TSR2 Design
Here’s my small contribution to the TSR2 story. In 1963 I was employed by Marshall Aerospace at Cambridge in the Aircraft Design Office. They had a contract from BAC Weybridge to design structure and system installations.
I worked on the equipment bay installation, just aft of the cockpit. I remember that with all the equipment installed the bay door could not be shut, and we had to design an outboard “bulge” in the door so that it cleared protruding equipment.
I also worked on the air cooling system within the bay, and found that by the time I had piped the air to all areas of the bay the air supply had run out, both in volume and velocity.
Another problem was thermally insulating the fuselage skin from the internal frames and stringers. We used, if memory serves me, an asbestos based material called Durestos.
Costs also went sky-high when suppliers learned what project their equipment was to be used for. We needed some ordinary immersion heaters for a test tank, and the price was almost four times that of an ordinary domestic heater, due I believe to being “aircraft approved”.
When the Government cancelled the aircraft Marshall’s received a telegram
which terminated the contract overnight, and most of us designers were made redundant.
My regards to anyone who knew me during that time.
Geoff. Charge
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