TSR2 photos

There’s three flippin threads going on this at the mo, thats more than the amount of TSR.2s that flew!

Ive got some photos lurking on my pc somewhere, showing XR220 on its side after being dropped off the lorry, do you have those?

Indeed I do, I have a set of those shots which Warton found for me. But thanks for the offer – most kind!

that seems to happen in many forums i frequent 😉

Incidentally, if you dare to mention TSR2 on Pprune, your post will be deleted. Seems they’ve adopted some uniquely new rules on forum moderation – if they don’t happen to like the subject then you can’t talk about it. Brilliant, eh?!

Hi Chox sorry i can’t help you with pics of the TSR2 ………does this mean that your not looking at doing a new Canberra book then ?

all the best Matt;)

I’ve got a picture of TSR-2 in flight, cleaned up and over a cloud deck. Plus one of a the rear of a TSR-2 in the factory.
I think there actual photos and not clever prints, one says Mar 65 on the back.

^^^^^^^

😮

Never seen a view from that angle before! Thanks for sharing! Easy to see similarities to aircraft aht followed it, clearly stolen their ideas from TSR 2!

“Anything used/borrowed credited to the photographer”

As you are, presumably, not giving these books away, you may get a better response if you offer payment.

Like this for example…

Phantex, I take your point but if you have any connections with the aviation publishing industry (books and magazines) you’ll know that most of us “jobbing writers” do the work for peanuts. We certainly don’t get reproduction fee budgets with which to pay for photographs, and in effect we’re left to do everything ourselves at our own expense, being paid just once for the finished product. So generally it’s a lot of work for not very much money. Can’t speak for anyone else but if I was qualified to do some other sort of job, I think I’d be doing it by now, as then I’d probably have a bank balance that wasn’t in deficit!

Ultimately, most projects like this rely on the goodwill of contributors to a greater or lesser degree. The best that can be done is to credit pictures to the person who took them or supplied them. Sometimes it’s possible to provide a contributor with a free copy of the finished book, but even that doesn’t happen very often as publishers generally only provide six free copies for the author, so they tend to disappear rather quickly. For example, I haven’t even got my own copy of my recently-published Lightning book as I had to give them all away!

Of course it’s a two-way street and I always help other people whenever I can with information or photographs. I’ve lost count of the number of books and magazines which include photographs I’ve taken, but that’s fine, I’m happy to help when I can. I don’t think I could be accused of being anything less than helpful. I gave an enthusiast my last copy of a book I wrote twenty years ago a few weeks back – for free – because he wanted one.

Anyway, sorry if it looks like I’m taking advantage but that’s really not how it is. It was a simple request and of course nobody is obliged to help! Thankfully the greater proportion of aviation enthusiasts are generally happy to help if only to ensure that books are as good as they can be – and that’s certainly a good thing.

Pure Lightning, I’m afraid the Canberra idea seems to have been put on hold for the time being. It’s something I wanted to do (and still do) but the publishers are very reluctant to look at anything much at present (thanks to the financial climate) and Canberra was one of a few ideas which looked good but so far hasn’t got any further than a general agreement that it would be a good idea! But I guess it might go-ahead maybe later in the year when things hopefully improve.

568 Crew, the photos sound interesting – if you get a chance to do a thumbnail copy or something (?), do let me know. I have a feeling that I might have the in-flight shot but it’s very difficult to be certain without seeing it as there are quite a few similar pictures but often with slight (and interesting) variations. Same applies to the factory shot – I have some, but yours might be a different one!

Is Chox being a little disingenuous

No Kev, I’m not. If you think otherwise then perhaps you should contact some of the publishers and find-out for yourself how much (or how little) money is involved, before making any accusations?! As for the Gay Guide you’re completely wrong on that assumption too! Again, I can only suggest you ask Virgin Publishing if you don’t believe me.

Anyway, back to thread – heli1 that sounds very interesting! Pictures like that would certainly be worth seeing.

TSR2 photos

What about a pile of scrapped fuselages in Birmingham ???
i took some at the time but only black/white.

Is Chox being a little disingenuous about the amount of money made from the authorship of the number of books he has had published?

Whilst accepting that some of the less mainstream aviation titles might have struggled (many available for less than a pound on the internet), I would have thought that the Gay Guide would have been quite a lucrative proposition?

Regards,

kev35

There are a couple of short clips in this video TSR2 At Cosford Transferred from VHS So not very good quality.

I haven’t seen Damien’s book but the extracts I’ve seen do look good and it sounds like it’s a pretty exhaustive exploration of the subject. My book is directed more at the story of the programme and the politics surrounding it rather than the actual aircraft, so I would think that between the two books the subject ought to be pretty-well covered now! After fifty years I think we can say that TSR2 has finally been given the proper attention that it has deserved, although I’m sure that these two new books will inevitably lead to yet more information and stories emerging in due course. It’s certainly illustrated that even after all this time, TSR2 is still an incredibly popular subject!

Damien’s long awaited book just arrived through the letterbox this morning… thunk!

… an excellent volume and definately what can be considered a definative work on the type, i an pleasantly surprised to see a few pics and items of new material to me too, eg. Lightning trainer proposal, TSR.2 ADV. etc. amazing research indeed :thumbsup:

ill do a proper read through later today but no real crits as yet, looks an excellent volume indeed, amazingly well produced too setting what should be a new standard for works of this type (id love a biblography tho)

a definate 5 star rating methinks

a good year for those interested in the aircraft with both Tim McLelland’s forementioned volume and Damien Burke’s too both coming from different viewpoints and depth and both useful additions to the bookshelf

cheers, Joe Cherrie

The landing gear was bonkers. It was a result of Vickers having control of the project. They had this bizarre notion of the aircraft operating out of farmer’s fields but nobody believed it was ever going to happen. The aircraft was far too complex for that, and as test pilot Jimmy Dell said, who the hell would fly the aircraft in there in the first place?!

Even crazier was the nose gear leg which would be extended in length to give the aircraft extra incidence during the take-off run. They seriously thought that a pilot was going to lumber off across a field (with thrustmeters which couldn’t show the amount of available thrust until after brake release – doh!) and then push a button at the critical moment to raise the nose gear (instantly losing all forward vision) and encourage the aircraft to leap into the air – all in less than 3,000 feet from grass. Thankfully it turned out that the tailerons were so effective that the fancy nose gear wasn’t needed, but you have to marvel at the people who designed it. Presumably they wouldn’t fancy being on-board when it was actually used!

In the early 1970s I was working at Filton with a number of ex-Warton people who said at the time the TSR2 undercarriage was a mechanical nightmare. From what I remember the problems centered around a series of switches that governed the retraction/extension sequence. One failure and you were in trouble.

Look forward to seeing this book, I mingle with the bus and train enthusiasts in Ian Allans Waterloo shop regularly!

Yes, in fact the problem didn’t only occur once. The landing gear was ridiculously over-complicated – a Vickers design which was built around the Air Staff’s requirement for STOL capability. The Air Staff had a bizarre vision of the aircraft operating from tiny fields rather like Harriers did, but the idea was never really practical. If they’d realised (or accepted) that from the start, the landing gear could have been much simpler.