TSR 2

[Albert Rowe]

Can anyone tell me what has happened to the TSR2 build?, is it still being built or is there a problem?, Thanks in advance, Albert

[Keith Mitchell]

'Project Cancelled'.....

[Albert Rowe]

Thanks for the reply, a shame it really looked good.

[Mike Booth]

Under a Labour government sanction, the jigs were smashed and everything destroyed because it was going to be way better than anything the Yanks had at the time.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Friend of mine was working on them when they were literally axed, he said they were all ordered out, and the in production airframes were cut up in the assembly jigs with a gas axe! The 2 we have in captivety, i was told, only survive because they were hidden, only 1 of these ever flew,

Shame we could not hide a bloody nimrod, eh?

[Denis Brown]

Good to know we have the right people in charge now so it will never happen again!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Colin Bovingdon]

Hi guys,
I'm new here so looking forward to getting involved in posts and reading replies.
I heard tsr2 was cancelled because it went way over budget and because the yanks would block a loan request to the imf by the then labour government if we didn't cancel it.
The yanks wanted to be the best but at the time had nothing even close to tsr2.
Funny how we always shoot ourselves in the foot.
The government also wanted to pull out of the Concorde build but had an agreement with the French that they couldn't pull out of..... thank goodness or we wouldn't have that either.

[Dave Hayfield]

Whilst on the subject of government decisions, who thinks the right decision was made to axe the Harriers and sell all of our remaining ones to the American Navy so that they could keep their Sea Harriers flying till 2035. The replacement STOVL aircraft on our new carriers is supposed to be the F35B. It seems to me that we are the only country conned into buying the B version and with the amount of problems besetting the 'plane it will probably never be brought into successful operation. If we do get any that actually fly, and only three are on order so far, the operating costs are projected to be phenominal compared to other military aircraft.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

It was a fantastic descion for britain-- wasnt it? Along with scrapping nimrod--- wasn't it?

[sean smith]

Makes you wonder who is getting all the backhanders?

[Colin Bovingdon]

I think it was a travesty! It was so ahead of its time and it would have ensured that Britain remained, at least for a while longer, one of the foremost aircraft industrial nations on the planet, if not the leading country in this field.

The trouble is we just didn't have the manufacturing industry of the size of the states and that went against us.

I'm just so glad they couldn't cancel Concorde. It was by far and still would be ahead of anything in the airline industry. I'm still gutted to this day that it stopped. And now with the demise of Vulcan there is yet still more hurt as we see that magnificent aircraft stop. When are we in this country going to be proud enough of our aviation achievements to keep these fabulous aircraft flying?

[Rob Buckley]

It's worth reading the book 'Project Cancelled' that explains how the TSR2 never had a hope in hell of actually doing what it was designed for. The whole sorry affair was a good lesson in why design by committee is not a good way to try and deliver a complicated machine and weapon delivery system, as it will end in very expensive disaster.

Concorde at least benefited from a straightforward mission, but was stuffed by the Americans being jealous and nutters in this county campaigning against it. If they hand't all been grounded years ago they'd be pretty much out of life by now anyway.

All complex machines have to come to a working end one day...finding people prepared to put their house and liberty on the line to sign to say it's still safe to fly get hard to come by after a while!