XR220

XR220 was the second of nine development TSR-2s ordered in October 1960. British Aircraft Corporation assembled it at Weybridge, with a rear fuselage built at Samlesbury. Production problems pushed it past its planned completion date of January 1964.

On 9 September 1964 it arrived at Boscombe Down by road. While the trailer was being reversed towards a hangar it jack-knifed, and the fuselage toppled onto the concrete. Air bags lifted it two days later. BAC repaired it on site; the worst damage was to the port taileron spigot. Its first engine runs followed on 24 February 1965.

Deputy chief test pilot Jimmy Dell was to fly it on the morning of 6 April 1965. A faulty fuel pump found during pre-flight checks delayed the sortie. That afternoon the Budget speech cancelled the programme, and its flight clearance was withdrawn before Dell got back. XR220 never left the ground.

Through 1965 and early 1966 it ran its Olympus engines at Boscombe Down for noise trials linked to Concorde. The RAF Air Historical Branch claimed it in 1967 and stored it at Henlow, minus engines and canopies. It went by road to Cosford on 4 May 1975. Volunteers restored it from 1978, and refitted its cockpits and ejection seats in 1990.

In Hangar 2, the Test Flight exhibition, with the museum's other post-war research aircraft. Its canopies carry a thin gold film meant to shield the crew from nuclear flash.