Foulness Island Ranges

….. if it’s a TSR2 dataplate …..

….. that’s all that you’ll need for a rebuild of that TSR2 ….. and in 2016 wil it be at …..!

You might find, heli1, that if it’s a TSR2 dataplate you have it may be worth quite a bit to a TSR2 aficionado.

No, not sad at all.

Anon.

Raced the Southend on Sea Triathlon in the mid-1990’s and was surprised to find the bike course was on closed roads through the Foulness range. I recall several tanks, at least one Jaguar and an ETPS Phantom, darned windy and sunny day, 30mph on the way out and only 13mph coming back!

Hanningfield Metals operated from a yard at Stock, in Essex. Great place and much missed. I found a Blue Steel Missile there right at the back of the yard one day. I soon found that it “didn’t exist”…

Was Hanningfield Metals in the Birmingham area.I remembers seeing a pile of TSR 2 sections at a yard there in the distant past and in fact have a small piece including part of a serial number in a collection of c/n plates that I put together during the same era….how sad is that !

In Damien Burke’s excellent TSR2 book, the cockpit is described as: “Test forebody T5 …” and that it was “….Rescued from the Farnborough dump in 1992.”

I spent many hours on that dump (out on the way to Western Squadron) in the late 60’s, early 70’s and can confirm that there were large sections of TSR 2 there , among a lot of other intriguing bits and pieces. Not all was on the surface and one find, digging under a bush, revealed an entire single seat Vampire pod.Acting on a hunch, I got this rolled over and, sure enough , the entire nose leg assembly, including an inflated tyre, was retracted within.
To cut a long story ( and a fair bit of bureaucracy ) short this went to the Science Museum’s “Winkle Brown” Vampire deck lander displayed in the Fleet Air Arm Museum.
“Oldies” may remember it was displayed for some years in the 60’s without a nose wheel assembly……

I dont believe in conspiracy theories surrounding the tsr2.
When I visited a “closing” west Essex mod site in 1990 to see what aircraft sections were remaining, there were chunks of tsr2 wing and fin there. We were told not to touch them owing to what had been tested on them. This would explain why the scrappy had to be strict.

When I bought out a company in London, I found that I had a few TSR2 instruments. They sold well enough to start things up, and I haven’t looked back!!

This suggests that sections of XR219 may exist in private hands then?

In Damien Burke’s excellent TSR2 book, the cockpit is described as: “Test forebody T5 …” and that it was “….Rescued from the Farnborough dump in 1992.”

I’ll be emailing you the PDFs shortly.

Like all good stories, there appears to be an easy and a complicated solution, based upon what I’ve read. Is the cockpit section at Brooklands off of XR219, or another? It sounds like parts of XR219, once removed from Foulness, were heisted out of the scrappies contrary to the official story (be it that there was nothing left at Foulness to scrap or that Hanningfield metals got to it). Given the range of photos available from Hanningfield metals over the years, do any contain conclusive evidence of XR219?

I’ve noticed that a similar thread of rumour and conspiracy surrounds the Avro Arrow. Somebody’s brother’s flight instructor once saw half an Arrow in the back of a hangar in the ’80s etc etc…

Thought it might be interesting to share this pic of a MiG-23 I shot at Hanningfield Metals back in April 2009. Having made numerous trips down there as a kid to see the Phantoms, Buccs, Canberras etc. I took a random trip there to see if there was anything of any interest still at the site. The answer was no, just random metal, until I walked around a corner and found this..

[ATTACH=CONFIG]234935[/ATTACH]

I believe it is 50 red, formerly of the Russian Air Force.

Blimey when i read it the first time I thought you said MIG-23 I shot down…………………………………………

Thought it might be interesting to share this pic of a MiG-23 I shot at Hanningfield Metals back in April 2009. Having made numerous trips down there as a kid to see the Phantoms, Buccs, Canberras etc. I took a random trip there to see if there was anything of any interest still at the site. The answer was no, just random metal, until I walked around a corner and found this..

[ATTACH=CONFIG]234935[/ATTACH]

I believe it is 50 red, formerly of the Russian Air Force.

Meddle, if you PM me an email address I’ll send you a NAM newsletter in a PDF format about the event last September mentioned in this thread http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?129995

NAM pulled together a variety of TSR2 items from around the UK to join the items that it already displays; the Brooklands cockpit is still on site – albeit covered over at the moment to protect it from the elements.

There was a rumour that when the contents of Quedgely were sold that the parts to make a complete TSR2 were bought by a very wealthy collector

To quote an earlier thread;

In the mid 90’s I picked up two small TSR 2 items from an Aerojumble (Shoreham). In about 1997-8-9 I noticed in Aeroplane Monthly Hangers stores section, a wanted advert requesting TSR 2 bits. Noting that the bits I had were not really in my line of collecting but keen to see them go to a good home I phoned the number. The guy on the other end of the phone told my the following story;-
He run a company which was aviation related and sometimes touched on the warbird scene. During one of these warbird scene moments he had recently (within a month or so of that time) come across a TSR 2 forward fuse in a scrap yard covered by a tarpaulin. I asked if this was the forward fuse which was at the time at Farnborough/Brooklands. He said no and he believed it was the forward fuse of XR219! He would not tell me the location but did let slip the yard specialised in handling stainless steel. His advert and attitude of not telling anybody the location was intended to see if enough bits were available so that he (and only he) could put together a reasonable display standard item. He took my name address and told me he would get back to me… but never did. I’ve since lost the phone number.

At the time I was working on Nimrod MRA4 and hence had regular contact with Warton. So I passed the story on to the BAe North West Heritage group. They phoned the number and got the same story and response. They were sufficiently interested to contact Shoeburyness to try to track down just who bought the remains of XR219 when it went up for disposal. Although I don’t think they could do this, but Shoeburyness “confirmed” that XR219 was shredded by the scrapy in the late 70’s.

Some time later I was reading a book on which I think was called “The history of British Aerospace A Proud Heritage” (or something like that), which was published in the mid/late 80’s and hidden await in the text it makes the claim that the scrap yard that handled XR219 was quietly storing significant portions of the aircraft.

Now, there is never any smoke without fire……. (Has anyone got the back issue of Aeroplane Monthly from either 1997/8/9 with that phone number?)

As for other TSR 2 bits, I understand that the Brian Trubshaw horde which was once at Little Rissington consisting of bits from Shoeburyness/Pendine (engines mainly, bit possibly wings as well?) has been disposed of by Marine Salvage of Southampton…. with some bits going to collections and other going for scrap. When RAF Quedgeley/Henlow/Cardington were cleared in the 80’s & 90’s a significant number of TSR 2 bits were found, most if not all of which were passed to Cosford. The guys at Cosford noted that some of these bits were actually from their TSR2 XR220 (apparently the cropped wires still on the equipment matched perfectly those on the aircraft…. when the aircraft was stripped in the 60’s why did they disconnect on the plugs!).

I would be surprised if anything TSR 2 was at Aston Down. I have been connected with Aston Down in one way or another from 1983 to the present day. Although large quantities of aircraft/engine jigs and tools were stored there, on both professional visits (both working for RR and BAe) to some of the hangers and my time connected with gliding, I saw very few aircraft parts and even then these were test parts such as the fatigue test Phantom. However it was the sort of place where stuff could get lost for years…… some Gloster Javelin wing and fuse jigs could still be found there up until the late 1980’s! …so I could be wrong.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?20465-Tsr2-XR219/page2

It would appear that some of XR-219 was saved and is in private hands, though nobody is talking!

As far as I’m aware all the remaining TSR2 items on Foulness and Pendine were scrapped by Hanningfield Metals and they shredded the lot. They refused point blank to let anyone have any bits which to me points to an order from MoD. Hanningfields were normally very helpful to museums and collectors.

There was a rumour that when the contents of Quedgely were sold that the parts to make a complete TSR2 were bought by a very wealthy collector

TIGHAR. I expect a press release shortly.

BLOWN UP !

As far as I’m aware all the remaining TSR2 items on Foulness and Pendine were scrapped by Hanningfield Metals and they shredded the lot. They refused point blank to let anyone have any bits which to me points to an order from MoD. Hanningfields were normally very helpful to museums and collectors.

There was a rumour that when the contents of Quedgely were sold that the parts to make a complete TSR2 were bought by a very wealthy collector

BLOWN UP !

I guess the silly/obvious question is, where are they now?

Aha !, brilliant, shame, I am sure the museum could of displayed them perfectly.