Jetrader - Winter 2018 - 37

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April, 1965, with the expectation of flying
it to the Paris Air Show in June.
The most serious situation for the TSR-2
program was always the budget. By the time
the prototype was making its first flight,
the cost had grown to roughly six times the
original estimates, and there were cries to
cancel the program. Meanwhile, the opportunities to sell the TSR-2 to other countries
were fading. It had been hoped that the
Royal Australian Air Force would buy a batch
of 24, but even with deep discounts offered
by the British government in 1963, the deal
could not be made. The Australians chose
the American TFX, a swept-wing aircraft in
development that offered roughly the same
capabilities as the TSR-2. The Royal New
Zealand Air Force and the Royal Canadian
Air Force also lost interest - as did other
hoped-for export customers including the
Netherlands, India, Iran and Germany.

A TSR-2, possibly XR219, being scrapped after enduring weapons testing.

Lastly, a general election in October
1964 brought the Labour Party into power
over the Conservatives at a time when the
country had too many costly programs on
its plate. In January and February 1965,
the RAF began to realize that the TSR-2
was failing to meet the specifications for
range, ability to navigate at low level at
night in rough weather, or operate from
short and soft runways. Moreover, the
engines were still barely to be trusted.
Following several cabinet meetings, the
government decided the TSR-2 cancellation would be announced in the budget
speech of the chancellor of the exchequer
at 2:30 p.m. on 6 April, 1965.
That same morning, XR220 - the second aircraft  - was being prepared for
its maiden flight. A small fluid leak was
noticed, so the pilots chose to break for
lunch while the problem could be fixed.
Upon hearing of the chancellor's speech,
the flight crew rushed back to the field
to fly XR220, but orders had already been
issued to scrub the flight. There would
never be another flight by any TSR-2.

The Aftermath
After the cancellation, the RAF and BAC
proposed a continuation of a flight test
research program for XR219 and XR220 to
gather aerodynamic and engine data up
to Mach 2 that might be of value for the

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Alas, A New Government

TSR-2 XR222, lovingly restored and displayed at Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Concorde that was in the early development
stages, but the Ministry of Aviation did not
believe there was much to be gained. Other
flight research programs were suggested,
but none got any traction.
XR219 remained parked at Warton for
about a year until mid-1966. Since it was
the only TSR-2 that flew, one might have
expected it to find a place of honor in
a British museum, but that was not to
be. It was dismantled, with the hulk of
the fuselage being shot full of holes in
weapons testing.
XR220, the one that was being prepared
for its first flight on the day of cancellation,
found a more merciful fate. It was placed
in the RAF Cosford Museum at Shropshire.
A second TSR-2, XR222, the fourth one
in the production line, initially went to the
College of Aeronautics at Cranfield and is
now in the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

All the remaining TSR-2 aircraft, approximately 20 in various states of assembly,
were either shot to pieces on the ground
or cut up for scrap.
The TSR-2 project was very much an
echo of the Avro Canada Arrow project
from about five years earlier. While the
TSR-2 was a bomber, intended to hedge-hop
across Europe to deliver a nuclear bomb
to Russia, the Arrow was an all-weather
interceptor that would take down Russian
bombers attacking via northern North
America. Both the BAC TSR-2 and the Avro
Arrow projects became far more costly than
expected. Moreover, both the Canadian
and British projects became victims of
unsympathetic changes of government
just as the aircraft were still in their early
flight-testing phases. Sadly, every Avro
Arrow was chopped up, whereas two TSR-2s
went to museums.
Jetrader * Winter 2018 37
Jetrader - Winter 2018

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