Just a thought…

I don’t force anyone to read my thread, if you think its a waste of your time then just ignore it. The reason this thread was started was out of curiosity to see if anyone had ever had any plans to return the TSR 2 to flight, after all Thatcher had this idea. I DON’T think anyone could reasonalbly do this without a LOT of money and i’m not proposing that anyone should try, as i said this thread is just light hearted curiosity.

….. do some research and get a life.
Please don’t waste our time anymore.

Says he of Duxford´s Buchon fame:D

Peter – I cannot see that someone is wasting your time ! Surely by spending the time to reply to a post which is clearly a flight of fancy you are actually
wasting your own precious time!

Learn to spell, do some research and get a life.
Please don’t waste our time anymore.

Yeah, it’s getting a bit of a pointless thread. It’s becoming a load nonsense.

I have herd of the sr.53 and the airfix kit, very rare now though, it too would make a good project after the TSR-2 is flying again. We might as well reconstuct the sr.177 how much of this was built? is left? then we might be able to call it a restoration 😀

Learn to spell, do some research and get a life.
Please don’t waste our time anymore.

No prototype SR.177’s had been built, only a part built mock up was ever produced by the time Mr Sandys brought about a major change in the British aviation industry.

John.

I have herd of the sr.53 and the airfix kit, very rare now though, it too would make a good project after the TSR-2 is flying again. We might as well reconstuct the sr.177 how much of this was built? is left? then we might be able to call it a restoration 😀

It makes you weep, how many times has this subject been covered, what is the point of asking this question.
If the powers that be won’t allow such proven types as the Lightning, Jaguar, Phantom and even fake, but well constructed FW 190 to fly in private ownership, what hope is there of flying an unproven prototype, dead for 40 odd years, no back up, no spares, no engines, no history, degenerated electronics, assuming they still exist. Shove a Merlin on Thomas the Tank engine and it may have more chance of being approved for flight, perhaps we should ask that some of those exciting prototypes at Cosford should be restored to flying condition, well, most of them have done more test flights than the fabled TSR-2. Perhaps if we find enough A-stoff and B-stoff, some lunatic could be tempted to take up an Me 163, well it did considerably more flights than a TSR-2, it must have more sympathetic leanings by the CAA as to it’s ability to fly succesfully.
Forget it pal, lets devote our attentions to a more worthy cause, there are so many, the TSR2 was a great dream by the British Aircraft industry, it came to nothing, it was politically destroyed, however I agree with the descision, what was the point of it, what was it supposed to achieve, yes it was stunningly attractive and well advanced for it’s time, or so we are led to believe, but so what, would a variant have been turned into a UK air defense fighter, imagine a great lump like that in charge of the UK air defence system, I think not.
Like it or not, it’s cancellation resulted in the Tornado and the Jaguar, what terrible substitutes, multi task aircraft, quite rightly so whatever their faults. I think I personally would have prefered to put my life on the line being defended by those boys than a great big useless piece of ‘High tech aircraft’ whose abilities were never proven.
Lets get the SR-53 flying, lovely piece of kit, it might benefit from the use of A-stoff and B-stoff as well.
Ever heard of it by the way, if you haven’t it’s lovely, 1950’s to a tee and well worth flying, it was one of my favourite early Airfix kits.

ANYTHING is possible with enough of the following

1) Money (concerning the aircraft an unlimited amount would be good)
2) Time
3) Space
4) Patience

Frankly, in this case, you really WOULD be talking of unlimited amounts of money – I reckon even Bill Gates might find it stretching his resources. You’d actually be re-designing it from scratch – and just think what it cost in the sixties…

An absolute complete and utter non-starter, so dream of something a little more realistic! Or a scale model 🙂

I’ve got a Mk2 flying helmet used on TSR2 for engine tests at Boscombe Down (also used on Jaguar and Tornado engine tests) and that alone is in a bit of a state! I can only imagine the state of the aircraft!! It’s the helmet in my avatar.

When you mentioned “just a thought” well…. hold that thought!!

Scott

i could have sworn reading that the day the project was cancelled, the aircrew for XR220 ran to try and get permission to fly her, so im presuming that she was assembled and ready to go, on the flightline?

My friend that was at Boscombe at the time said that the fuselage lay on it’s side across a road covered in a tarpaulin for what seemed to be weeks whilst they decided what to do with it. He said that it was never considered to fly it as it was too badly damaged.
Typicaly British story though, multi million pound super jet fell off a lorry!

Rgds Cking

Have there been any SERIOUS plans to get one of the two remaining TSR-2’s airborne again. There are two zero timed engines at gatwick and two airframes to pick, I think XR220 is the most intact. Would this require BAe’s permission as with the vulcan, I have herd that this is stopping XL231 from becoming airborne again. It would be amazing to see one flying again

Are YOU serious?

The project was cancelled at the beginning of what would have been a long and I dare say difficult test flying programme. I think XR219 only flew a handful of times so the flight envelope would not have been even close to being explored fully. Even the short test programme had already highlighted issues with the gear and the engine.
The Vulcan was restored to flight with a great deal of difficulty and that was an aircraft that had 40 years of experience behind it. Trying to restore an aircraft of that complexity which was never close to getting any sort of C of A. Not going to happen.

No stress analysis, fatigue testing, Reliability and Maintainability data, limited spares holding, no original manufacturer backing, etc…I think the effort to get ‘558 back into the air would pale into insignificance:eek:

Mrs Thatcher

didn’t the Thatcher government look at starting it all up again early in their term or as part of large cold war spending? also read that Reagan and his free spending boys looked at getting B-58 Hustlers back in the air ?

either way, can’t see any way one would ever fly again, for all the reasons said above.

No, its the victor at the yorkshire air museum

is XL231 the southend vulcan?

i could have sworn reading that the day the project was cancelled, the aircrew for XR220 ran to try and get permission to fly her, so im presuming that she was assembled and ready to go, on the flightline?

The Cosford example actualy fell of the lorry delivering her to Boscombe back in the sixties, so was never going to fly any way.
I used to work with a bunch of ex-TSR2 men years ago and they said that the aircraft suffered terribly with cracking. They were eaven finding cracks as they were building the thing! I should imagine that after 40 years of display in various conditions the basic airframe is a “can of worms” anyway.
The TSR2 did one thing though, it has kept a generation of British aviation writers in work! There must have been more lines of copy writain about it than any other British post war aircraft!
When ever I look at a TSR2 I always think “Two huge egines, two tiny wings and a small bombay. Who were we going to war with, Guildford?”

Rgds Cking

keith mitchell is building a 1/4 scale one at the moment (same chap who build the huge 1/3 scale hunter and the gorgeous beaufighter)

www.largemodelassociation.com

Have there been any SERIOUS plans to get one of the two remaining TSR-2’s airborne again. There are two zero timed engines at gatwick and two airframes to pick, I think XR220 is the most intact. Would this require BAe’s permission as with the vulcan, I have herd that this is stopping XL231 from becoming airborne again. It would be amazing to see one flying again

I reckon your best bet is to wait and see if anyone tries to get a scale flying model airborne somewhere (best keep your head down if one ever does get off the ground, could be lethal!). Or get the 1/48 Airfix kit, and throw it out of the window (a metaphor for what HMG at the time when you think about it: make sure you break it up after buidling it, and burn the instruction sheet for good measure……)