AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 112 / 127

Plate 112 of 127 · Cold War · Supersonic strike and reconnaissance

BAC TSR.2

TSR.2, painted as XR220, the second BAC TSR.2 prototype, the cancelled Mach 2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft with a long area-ruled fuselage, tandem cockpits under two canopies, a small shoulder-mounted delta wing with sharply drooped tips, all-moving tailerons and fin, half-cone side intakes and twin Bristol Siddeley Olympus 22R engines on tall tandem-wheel main gear; painted as it is displayed at the RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford: gloss anti-flash white overall with pale pink and blue Type D roundels on the forward fuselage, a pale fin flash, the serial in pale blue on the rear fuselage and under the wings, pale pink ejection-seat warning triangles and red jet-pipe blanks; no roundels are painted on the upper wing, which no photograph shows.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XR220, the second BAC TSR.2 prototype, the cancelled Mach 2 strike and reconnaissance aircraft with a long area-ruled fuselage, tandem cockpits under two canopies, a small shoulder-mounted delta wing with sharply drooped tips, all-moving tailerons and fin, half-cone side intakes and twin Bristol Siddeley Olympus 22R engines on tall tandem-wheel main gear; painted as it is displayed at the RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford: gloss anti-flash white overall with pale pink and blue Type D roundels on the forward fuselage, a pale fin flash, the serial in pale blue on the rear fuselage and under the wings, pale pink ejection-seat warning triangles and red jet-pipe blanks; no roundels are painted on the upper wing, which no photograph shows. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (727 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the TSR.2 modelled here.

History

The TSR.2

In 1957 the Air Staff asked for a Canberra replacement that could fly very low and fast under enemy radar in any weather, find its target with its own navigation and attack systems, deliver a nuclear or conventional weapon, take photographs and operate from short, rough airfields. Vickers-Armstrongs and English Electric won the design in 1959 on condition that they merged, and the two became part of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. Their aircraft had a long, slender fuselage with two Bristol Siddeley Olympus engines, a small, thin delta wing set high on the fuselage with sharply drooped tips, all-moving tailplanes and fin, and a long-stroke undercarriage with tandem main wheels for rough strips.

Development was slow and costly. The engines and the complex avionics fell behind, an Olympus blew up on a Vulcan test-bed in 1962, and the estimated cost rose steeply. The first aircraft, XR219, flew from Boscombe Down on 27 September 1964 with Roland Beamont and Don Bowen aboard. Early flights were troubled by undercarriage vibration and engine problems, but once these were understood the flying went well, and XR219 went supersonic for the first time on 22 February 1965 on its move to Warton.

On 6 April 1965 the Chancellor, James Callaghan, announced in his Budget speech that the TSR.2 was cancelled. The Labour government meant to buy the American F-111 instead, and cancelled that order too in 1968. XR219 had made 24 flights; no other TSR.2 flew. The jigs and tooling were scrapped and most of the part-built airframes were destroyed, and XR219 itself ended its days as a gunnery target at Shoeburyness. Only XR220 at Cosford and XR222 at Duxford survive.

This airframe

TSR.2 XR220

XR220The airframe modelled

XR220 was the second TSR.2 built. It was damaged in an accident while being delivered by road to Boscombe Down in September 1964, and after repairs it was ready for its first flight on 6 April 1965, the day the programme was cancelled, so it never flew. It was kept for ground tests, went to the RAF Museum’s store at Henlow and came to Cosford in 1975, where it is displayed at RAF Museum Midlands. The model shows it as photographed there: gloss anti-flash white overall, pale pink and blue Type D roundels on the forward fuselage, a pale fin flash, “XR220” in pale blue on the rear fuselage and under the wings, pale pink ejection-seat warning triangles and red blanks in the jet pipes, with the canopies closed. No photograph shows the upper surface of the wing, so no roundels are painted there.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the TSR.2 in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 127 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.