BAC TSR-2
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Template:Aircraft-jet-mil The British Aircraft Corporation's TSR-2 was an ill-fated cold war project in the early 1960s to create what would, at that time, have been one of the most advanced aircraft in the world, with supercruise ability, and similar thrust and Mach 2+ performance to the Rockwell B-1A and significantly higher performance than the current Boeing IDS B-1B
"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right." - Sir Sidney Camm
Contents |
History
GOR 339
In the 1950s, the British Royal Air Force was aware that the Canberra bomber would need to be replaced, and a specification for its replacement with additional strike and reconnaissance roles was drafted in the form of GOR (General Operational Requirement) 339 in 1956. This specification was exceptionally ambitious for the technology of the day, requiring a supersonic all-weather aircraft that could deliver nuclear weapons over a long range, operate at high level (at Mach 2+) or low level (at Mach 1.2), with a short takeoff ability from rough and ready airstrips. As this specification was being studied by various manufacturers, the first of the political storms that were to dog the project reared its head - the then defence minister Duncan Sandys stating in a Defence White Paper that the era of manned combat was at an end and that guided missiles were all that would be needed in future. Within a decade this philosophy became thoroughly discredited, but at the time, it may have made a great deal more sense in the climate of the cold war and "mutual deterrence". Furthermore, it seemed at the time that guided missiles would offer significant cost savings over manned aircraft.
Another political matter that did not help was the mutual distrust between the various services - the Air Force were looking at GOR 339, but it was alleged that the development of a supersonic version of the sub-sonic Blackburn Buccaneer for the Royal Navy was competitive with this project. The RAF claim that they did not ignore or deride the project (as politicians such as Denis Healey claimed) but in fact invited Blackburn to submit a pre-tender brochure for consideration and discussion. However, the requirement was for a Mach 2 aircraft, not a sub-sonic one, and the STOL requirement was intended to allow the TSR-2 to operate from roads and bush runways in a similar manner to the Saab Draken, whilst the Blackburn Buccaneer required a shipborne steam catapult to achieve short take off. Although various proposals, now under the designation O.R. (operational requirement) 343, were submitted, in 1959 the go-ahead was given for the BAC entry, named the TSR-2, for Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance 2. The origin of the '2' in the designation is unclear; it has been suggested that the Canberra, which at the time fulfilled that particular role, was considered in official circles to be the TSR-1, or alternatively that the '2' signified a Mach 2 performance.
The mission
The envisioned "standard mission" for the TSR-2 was to be carrying a 2,000 lb weapon internally for a combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles (nm). Of that mission 100 nm was to be flown at higher altitudes at Mach 1.7 and the 200 nm into and out of the target area was to be flown as low as 200 feet at Mach 0.95. The rest of the mission was to be flown at Mach 0.92. If the entire mission were to be flown at the low 200-foot altitude, the mission radius was reduced to 700 nm. Heavier weapons loads could be carried with further reductions in range.
Extensions to the TSR-2's range were planned to be made by fitment of external tanks — one 450-gallon tank under each wing or one 1000-gallon tank carried centrally below the fuslage. If no internal weapons were carried, a further 570 gallons could be carried in a tank in the weapons bay.
It was also planned to be able to equip the TSR-2 with a reconnaissance pack in the weapons bay which, coupled to the aircraft's capable sideways looking radar (SLAR), would have turned the aircraft into a formidable "recon" asset not unlike the contemporary North American RA-5C of the US Navy.
Testing
First flown by Roland Beamont on 27 September, 1964, in testing the TSR-2 was found to easily meet the demanding GOR 339 performance specification. Aerodynamically the aircraft was trouble-free, but there were continual problems with the engines and the undercarriage. Indeed, the engines initially delivered for the first aircraft did not fit, leading to delays for the first flight which meant that the TSR-2 missed the opportunity to be displayed to the public at that year's Farnborough Air Show. Initial flight tests were all performed with the undercarriage down and engine power strictly limited. Only on the tenth test flight was the landing gear successfully retracted, but vibration problems on landing persisted. The second prototype incorporated additional dampers in the main gear legs to overcome this. The first supersonic test flight, the fourteenth overall, had to be performed with only one afterburner due to problems with one of the engines. A speed of Mach 1.2 was reached on that occasion (and contrary to myth, the TSR-2 did not outrun the chase Lightning).
Design
Image:SmallTSR-2.jpg English Electric, manufacturer of the Canberra and Vickers had combined their ideas for the specification and put forward their design, with a view to a flying aircraft by 1963. No order was forthcoming and by the time the Ministry had made a decision the various companies had been collected together as the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960.
The design was a large aircraft with large shoulder mounted slab-wing with down-turned tips, all-moving swept tailplane, a large all-moving fin. powered by two Bristol-Siddeley Olympus afterburning turbojets. The latter were similar to but a much more powerful variant of those used in the Avro Vulcan and Concorde). It is often stated, incorrectly, that the leading designer of the TSR-2 was Vickers' Barnes Wallis, the legendary aeronautical engineer famous for his contribution to the Dambusters raids. Wallis was not involved in the TSR-2, but his son, who also worked for Vickers, was to a small extent. In fact Wallis was quite critical of the TSR-2, and stated that a "swing-wing" design (a concept which he championed, having done much work on it) would be more appropriate.
The design featured blown flaps to achieve the short take off and landing requirement, something which later designs would achieve with the technically more complex swing-wing approach. The aircraft featured some extremely sophisticated avionics for navigation and mission delivery — far ahead of anything else available at the time — which was also to be one of the reasons for the spiralling costs of the project. Some features, such as ground-following terrain radar, FLIR cameras, side-looking airborne radar and the sophisticated autopilot did only become commonplace on military aircraft later. The wing loading was high for its time, and this gave the aircraft the ability to fly at very high speed and low level with great stability without being constantly upset by thermals and other ground-related weather phenomena. This in turn made the innovative ground-following radar and autopilot system feasible.
There was considerable problems with realising the design, some contributing manufacturers were employed by the Ministry and not through BAC, and the Ministry itself would take on design tasks with the usual long deliberations and meetings expected of civil servants.
Despite the rocketing costs (which were inevitable, given the low original estimates), two prototype aircraft were completed. The first flight took place on 27 September 1964. Over the next 6 months, many test flights were conducted, though none of the complex electronics were ready, so those flights were all concerned with the basic flying qualities of the aircraft, which were by all accounts excellent. The landing gear gave problems including extreme vibration upon landing and these took 4 months to correct.
Project cancellation
The American team behind the General Dynamics F-111 project had been pressing their case and newspaper reports had suggested that the RAF were considering it. In response to suggestions of cancellation, BAC employees had held a protest march. The new Labour (and supposedly pro-worker) government, which had come into power in 1964, issued strong denials. In the budget speech of April 6 1965, the cancellation in favour of the F-111 was announced. A week later the Chancellor defended the decision in a debate in the House of Commons, saying that the F-111 would prove to be cheaper.
The TSR-2 tooling and partially completed aircraft were scrapped. The two finished aircraft survived, though with substantial internal damage inflicted, and can be seen in the RAF Museum at Cosford, and the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. A number of unfinished airframes were hastily scrapped, with very few parts retained intact. The only airframe ever to fly, XR219, was taken to Shoeburyness and used for as a target to test the vulnerability of a modern airframe and systems to gunfire. The haste with which the project was scrapped has been the source of much argument and bitterness since - some feel it was done with vindictiveness to score political points, though others have suggested that it was simply to prevent the very high technology secrets falling into the wrong hands, as the cancellation came at a period of particular paranoia during the cold war. Instead of the TSR-2, the RAF decided it would buy the swing-wing American General Dynamics F-111 - however, the F-111 itself suffered such enormous cost escalation (exceeding that of the TSR-2 projection ) that the RAF eventually cancelled their order, procuring instead the F-4 Phantom II and the Blackburn Buccaneer, some of which were transferred from the Royal Navy. Ironically, this was the very same aircraft that the RAF chose to deride in order to get the TSR-2 the go-ahead. Fortunately, the Buccaneer proved very capable and was still in service into the early 1990s. The TSR-2 nonetheless remains a lingering 'what if?' of British aviation, like the Avro Arrow in Canada.
A government study into the feasibility of resurrecting the TSR-2 project was carried out during the early 1980s shortly after Margaret Thatcher came to power. There was, briefly, some speculation that TSR-2 might yet see the light of day in an updated form, but after the study concluded that it would be far too expensive (the previous destruction requiring a complete start-over from scratch) and that the technology was no longer cutting edge, TSR-2 was buried forever.
Planned improvements
It was planned to extend the payload by a further 25,000 lb (11,000 kg) in further developments of the aircraft.
In miniature
The TSR-2 has long been an aircraft that has inspired many modellers, but due to its relative obscurity, has never been the subject of a mainstream kit; Airfix cancelled plans to produce one in the 60s after the real thing was itself cancelled. Over the years a number of "difficult" kits have been released, usually in the form of a vac-form semi-kit. Such kits require a great deal of skill and experience to assemble into a convincing replica, though many have been successfully completed. After petitioning by keen modellers in recent years, organising via the internet, Airfix agreed to release a mainstream 1/72 scale injection moulded kit with all-new tooling and the original box artwork intended for the planned 1960s kit. The kit was released on 27 February 2006 with a limited release of only 10 000 units, even though it is rumoured that Airfix had orders for 16 000 units 9 months prior to launch. The scarcity made it one of the fastest selling models of all time.
In fiction
Image:Stratos4 TSR-2MS collage.jpg In the anime series Stratos 4, the aircraft used to intercept meteor debris is actually a modified form of TSR-2 called TSR-2MS. The MS stands for "Meteor Sweeper", a term for squadrons specializing in shooting down meteor debris. It is equipped with one "Trident" anti-meteor hi-explosive missile, an internal booster (named "Third Engine") and two booster packs (RATOs).
The aircraft takes off in a rocket-like manner where it is launched from a truck-mounted railed launchpad rather than taking off by runway. The pilot flies the aircraft in a prone position. This is never explained; it is assumed to be used to counteract G-force. At mid altitude (30,000-40,000 ft), the boosters burn out and are dropped.
The TSR-2MS rises swiftly into the stratosphere, where it flies in an inverted position like the space shuttle before delivering its payload. The "Third Engine" is ignited while inverted. At high altitude (80,000-100,000 ft), jet throttle is reduced, then, at very high altitude (120,000-150,000 ft), "Third Engine" throttle is also reduced. The aircraft returns to an upright attitude, locks onto the target and fires the "Trident" missile.
The TSR-2MS is depicted in episode CODE 103: Decision Height as being able to fly high enough to reach low orbit before it runs out of fuel and stalls. The TSR-2MS has no braking chute, but has an arresting hook for emergency landings.