BRITISH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION TSR-2 (BAC TSR-2)

Few British aircraft have stirred as much controversy or strength of feeling as the TSR.2. The projects cancellation in 1965 was seen by many commentators as a political step that became the deathblow for Britain’s troubled aviation industry.

The TSR.2 (Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance) was initially designed to meet a demanding 1957 Royal Air Force requirement for a Canberra tactical bomber replacement with terrain following radar, advanced inertial navigation, supersonic speed at low level and Mach 2 at high altitude.

In addition the new aircraft would ideally have the capability to be operated from short rough landing strips.

Despite the facts that the requirement become more demanding as development progressed and that most of the TSR.2´s systems were totally new to the British aviation industry, the aircraft began to take shape.

TSR.2´s form was of course dictated by the missions it was designed to carry out, but by way of comparison it was longer than Avro Lancaster but had a smaller wingspan than a Spitfire fighter. The short wingspan was essential for supersonic performance at very low altitude but would fail to generate sufficient lift for it to operate from short strips.

The solution was to fit the aircraft with the most powerful blown flaps to make the wing produce massive amounts of lift at take-off and landing.

The TRS.2 carried equipment that is now commonplace but was extremely advanced for the time. A projected moving map, head up display (HUD), one of the first terrain following radars and canopy coated with gold alloy to reflect nuclear flash were all cutting-edge features of this remarkable  aircraft. The avionics purpose designed for the aircraft would have used forward and side looking radar and other systems to feed updated position and steering information to the pilot’s (HUD), the navigator, the weapon arming and release systems an the autopilot simultaneously. If the whole systems had failed, the aircraft would have been automatically put in a climb. Among the material used in the aircraft’s construction were aluminium-copper alloys, aluminium-lithium alloys and ultra high tensile steel.

The first flight of prototype XR219 took of from Boscombe Down on September 27, 1964, with Roland “Bee” Beamont at the controls and Don Bowen as navigator. The Olympus engines being developed for TSR.2 had some problems (including exploding examples) that had not been resolved before this first flight. The team was keen to get the aircraft into the air as soon possible in the hope that its remarkable performance would silence the critics.

Consequently it was decided that one test flight could be made with the imperfect engines that were considered likely to explode at more 97 % power. The 14 minutes test flight was uneventful and the aircraft was shown to be responsive and stable.

During further test flights, the extremely complex aircraft showed that it had the potential to become one of the most formidable strike aircraft in the world. The aircraft made 24 flights and accumulated 13 hours and 9 minutes of flight time, including some at supersonic speeds, before the TSR.2 project was cancelled by new Labour government on April 6, 1965. The government cited spiralling cost and the minimum 3 year delay in the TSR.2 reaching squadron service as reasons for the decision. The RAF never did receive an alternative to the TSR.2 as a supersonic strike successor to the Canberra.  

 BAC TSR.2

First flight: September 27, 1964.

Power: 2 Bristol Siddeley 33,000lb trust Olympus 22R turbojets.

Armament: Up to 4000lb of weapons on under wing pylons, proposed bomb load of up to 6000lb.    

Size: Wingspan – 37ft.

            Length – 89ft.

            Height – 24ft.

            Wing area – 700sq ft.

Weights: Empty – 198,090lb.

                      Maximum take – 413,788lb.

Performance: Maximum speed – 1485mph.

                                  Ceiling – 56,000ft.

                                  Range – 3000 miles.

                                  Climb – 50,000ft per minute.