.

[@38whitcomb]

Thank you Paul for all of the work that goes into your videos. You must have a lot of respect from the museums as your access to the exhibits is unparalleled

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Cheers!

[@damienburke6292]

A few comments - the Olympus in Concorde and Vulcans was most definitely not the same engine, though obviously related. Top speed would never have been 2.35; 1.8 was the agreement by the time the project was cancelled, and BAC were dubious about even getting to that. The 'trim tabs' on the tailplanes are not tabs, they are flaps that were geared to operate with the tailplane itself to give additional authority, particularly at take-off and landing speeds. Flight testing found the tailplane response to be much more powerful than expected, so the flaps (and nose leg extension) would have been unnecessary - production examples would have had these features deleted and simpler tailerons (as on the Tornado). You refer to prototypes, but technically there weren't any, they were all development batch aircraft. The nuke was the WE177, not WE117 (which is the weapon to satisfy OR 177 you also mention), and Red Beard was long gone by that time. Recce pod including linescan was cancelled before the project's end. Cancellation was inevitable given that it was failing to meet so many parts of the spec, and costs out of control. Sadly much on KZbin about this aircraft is nonsense so it's refreshing to see a video that's largely correct and not hysterical about the cancellation.

[@CanadairCL44]

Great information, thanks!

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

While you're correct about the engines not being the same, (the Olympus 593 on Concorde were 20% larger in diameter), they did show that RR COULD fix the issues with the Olympus and deliver a reliable engine (apparently the reason for dropping the speed requirement in the spec). Without a crystal ball, I'm not sure how you could possibly say "Top speed would never have been 2.35" but it's attitudes like that that see our politicians abandoning British industry and screwing over the economy. I don't understand the contempt for the project from many areas, especially within Britain. They were prototypes in all but name. Supposedly they used production jigs to cut costs (yet again problems with how we finance, or rather, don't finance large and complex projects in the UK... Which lead to delays, cost overruns and cancellations). I'm pretty sure with the number of changes that were being made, would have required rejigging. None of them were insurmountable problems, just none the government was willing to pay to solve... The costs weren't "out of control", just the initial cost estimates were woefully inadequate. But compared to contemporary aircraft, really not that bad. Likewise the recce equipment, cancelled to try to save costs overall. The UK just never seems prepared to pay the cost that it took to develop jet aircraft post-war. There were something like more engineers working on the B-47 than in the whole of the British aerospace engineering combined. Yes it's expensive, but they also becaseme a hugely profitable company (till recently) with sales all around the world. You can't make money unless you invest money.

[@jeremyrichards8327]

I believe having read somewhere ( perhaps Phoenix into Ashes) that the Olympus engines were not the first choice and caused delays due to them being substituted.

[@ENLSN77]

Sweet. I spent a good half hour just walking around and staring at this beast when i visited Cosford.

[@dutchbeef8920]

Looks like RAF Cosford, superb museum. Took my boys there a couple they loved it.

[@dwjr5129]

Kind of an odd looking old bird. Thanks for the tour! Best to you in the new year!

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

It's no coincidence that it looks odd, it didn't fly well either.

[@davefloyd9443]

​@@sandervanderkammen9230 Where are you getting that from? Jimmy Dell - TSR 2 Test Pilot: "Once cleaned up, the immediate impression was of an exceptionally good handling aircraft and one was not conscious of the lack of autostabilisation." "It handled and felt like a heavy Lightning (due to higher stick forces) and it was a great temptation to treat it like a fighter and throw it around. The high speed low-level ride qualities in the primary operational zone were outstanding."

[@simonbird1973]

@@sandervanderkammen9230Broke the sound barrier on one engine 🤡

[@anthonywilson4873]

That is not what the test Pilot said look that up on KZbin. He was disgusted when it was cancelled. Look it up get it straight from the people who were there. They lit one Afterburner up on one engine and the English Electric Lightning had to light both to keep up.

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

@anthonywilson4873 TSR.2 struggled to fly supersonic and suffered from serious engine and aerodynamic issues... it was so unstable in flight that it was grounded, and the test program was suspended until the aircraft underwent major redesign work. Many people lost their jobs as a result of the TSR.2 fiasco. Shame, humiliation, denial and conspiracy theories abound among those who were reluctant to accept that the program was an unmitigated failure.

[@shenmisheshou7002]

The drooped outer wings of the XB-70 were also for stability and not for lift as is often suggested. The vast majority of the lift from the shock wave was actually applied to the bottom of the large , flat under-fueselage engine and bomb bay. There was a very small amount of lift from the wingtips, but the tips allowed the vertical stablizers to be much smaller and shorter, and like the TSR-2, the main purpose of the drooped wingtips was for stability. Great video. Thank you!

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The original design for the Su.24 used a similar wing planform as the TSR2. But they discovered its weaknesses and went with a swing-wing like the F111.

[@chrisbremner8992]

A magnificent piece of British engineering, how the mighty have fallen .

[@brianmaitai7685]

YAP...now the govt needs the GERMANS and ITALIANS to make the Tornado and Eurofighter! SYDNEY CAMM must be rolling in his grave!!!!!!!!!!

[@joebloggs4369]

Not really. It was a magnificent piece of failed British project management, over ambitious specifications and ultimately a disappointing failure reduced to a pretty looking hanger queen.

[@timmurphy5541]

@@joebloggs4369 I don't think this is really a meaningful put-down. Lots of things are difficult to do and the bigger a project the harder it is to manage well. You can only really learn by trying, however, and failures are toll you pay on the road to great achievements. How many rockets blew up before the first spy satellites started to be useful for example? I cannot remember but it was a lot and a huge waste of money in one sense but in another .... the US got the capability in the end and it was crucial. Britain has lots of project management failure stories and I'm continually "in" tiny versions of them right now in my current work - people still have a cultural attitude here of wanting the fanciest thing and thinking they've got some way to do it on the cheap. By the time they muddle through and get whatever it was, it seems less fancy and its' limitations are now apparent....then on to the next improperly understood idea. IMO to get good project management you need to have experience of lots of projects and a lot of domain knowledge - project managers who don't understand programming are useless, for example, and I assume the same is true for construction or aerospace or anything else.

[@amandarhodes4072]

@@joebloggs4369 The TSR-2 shared a similar design requirement to the F-111 which had a great service record aside from the maintenance issues. It was the US wanting to sell the UK F-111 at a cheaper price than the TSR-2 that ultimately doomed the project. America benefitted most from the deal selling the UK a F-111 variant we had to pay extra to receive and rid the F-111 of it's primary market competitor at the same time. We never even received the F-111s either and ended up making the tornado as a replacement. So we wasted the oportunity to make a state of the art aircraft for nothing.

[@joebloggs4369]

@@amandarhodes4072 F-111 was a multi-role combat aircraft. TSR 2 was tactical bomber with some reconnaissance abilities. They were completely different. TSR2 was doomed long before F111 appeared on the scene when its main role vanished with the advent of tactical delivery by missile. Nuclear bombers became a thing of the 50s. It was doubly doomed when Mountbatten, then the Chief of Defence Staff, told the Australian delegation that had came to investigate buying it that it would never be built. With no role to serve, it made no sense to continue with it. The F111 was a far better plane than TSR2 in every possible measure. It was an aircraft for the 70s, whilst TSR2 was an aircraft for the 50s. But, in the end, the price it was offered at rose substantially during development and it too was cancelled. There was no deal with Americans to scrap TSR2 and buy F111. There were many in the UK government that thought is was a RAF vanity project that the country could ill afford, including Mountbatten and Dennis Healey warned BAC, when he was in opposition, that he was going to demand a fixed price and a date of service when a Labour government got into power as it was money disappearing down a black hole with little progress that the country could not afford. When they did get in, Healey gave BAC one last chance to save it and give him a price and date. After a year of dithering, BAC gave him an entry of service date of "early 1970s" but refused to give him a price. So he cancelled it, then approached the Americans regarding the alternatives. After all, who was going to need a nuclear bomber in the 1970s? The Americans made various offers including the F111 which Britain signed up for but cancelled when the price went through the roof. They had to pay a cancellation fee, but that was fiddled into a deposit for the F4 Phantom by creative accounting, which they ultimately got and served with the Buccaneer to fill the role of TSR2 at a lot less money. By the end, even the RAF had lost interest in TSR2.

[@scottl6012]

Great video. Alot of good info as always.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@oml81mm]

Very good and interesting tour. Many thanks for your work.

[@markzed66]

Sneaky Aussie Canberra there at the start. Great Video. Paul. 👍

[@MillwalltheCat]

Good informative vid. Had a good look around the TSR-2 at Duxford in 1979. It was quite a bit weather beaten, and the finish of the paintwork was very matt, though I'm not sure if that was just age or factory.

[@stuartwoolley1442]

Nice one! Keep up the great work. Thank u!

[@nickmanhota324]

I love RAF cosford, remember my dad telling me about the white elephant and how good it was. 😢

[@robbiephillipstravelsofple4790]

Happy New Year Paul. One of the best British aircraft that never made it

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

Wishful thinking... there were some very good reasons why this aircraft was canceled.

[@richardvernon317]

@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke Yes, like it was totally incapable of meeting any of its operational requirements!!

[@petemaly8950]

​@@richardvernon317 Of course without doubt it is correct to note that the TSR-2 was completely capable of performing all it's design specifications & more. Indeed it goes without saying that sub launched ballistic missiles carrying nukes became one of the preferred methods of delivery of course.

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

@@richardvernon317 Indeed, in a nutshell that is exactly what happened..

[@sadflandnav]

Thank you for the awesome video

[@TheWGLOVER]

Well put together video and great commentary.😊

[@koh_ling]

Such a well done video Paul! Happy new year to you and family 🎉

[@keithammleter3824]

Paul, i think you got the terrain radar proposed for the TSR-2 mixed up with the F-111 radar as far as function is concerned. The F-111 had a switch with three positions - hard, medium and soft or words to that effect. Hard being ground hugging and soft being a flight path high enough to smooth out the ride. The F-111 flew completely automatically in all three modes. The TSR-2 did not have this capability, though something like it was proposed for later. Incidentally, RAAF pilots found they could only take hard mode for a very short time - less than a minute.

[@roberttalarsky4238]

Great show thanks for your hard work

[@ozzy7763]

Wow !!!!! I did not know that there was a TSR on exhibit anywhere, I was under the impression that they had been scrapped, maybe I’m confusing the Avro Arrow with thE TSR , anyways awesome video so nice to get to look at one in detail !!

[@percyprune7548]

There are 2. Some part completed airframes went to a firing range as targets to test weapons. Tragic. Unfortunately, correct about the Arrow but there is a replica mock up of it. Would love to see a TSR2 restored to airworthy condition - could never happen though.

[@ozzy7763]

@ some truly beautiful aircraft came out of this era it’s a shame none were saved for flying examples!

[@markrainford1219]

Afterburner sounds awesome. Reheat sounds like a dull TV dinner.

[@afterburner33]

One of the great aviation 'what ifs', along with the CF-105 Arrow.

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

@@afterburner33 two very different aircraft... canceled for very different reasons

[@afterburner33]

@@sandervanderkammen9230 Well of course they were - that much is obvious. But they were both highly advanced aircraft which were cancelled when they could have been world beaters ... or massive flops. Hence the 'what if' for both...

[@CB-ke5ev]

"what if" much more money was wasted. The UK was bankrupt and it was cheaper for them to buy something from the Americans than develop itself.

[@steveburke7675]

Many US aircraft were also cancelled due to improvements in Soviet SAMs including the XB-70 and B-58...the conspiracy theories on this are juvenile. High speed/ high altitude aircraft simply became obsolete.

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

@afterburner33 The Arrow was an aircraft without an engine, the Orenda Iroquois was a failure. The Canadian government could not afford to continue developing the Arrow without a foreign investment. The TSR.2 was doomed from inception, a hopeless failure across the board, it had engine problems, aerodynamic problems, it's was massively overweight and it's avionics and flight control systems needed major remedial engineering and redesign work. The TSR.2 was so unstable in flight that it was grounded for safety concerns. Faced with the reality that the TSR.2 would never be the aircraft it asked for, RAF quickly lost interest. Britain was completely bankrupt in 1965 and defaulted on it war debt payments to America and Canada, even with a foreign order, Britain had no money to continue operating the TSR.2 program or subsidizing BAC.

[@That_Stealth_Guy]

This aircraft and the F-108 Rapier were two of the most amazing looking aircraft. To this day they still look like they are flying at mach 2 even while sitting still.

[@quattro4s]

And the legendary XB-70. Aviation perfection at its best moment

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

​@quattro4s compared to the B-70 the TSR.2 looks like a turd...

[@MichaelOxlongerThanYours]

If you think this looks good you should look up the American A5C Vigilante. It was similar in scope to the TSR2 but it was both Carrier and Nuclear capable

[@That_Stealth_Guy]

@@MichaelOxlongerThanYours I was lucky enough as a child to see the fly while it was still in service

[@CaptainJohn]

Love this plane. It’s like the Avro Arrow and the F-104 had a baby!

[@LastGoatKnight]

One of the first human commenters here, please everyone report the bots so KZbin finally notices this problem

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Something a bot would say 😳

[@GEODUCK9]

​@@RobertCraft-re5sf bahhh baaaaah 🐑

[@mstevens113]

They notice but just don't care as long as they are making money.

[@kiwidiesel]

What does the bot say?

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Serious question, what does the bot have to gain by commenting in these videos? I'm not complaining as they help with user engagement with my videos but I don't understand what they get out of it?

[@AC_702]

The TSR2 was an amazing idea and great looking aircraft, but you are right that given its complexity, it would’ve sucked up even more money had it not been cancelled.

[@CanadairCL44]

This aircraft at the time was so far ahead of anything else technologically,, it was a world beater. The Russians and the USA didn't like it, ( they were afraid it would affect sales of the F111. That is probably, almost certainly why the RAAF subsequently bought the F111, they had no choice, ) It was criminal that Harold Wilson, Labour prime minister of the UK ordered that the project should be cancelled immediately. He even ordered that all technical drawings, jigs and fixtures should be completely destroyed to prevent the project from ever being revived. When Barnes Wallis died, MI5 went through all his personal papers in the loft at his house and confiscated them to prevent them falling into foreign hands. It is not known whether these were destroyed or still exist in secure storage somewhere. We will probably never know. Remember, there are still rumours that Wilson was actually working for the Russians!

[@imperialinquisition6006]

@@CanadairCL44 F-111 sales were pretty bad regardless. I'm not sure that any of these advanced bomber aircraft would have sold well, being quite complex and expensive. I'm a big fan of all of them though, the F-111 is really cool and the TSR-2 looks amazing in my opinion.

[@CanadairCL44]

@@imperialinquisition6006 Both good aircraft, just a pity the TSR2 was never given the chance to prove itself.

[@ElaniMoonstaf]

Such a well done video ! Happy new year to you and family 🥂

[@brucevilla]

Thanks for Uploading.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

You're welcome

[@daffyduk77]

Nice video thanks, I thought I knew lots about it but still more to learn. I found out that a couple of design issues were the difficulty in removing/refitting the engine in event of servicing, & behaviour issues with the outer skin metal which has posed problems in early years of supersonic flight

[@RCake]

What a beautiful craft 🤩🤩🤩

[@tonysadler5290]

My father was a project engineer at Hawker Sidley at the time. The decision to cancel the project had a devastating effect on UK aircraft development. He said years after that the UK was too small to be able to afford such projects on it's own. The Fairydart was cancelled in much the same way but sold to the French who embraced it's leading innovations and developed it into the most successful Mirage. The USA's secretary of state McNamara used his influence to prevent the World Bank from providing the UK Government with a crucial loan unless it bought the F111. It wasn't until the UK joined forces with it's European allies that it was able to exploit such expensive design - resulting in the Tornado, Euro fighter to name but 2.

[@robertsmith4681]

Interesting that the chose a spike similar tot he SR71 but cut in half to sort out the engine air intake requirements.

[@horrgakx]

The Tornado was an incredible aircraft and still one of my favourites.

[@terrywilson1226]

actually one of the test pilots of the TSR2 Roland Beaumont was later a project manager of the Tornado Project. He was also a test Pilot of the English Electric lightning

[@rickbear7249]

Thank you for this very comprehensive tour of the TSR-2. Also, it was pleasant that your voiceover is natural, and without any unnecessary (annoying) musak. Just spend a little time learning how to correctly use the word "unique", as it is a superlative and saying "very unique" is a linguistic nonsense. Overall, a most informative video about an aircraft I've often seen and marvelled at when visiting the superb RAF Cosford aerospace museum.

[@deereboy8400]

Peter Ustinov narrated some great Wings episodes. Paul Stewart researches, films, writes, narrates, and probably finances the whole production.

[@babuzzard6470]

Another great vid Paul, happy new year🎉 from Brissie.🇦🇺🇦🇺👍

[@bikenavbm1229]

great vid thanks

[@keithammleter3824]

Paul, I always watch your videos because of your excellent photography, and views we don't otherwise see. I think you put the reasons why the TSR-2 was cancelled very politely and fairly accurately. But you didn't mention an important if not the major factor:- The business case for the TSR-2 was based on selling to British Commonwealth countries, of which Australia's airforce (the RAAF) was the only feasible initial buyer. The plane was always going to be too expensive just to make the number required for the RAF. They needed to amortise the development cost over more airframes than the RAF could use. Australia then fanctioned as a leader/guide to other British Commonwealth countries: If Australia bought, others would, but if Australia didn't, they wouldn't. So Australia's decision was much more important than its numbers of aircraft might indicate. But the RAAF refused to buy it, as for them it could only serve as an expensive training aircraft. This put the per plane cost beyond what the RAF budget could absorb. The TSR-2 as far as the RAAF was concerned was useless, as it did not have the range to reach any possible enemy. It didn't even have enough range to allow the RAAF to fly it from any Australian bases to another Australian base. The British love to point out that the F-111 had its development issues and was delivered late. However it had about three times the range of the TSR-2, making it a credible aircraft for the RAAF.

[@AC_702]

There’s a report by a senior RAF officer that basically confirmed that the F-111 was superior and more capable than the TSR2 and they actually wanted to procure it, albeit with some changes/updates to the avionics.

[@richardvernon317]

@@AC_702 RAF did order 50 F-111K's, just after the TSR 2 cancelled, on the advice of the RAF Air Staff!!! The order was cancelled in 1968 for various reasons, Aircraft going to be at least 3 years late, Cost increases due to Devaluation of the pound against the dollar and a massive change in both UK and NATO defence policies between 1965 and 1968.

[@pcka12]

​@@AC_702don't you mean that the F1-11 might have been superior to the TSR 2, because at the time the F1-11 was not in reality available, it was simply a troubled project which later became viable?

[@imperialinquisition6006]

From what I've read(in the RAAFs book on the F-111) the RAAF was interested in the TSR-2 but didn't buy it : 1.because BAC couldn't give them a price, the RAF had not placed a full production order and Australia was unwilling to be the only buyer, whereas the US sold the F-111 a lot better(of course they were predicting very favourably, but it worked) 2. because the UK was reducing emoving the majority of its military commitments "East of Suez" so Australia wanted to strengthen its defence ties with the US 3. The fact that the TSR-2 appeared to have fallen out of favour with the British Government and the RAF and Mountbatten's influence on some of the Australians looking into the aircraft. The F-111 certainly beats the TSR-2 in range as far as I can find, and probably would have regardless given the European operating environment vs. the Pacific one, though it's pretty hard to get an accurate range statistic on the internet and it's not really a fair comparison given one was a half-built prototype and one was a wildly oversold paper plane at the time of this decision, and it was an even less fair comparison in 1963. An Australian sale would definitely have helped the programmes image and made it harder to cancel, but whether it would have saved the project is debatable, the UK simply couldn't afford it, and it's fairly likely that the Australian procurement was going for the TFX(F-111) from the start regardless. Australia being a trendsetter for commonwealth aircraft procurement is a ridiculous statement of course. Australia has very little influence on other countries in that regard. New Zealand was never going to buy TSR-2, nor was Canada most likely(they were busy)nor likely many other countries in the Commonwealth. It was intended to be an advanced, expensive bomber aircraft. Not very many countries were looking for that at the time(though they clearly should have been looking at the F-104's not so great record in that role), and as for the actual conclusion of this saga, Australia was the only country outside of the US that the F-111 ever sold to, and it was a fairly specific requirement that only the F-111 or TSR-2 were likely to fill(maybe the Phantom or Mirage IV but the procurement team discounted these early on). The TSR-2 is a great looking aeroplane in my opinion, but given the programmes issues and the UK's financial state at the time it was not likely to succeed, and frankly the Tornado was probably a better albeit later option for the UK given it utilised TSR-2 experience but with more some modern techniques and technology and a smaller/cheaper airframe that had it's cost subsidised by being made by a consortium. The Tornado effectively did what the TSR-2 was intended to do and did it well, I suppose it was somewhat of a spiritual successor to the TSR-2. The F-111 was probably a better aircraft than the TSR-2 would have been(though of course when Australia was making their decision it didn't really exist at all), the TSR-2 was probably too ambitious too early with too little money and in reality zero export market outside of Australia who 1. wasn't going to buy it, and 2. still probably wouldn't have been enough even if they did given the escalating costs(even if other commonwealth countries would have magically dropped their own policies and bought a very expensive British bomber aircraft because Australia did, just like many of them did with the F-111 ... oh, wait...um...that was never going to happen). And you also have to admit it's not hard to see why some people from the UK are angry that it was cancelled and why all of the myths that it was the best thing to ever fly have sprung up. It was of course reported to be planned to use all sorts of advanced systems and have impressive performance and all of the usual stuff for new military aircraft. So of course aircraft fans get excited and watch the program and whatnot, alongside the whole media/government/inter-service arguing you see around any new aircraft project and you get a sense of its major public profile and how impressive it "could" have been and how much of a hot topic it was at the time. Add this profile as a major, advanced UK aerospace program, to many people losing their jobs due to its cancellation, with many moving overseas. This of course affecting and being added to the general drawdown of the UK's aerospace industry at the time and the decision to buy American with the F-111 after, its not really surprising that it has this real aura of nationalist myth about it being the greatest plane ever, with conspiracies about how the Government and the USA and even Australia sabotaged Britain's aerospace capability and industry. It's the usual cocktail of disappointed major national expectation, anger at lost jobs and what not leading to a sort of nostalgic nationalism about how great it was and how it was so hard done by by everyone who destroyed it and all of the myths around it. You get much the same in Canada with their Avro Arrow project.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@imperialinquisition6006 You've summed it up pretty well, there's al lot I agree with, but some parts of your discussion are skewed or not right. The RAAF made its decision to go with the F-111 in 1963. The F-111 first flew December 1964 and the TSR-2 first flew September 1964. So in both cases it was taking a punt. But the US aircraft industry was much larger than the British industry, much richer, and far more capable. And they had the USAF keeping a very close eye on things. So a bet on a US aeroplane not yet flown was a much less risky bet than a British plane not yet flown. The US had designs from each major manufacturer - full competition (although the decision to finally go for the F-111 was driven by the President wanting to support his home State. The competing designs were probably even better). In forcing the creation of BAC the British Government had taken competition, and the incentive to engineers to do their best, out of the picture. The RAAF would have been well aware of that. You are correct in saying the F-111 was not likely to be sold anywhere other than to the USAF, RAF, and RAAF. It was too expensive. Post-war US was more careful than the UK on who it would sell breakthrough technology to. However that doesn't mean that the British didn't have hopes that they could sell the TSR-2 elsewhere eg South Africa - UN sanctions had only recently come into effect then and Britain ignored the call anyway. After all, the British Government and BAC expected to sell it to the RAAF, to which it would have been useless due to insufficient range. It has been reported that Mountbatten talked against the TSR-2. He was said to be pushing another British aircraft designed for a different role and wanted Australian money spent on that. But I discount Mountbatten's supposed influence. Is there documented evidence in primary sources? The RAAF was technically competent and could make their own mind up. Mountbatten was then well known to be a twit. Someone you had to be nice to and someone to be given good press because he was royalty, but never the less a complete twit. In the 1950's, the British Government had a tendency to send high level missions to Australia to sort those uppity colonials out, each time they made a decision against British commercial interests. There arguments tended to be little better than "we know best for Britain and what's best for Britain is best for you colonies too." So they created an atmosphere in Australia that these high level missions should be ignored.

[@ironman7261]

Another very informative video on a legendary plane, Paul! Even after all these years, its cancellation as well as that of Canadian Arrow still provoke strong reactions from people who wish they had been placed into production. At least the UK has 2 examples to display, while the Canadian government of the day tried to destroy all remnants of the Arrow's existence. The argument that ICBMs made such aircraft unneeded has definitely been proven wrong when the Arrow was cancelled it was said the UK tried to get 2 examples for research but the Canadian government facing huge backlash over the programs' cancellation just wanted the plane to disappear.

[@localbod]

It is an enormous aircraft. It was way ahead of its time.

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

The North American B-70 Valkryie developed at the same time completely destroys that false notion. TSR.2 was obsolete on arrival and decades behind what the Americans and the Soviets were doing at the time..

[@ATomRileyA]

@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke Which vanquished nation do you hail from :)

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

@@ATomRileyA The United Kingdom of course! Surrendered to the Americans in September 1940. Still occupied by American military forces today..

[@imperialinquisition6006]

@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke The XB-70 was an equally obsolete waste of time, and the Soviets weren't really doing anything better. Decades behind is a ridiculous notion in many ways. They were all stupid projects and the only one which made it through was the F-111, and even then just barely.

[@imperialinquisition6006]

@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke Statement makes no sense, should probably elaborate. Don't though, keep the commenting to a minimum ideally.

[@potrzebieneuman4702]

Very cool, I've seen the example in the UK but I wasn't aware of a second aircraft, I always believed there was only one and everything else had been destroyed.

[@geraintroberts565]

I have a photo of XR219 taking off taken by (I believe) my late brother in law who was a photographer for BAC! It is the one shown at 27:48. though the print does not have the stamp on the back.

[@dimsum435]

I always wondered why Vickers Armstrong, a commercial aircraft specialist, were made 'lead contractor' and not English Electric who built the Canberra and the Lightning. Then I read that E.E. were a 'northern based company' whereas V.A. 'understood government'. (ie "we went to the same school"). Best walk-round I've seen on this plane. A1.

[@keithammleter3824]

The silliest thing the British Government did, after such stupidity as the Brabazon (a huge piston engine luxury airliner that no airline could use), was to force their manufacturers to amalgamate, instead on leaving them alone in which survival of the fittest would come into effect. There would be bankruptcies and much unemployment, but the surviving firms would have done good work. The amalgamation and retention of everyone's jobs resulted in a culture within that it didn't matter to the engineers if an aircraft wasn't going to be much good, just make something and then say "give us more money" and the next variant will be a good one. Rinse and repeat. Competition is a powerful force in making people do their absolute best; lack of competition leads to just keeping seats warm. The British Government had to scrap the TSR-2 and order prototypes destroyed in order to give BAC a good whack on the ears and make them realise that performance jolly well did matter.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

​@keithammleter3824 many of the aircraft builders were already in groups. Hawker Siddeley had Armstrong Whitworth, Gloster, Avro, and Hawker. Vicekershas Vickers and Supermarine. But inspite of common ownership they all operated asindividual companies and often competed with their sister companies.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@neiloflongbeck5705 Which is the proper business way to do things: Test one division against another, but swap resources or use another division as a subcontractor when it is clearly advantagous to do so. Spread the development risk by cross-cash flow when one division has problems. But British Government policy over-rode all that. Supermarine was already out of existence by 1960 though - before the TSR-2 was anything but concept drawings. Supermarine is the classic example of how some firms could not survive into the jet age. They were most certainly up to it when the best of the best were simple piston engine aircraft like the Spitfire (which owes its greatness to the aerodynamicist Shenstone who had a lot of experience in the 1930's German aircraft industry - in other words pure luck), but were left behind without any appropriate expertise in the jet age, as not only did aircraft then have a different engine and flew faster, they had all sorts of onboard complexity, and large but simple wind tunnels with a dirty great fan at one end simply didn't cut it.

[@forthwithtx5852]

Nice one, Paul!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@CanadairCL44]

An interesting point, I know for a fact that there is a whole squadron of F111's in storage I believe at Davis Monthan air base in the US, that were paid for but never delivered. I got this information from a good friend of mine who is an ex senior RAF officer.

[@ianmangham4570]

Nasa are still drooling how good there Canberra is ,insanely beautiful place love's climbing 😊

[@muzmason3064]

Great Video. I think an awful lot of tech that was TSR2 ended up in Tornado, exactly what I'm not sure. I do think it would have probably only just left service if it had gone to production and the mind boggles at how well it would fly with today's computers, glass cockpit and engine advances, she truly was the craft of my boyhood dreams alongside Vulcan and Concorde 😊👍🇬🇧🕊

[@harryflower1810]

A beautiful aircraft

[@Pixelatedworld-iu2dd]

Great video, love the content you put out. I have a great idea for you, when videoing from underneath, which was fantastic, would it be possible to put your camera gear, phone etc, onto a long stick and maybe video some segments from above the aircraft, a 6ft stick would be ideal, could of sneaked a glimpse of the cockpit too. I've visited RAF Cosford on numerous occasions and the TSR2 is my favourite aircraft, so thanks for making the best and most detailed video in 4k that I've seen anywhere. Great Job. subscribed.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks mate. I did buy a stick for my gopro but I've since changed to a DJI pocket 3 which works much better but no stick. Thankfully most museums are more accomodating in letting my sit inside the cockpits, or at least, filming over the barriers. Sadly this museum was not one of them.

[@-DC-]

British Military Procurement has always been an absolutely Fiasco, This Aircraft was no different.

[@pcka12]

Don't you mean "turned into a fiasco by British politicians"?

[@fredtedstedman]

I have actually touched this aircraft .....magic ! its not just aerospace engineering , it's sculpture ! cancelled due to high cost 2M £ per aircraft....seems good value now doesn't it ?

[@aquilarossa5191]

If you read the CIA's early '80s assessments of Soviet air defences, we see mention of Soviet electronic warfare systems that could disrupt navigation and bombing radar. In other words, they could make terrain following radar go blind. Terrain following radar is also a strong emitter, so could be detected providing the Soviets had the equipment in place wherever it needed to be. The CIA said EW was a Soviet strong suit too. They also mentioned growing look down, shoot down abilities of the Soviets. The CIA thought the main Soviet weakness was the speed and coordination of intercepts once detection was achieved, i.e., NATO aimed for an aircraft to be past an air defense zone and into the next before an intercept could be arranged in a particular zone of responsibility (and then there would be a lag passing the detection data onto the next zone and so on -- they thought they could make the air defences chase their own tails pretty much, rather than relying on avoiding detection as the means of reaching the target, i.e., flying low to make detection as late as possible so as to reduce reaction time to the point of making interception very difficult). NATO sought to exploit gaps in Soviet coverage as a result (response to an aircraft detected infiltrating one of those gaps would be the slowest, so that type of attack run would have the highest chance of success for NATO). No wonder NATO preferred cruise missiles to TSR-2 and other similar aircraft. Cruise missiles can take on more risk. Low level infiltration solved the problem of high altitude bombers being shot down by SAMs, but the USSR was rapidly adjusting to terrain following tactics. They developed means to counter cruise missiles too. NATO probably would have overwhelmed it with sheer numbers though. Not that it matters. By that stage the northern hemisphere would be radioactive ashes for the most part. Thankfully we wised up. They did a deal. P.S. The Soviets viewed such tactics aimed at achieving a first strike as disruptive to nuclear security, the balance of power, and deterrence etc. They countered with the SS-20 missiles. NATO countered with the Pershing II missiles in West Germany and cruise missile deployments to the UK. I remember the CND protests. RAF Greenham Common was not so far away. The base that was much closer though was RAF Upper Heyford where the USA based its F-111 tactical nuclear bomber force. They were noisy buggers flying over our school a few times a day. We knew full well that base would be nuked immediately if it all kicked off and we discussed among ourselves what yield nuke would put us in the blast zone. We moved to NZ when I was 15. It felt a million times safer being nuclear free and all that (back then getting nuked seemed a matter of when rather than if at times).

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Interesting comments, thanks! I would suggest some caution, though, as the CIA also thought that the Mig-25 was a great aircraft yet we now know its potential was limited.

[@aquilarossa5191]

@@PaulStewartAviation Point taken. Early 1960s intel versus 1980s though. By the 1980s intelligence gathering abilities were quite a bit more advanced. In hindsight it appears they were mostly correct though. That's said, they probably still get plenty wrong even in the 2020s. I also wonder how often they are deliberately mistaken. There's a lot of money to be made when politicians act on intel.

[@SBain-l5n]

Nice to see you have one to look at they scrapped all of the Aro arrows just a few pieces left now 😭

[@Ecthaelyon]

Superb video, Paul, thank you for your time & effort in creating this video for us all to enjoy.

[@keithammleter3824]

Paul stated that the undercarriage had the same resonant frequency of the human eyeball and thereby caused pilots to go blind when landing. This is an old story told in other videos on the TSR-2 that strains credibility. The USAF did a lot of testing to discover what humans could and couldn't take as part of preparing for space flight. They found that the resonant frequency of the eyeball is about 19Hz and 3 G's of oscillation are required at that frequency to obtain blindness. 3 G's at 19 Hz is a hell of a shake. One would have all manner of medical issues. The plane might well fail as well.

[@karlchilders5420]

The resonant frequency of the human eye isn't an exact figure, it's actually a pretty wide range. (18Hz to 800Hz) "Blindness" hasn't been shown, but artifacts, such as phosphenes, *have* been shown. G force and frequency are orthogonal to each other. They are completely independent variables.

[@andyb.1026]

That was only on Development Aircraft, would have been fixed for production 😅

[@percyprune7548]

The claims were made by the flight test crews themselves so can be considered reliable.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@andyb.1026 If it ever got to production. It was not a surprise that the government cancelled it. What is suprising is how long the Government took to realise it was dud that could never complete a mission it was supposedly design for.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@karlchilders5420 Two things: 1. The wide frequency range indicates that resonance is well damped, though it is not as wide as you suggest. 2. it does matter how many G's are applied in conjunction with the frequency. Obviously, even if the resonance frequency is sharply defined (high Q as engineers say) if the amplitude (strength) of the vibration is very low, the resonance is not excited and nothing will happen. If the vibration amplitude is high, then the resonance is excited. But not if the vibration frequency is not at the resonant frequency. Off-resonance you need a lot higher vibration amplitude. Give a tuning fork a good hearty bang against you hand - you can clearly hear its tone. Give a tuning fork a very light touch - you don't hear any tone. Hold a tuning fork near you mouth and whistle or sing. The fork will respond and sing too. But only if you whistle or sing on the same pitch as the fork.

[@Steelbackuk]

Thanks for tour of the TSR 2, an interesting aircraft and like its stable mate the avro arrow . A controversial subject.

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

TSR.2 and the Arrow are similar stories only because neither country could afford to build them, and the country that could afford them already had better aircraft.

[@sandervanderkammen9230]

A subject filled with shame, denial and conspiracy theories... because the real story is too difficult to listen to

[@paulyates473]

Excellent informative video. Such a terrible shame the project was cancelled. 😢

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Erik-rp1hi]

Yes, there is a crashed F-105 next to China Lake NWS you can reach by dirtbike. Story was he got out safe. The wreckage had a telescoping piston to get the Nuke away from the jet to deploy going supersonic. They had a tumbling issue with the bomb going so fast. In the end they reshaped the bomb so no piston was ever used. Per what I've read on the internet.

[@johnhodgkiss9882]

Defianatly a key stone aircraft in British Aerospace. If it was not for the TSR2 we might not of had Concorde. Its a real shame you did not get chance to look in the cockpit. Did they give a reason to why you could not have a look?

[@PaulStewartAviation]

No reason, just said I couldn’t access it.

[@ListenEar]

My Dad was manufacturing parts for the TSR 2. When they cancelled it, he decided to emigrate to South Africa, where he made parts for the Mirage, Impala, Buccaneer and whatever else they were working on. They had a whole factory full of UK and European Immigrants!

[@ItsKing32]

Have u done a video on the B-57? If not I know ud be able to get inside the one at the Glenn L Martin aviation museum at Martin State Airport, MD cuz they let me go in it.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Hi mate, great suggestion and I'm afraid not. I tried to film the Canberra in Australia but hit barriers with paperwork. So I am on the look out for a Canberra to film.

[@ItsKing32]

⁠​⁠@@PaulStewartAviationthey have 2 at the Martin museum. Im sure they would like the attention since its never really busy there. Hell I live 30 mins from the place and if I didnt have to go to MTN for a faa physical I wouldnt have even known the place existed

[@der_picard3370]

For me the most beautiful aircraft... Sharing 1st place with the Concorde 👍 Front Cockpit Design was the older brother of the Tornado Cockpits Design.😉

[@AlbertRobinson-v3y]

Great video Paul.. thank you for doing this on what I consider the second most beautiful aircraft.. the first of course the Spitfire..❤ Anyway.. anything leading edge creates problems that require solutions that are usually costly, complex and ahead of their time. I would imagine the spin-offs were valuable and the only question I have is what was the "dole" costing the UK vs the costs incurred building TSR-2? ... As an avid RC and freeflight modeler, eventually I must build a TSR-2 so I can have one to drool over.. 😊 Blessings to all..

[@james78ish]

She was a beast

[@WarblesOnALot]

G'day, Great work mate ! Subscribed... This is the best treatment of the TSR-2 I've encountered, & I absolutely loved the Fairey Stringbag "connection". If you feel like a bit of a giggle, then please do feel free to backtrack me.., to my "Personal Aeroplanology..." Playlist...(!). I sort of grew up thinking that I'd been line-bred to be Biggles (mum's father & dad's uncle were both Pilots in the Oz Flying Corps..., and a cousin of dad's was a RAAF WingCo ; kinda thing...) ; and then I started reading Richard Bach at 15, and then Nevil Shute's collected works at 16... So by 17 when I had a chance to scrape Paint off a Tiger Moth's Wing, in return for unofficial ab-initio Flying Lessons in a Piper Cub & a Hornet Moth - I didn't say "No" , and thus I was Rouseabout on the Radial-engined Sopwith Pup & Fokker Triplane Replicas, at Olde Bowral Airfield... Last time I was in Inverell I made the pilgrimage, and a new video of, "National Transportation Museum ; Visiting My First Aeroplane...!" Which they keep there, chained up to the ceiling. When I began that Playlist, I began it with what amounted to being a Video Slide-Show, using a Potato-Grade Nokia 2160 classic Phone-camera - and nailing down the Timeline with old photos & magazine articles..., about, "The 8-Hp, 1975, Red Baron Skycraft Scout ; World's 1st Legal Minimum-Aircraft...!" From 1978 to '82 it was mine, having taken me for my first Solo in November '78 ; I was it's 3rd owner..., and I turned out to be the last person who ever sat in it while it was flying..., and every other Aeroplane which I ever flew was pretty easy, by comparison. I even survived the maiden Fright on a New Prototype Ultralight Motorglider - after 10 years totally groundbound...! Apparently if one begins by flying a Lawnmower, then the rest comes easy...(?) ! Anyway, have fun. (?). Your choice ! Such is life, Haveva good one Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Cheers mate!

[@paladin0654]

12:00 The Phantom also used blown flaps.

[@MichaelCairns-fv2vi]

I like to think the development contributed to what came later

[@PaulStewartAviation]

very true. I should have made a comment about that.

[@user-rl5nd3ys8p]

Nothing is trivial in Aviation. 🇦🇺👍👍👍

[@guyh9992]

Of course Australia considered buying the TSR-2 but went with the F-111 instead which had a fine record of service for almost four decades until 2011. I doubt that the British would have supported the TSR-2 for such a long period. My father was a member of the Canberra replacement team in the Dept of Air in Canberra in the early 60s where he strongly backed the TSR-2 as an anglophile PR expert. He was forced out after a personality clash with the civilian team leader. There were strong vested interests in Canberra at the time amongst those who recognised that the USA had been Australia's most important ally since 1942. Possibly others remembered the difficulty the RAAF had had in getting modern British aircraft in WWII that various Australian historians have written about.

[@amandarhodes4072]

Well the F-111 and TSR-2 were direct competitors. F-111 came out first and already had sales in the US and other countries. The F-111 was capable and cheap compared to the TSR-2. But the TSR-2 in it's original configuration was more advanced. America was depending on sales of the F-111 to stabilise their industries after years of internal conflict within the US military departments before McNamara. So seeing a more capable competitor coming from the UK was a threat to that. At the time the UK MOD had just appointed a new overseer of development programs. A person so unqualified for the role it's a scandal he was put in the position he was in given he knew more about accounting then military aircraft. The US politely got in touch with this individual and explained that the TSR-2 was expensive and could not live up to it's promises and would take years to develop. Where as the US could offer them the F-111 that was already available and was cheaper. Though less capable. As a result the TSR-2 was cancelled and we were promised the F-111 export variant.... which we never got and ended up with the tornado instead. Also I can envision the TSR-2 being to the UK what the B-52 is to the US. A capable airframe that undergoes numerus upgrades through the years to keep it relevant to the current way of war. The original B-52 is almost a completely different aircraft to the ones being used today. TSR-2 could have had countless variants of it made to serve different purposes and possibly be combat relevant today.

[@kidmohair8151]

i bet you wish a couple of the Avro Arrows had been similarly preserved.

[@robertcoleman4861]

👍👍👍👍Thanks Paul.🍺

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Cheers!

[@davidpowell5437]

Not having a serious interest in aviation, I was quite surprised to clap eyes on this beauty when I visited Cosford last year. I remember it being described as years ahead of its time. Next thing I knew it had been scrapped, and then the prototypes were scrapped with suspicious haste... Delighted to stumble over this. I shall study it carefully before my next visit!

[@cde6505]

What are the square section black trunking tubes that extend from inside the fuselage to the inner surface of the main landing gear doors? (At 6.24).They have a plexiglass window in the lading gear doors. I can’t find any reference to them in any drawings or photos I can find. After a bit of research I think they may be boundary air bleed vents from the engine intakes. I presume the Perspex was fitted at a later date when the aircraft was adapted for a life on display. They would have been open during service allowing the boundary air between the fuselage and engine intakes to be vented to atmosphere. This is only my educated guess. Would be great to get some confirmation. Great vid BTW.

[@quattro4s]

My favorite plane together with the F-108 and XB-70 would have been a great strike force

[@EricCoop]

All-moving tails are also knows as "stabilators."

[@mirthenary]

Hey! Good ole XR220, that's the version I built!

[@kenstevens5065]

In my view there were three reasons TSR2 failed, Britain was broke by 1960 and no longer a World power, the rivalry between the armed services was ridiculous by today's standards and the influence of Lord Mountbatten, our then naval Chief of Defence staff. His involvement in military procurement would not be accepted today. Nowadays though the Ministry of Defence could be seen to have a similar influence. In all a great aircraft though and like millions of others I shed the odd tear when it was so brutally cancelled. Thank you for posting.