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The Crowood Press
First published in 2010 by
The Crowood Press Ltd
Ramsbury, Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR
www.crowood.com
This impression 2011
This e-book first published in 2014
© Damien Burke 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84797 791 5
Acknowledgements
I have been repeatedly impressed by the time and effort that so many people have spared to assist with my research for this book. My grateful thanks are therefore extended to: BAE Systems’ Warton Heritage Group for unprecedented access to its TSR2 archives, including much material that was previously classified, in particular to Dave Ward, Tony Wilson, the late Keith Emslie, Keith Spong, Peter Hardman, Dave Hutton and the late Bob Fairclough; the Brooklands Museum at Weybridge for similar access to its own TSR2 and Hawker archives, in particular to John Pulford, Julian Temple, Jack Fuller, Albert Kitchenside, Chris Farara, Geoff Burchett and Michael Goodall; Barry Guess and Trevor Friend at BAE Systems Farnborough; Guy Revell and Peter Devitt at the Department of Research and Information Services at the RAF Museum, Hendon; the RAF Museum, Cosford for access to XR220, particularly Clare Carr and Keith Woodcock; the Imperial War Museum at Duxford for access to XR222; Barry and Dianne James at the Midland Air Museum; the staff of the National Archives at Kew; and the staff of the Coventry City Council History Centre. Thanks also to Ivan Yates, the late Wing Commander Jimmy Dell OBE, Don Knight, Air Commodore Dennis Reader, Glenn Surtees, Matin Hale, Alan Mansell at Solent Sky and, finally, to Ronnie Olsthoorn for his stunning, and chilling, cover artwork. Any errors are mine; sadly the uneven nature of much surviving TSR2 documentation does not lend itself to firm statements in some areas, but with the valuable assistance of several people who worked on the designing, building and testing of TSR2 I hope I have at least addressed many of the misunderstandings and errors that can be found in other publications on the subject, without introducing too many of my own. Any errors found after publication will be addressed on a dedicated website to be found at www.tsr2.info.
DAMIEN BURKE
March 2010
Websites of organizations that assisted with research for this book:
BAE Systems Heritage – www.baesystems.com/heritage
Brooklands Museum – www.brooklandsmuseum.com
Coventry History Centre – www.theherbert.org/index.php/home/history-centre
Imperial War Museum Duxford – www.duxford.iwm.org.uk
Midland Air Museum – www.midlandairmuseum.co.uk
National Archives – www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
RAF Museum Department of Research and Information Services – www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research
RAF Museum Cosford – www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 BEGINNINGS
2 SUBMISSIONS TO GOR.339
3 DESIGNING TSR2
4 BUILDING TSR2
5 FLIGHT TEST DEVELOPMENT
6 THE AIRCRAFT
7 THE ENGINE
8 ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS
9 WEAPONS
10 RAF SERVICE
11 CANCELLATION
12 UNBUILT VERSIONS
Appendix I General Operational Requirement
Appendix II Operational Requirement
Appendix III Flight Reference Cards
Colour Profiles
Index
Abbreviations
A&AEE
Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment
AAPP
airborne auxiliary powerplant
AFCS
automatic flight-control system
AFVG
Anglo-French Variable-Geometry (project)
AGC
automatic gain control
AGM
air-to-ground missile
AHB
Air Historical Branch
AI
airborne interception (radar)
APU
auxiliary power unit
ASM
air-to-surface missile
ASP
aircraft servicing platform
ASR
Air Staff Requirement
AST
Air Staff Target
ATE
automatic test equipment
AUW
all-up weight
BAC
British Aircraft Corporation
BEA
British European Airways
BLC
boundary layer control
BSEL
Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd
CA
Controller Aircraft
CAL
Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories
CAP
combat air patrol
CEP
circular error probable
c.g.
centre of gravity
CCS
central computing system
CPU
central processing unit
CRT
cathode ray tube
CSD
constant-speed drive
CSDS
constant-speed drive starter
CSDE
Central Servicing Development Establishment
CSEU
Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions
CWAS
Conventional Weapons Aiming System
CWP
central warning panel
DDOR
Deputy Director of Operational Requirements
DOR
Directorate of Operational Requirements
DRPC
Defence Research Policy Committee
ECM
electronic countermeasures
ECU
engine-change unit
EIT
Electronic Introduction Team
EPR
engine pressure ratio
ETPS
Empire Test Pilots’ School
FLR
forward-looking radar
FTB
flying test bed
GOR
General Operational Requirement
GPI
Ground Position Indicator
GTS
Ground Training School
HDU
hose-and-drogue unit
HE
high explosive
HOTAS
hands on throttle and stick
HP
high-pressure
HUD
head-up display
IFF
identification friend or foe
ILS
instrument landing system
INS
inertial navigation system
IR
infra-red
IRD
infra-red decoy
IRBM
intermediate-range ballistic missile
LABS
Low Altitude Bombing System
LCNs
(airfield) load classification
numbers
lox
liquid oxygen
LP
low-pressure
MoA
Ministry of Aviation
MoD
Ministry of Defence
MoS
Ministry of Supply
MTI
moving-target indication
MTBF
mean time between failures
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGTE
National Gas Turbine Establishment
Operational Conversion Unit
ODS
Operational Development Squadron
OR
Operational Requirement(s)
PEP
Project Execution Plan
PERT
Programme Evaluation and Review Technique
PRF
pulse-repetition frequency
psi
pounds per square inch
PSP
pierced steel planking
QRA
Quick Reaction Alert
RAAF
Royal Australian Air Force
RAE
Royal Aircraft Establishment
RAF
Royal Air Force
RAM
radar-absorbing material
R&D
research and development
RBW
rapid-blooming Window
RCAF
Royal Canadian Air Force
RCS
radar cross-section
RN
Royal Navy
RPDU
rapid processing and development unit
RPU
rapid processing unit
RRE
Royal Radar Establishment
RWR
radar warning receiver
SAM
surface-to-air missile
SFC
specific fuel consumption
SHAPE
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
SLR
sideways-looking radar
SRV
servicing and readiness vehicle
STOL
short take-off and landing
TFR
terrain-following radar
TISC
Tactical Intelligence Steering Committee
TRRV
turn-round and readiness vehicle
TSE
Tactical Strike Establishment
TSR
Tactical Strike Reconnaissance
USAF
United States Air Force
VTOL
vertical take-off and landing
Introduction
In the German city of Hamburg on the night of 27/28 July 1943 over 40,000 people were killed, mostly incinerated or suffocated in their shelters, by a bombing raid that produced a ‘firestorm’, a conflagration of immense scale, consisting of numerous smaller fires combining to create a hurricane of high winds feeding into the fire. This raid had consisted of 787 aircraft from Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command; forty-one turned back with various problems, and losses en route reduced them further so that a total of 731 bomb loads fell on the city, around 600 of them falling within the space of half an hour over a 2-square-mile (5.2sq km) area on an unusually dry and warm night. In total, 1,127 tons of high explosive and 1,199 tons of incendiaries fell on the city. Bomber Command lost twenty-one aircraft; four over the target itself and the remainder at various points on the journey to and from Hamburg, including four crashed or written off on return to their bases. These losses, over 100 young men dead or missing, were considered ‘light’. The raid was one of four of similar scale conducted over the course of a week, but, of the four, only this single raid produced such an immense level of death and destruction.
Around two years later, at 8.15am on the morning of 6 August 1945, a single bomb released from an American Boeing B-29 bomber took slightly less than a minute to fall 30,000ft (9,000m) before detonating around 2,000ft (600m) above central Hiroshima, an industrial city in southern Japan. In the blink of an eye a fireball expanded to a diameter of 1,200ft (370m). Everything flammable within a mile (1.5km) of the centre of the explosion (the hypocentre) burst into flame. Nearest the hypocentre, humans were reduced to shadows burnt into stone and concrete. The blast pulverized buildings, vehicles, people and anything else up to 11,000ft (3,350m) away. Only the strongest buildings, mostly constructed of reinforced concrete to resist earthquakes, survived the initial blast. Fires spread rapidly, consuming shattered buildings, fed by broken gas pipes and any number of flame sources dislocated by the blast; toppled stoves, lanterns, and so on. The fires merged into a firestorm, and within hours of the release of this single weapon 66,000 people were dead. Nearly 5 square miles (13sq km) of the city and 70 per cent of its buildings had been totally destroyed. The world had entered the age of atomic warfare. That single bomb was a primitive fission weapon, producing an explosive yield equivalent to somewhere between 13,000 and 15,000 tons (13,200 and 15,250 tonnes) of high explosive. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and the Japanese surrendered within a week in the face of threats of further atomic bombings.
Over the next few years Great Britain struggled to recover not only from the direct destruction visited upon the nation by the Luftwaffe during World War Two, but also from the crippling economic costs incurred by fighting the war. Government spending on the armed forces was drastically cut back, the RAF in particular suffering from a lack of investment in new aircraft. There was one notable exception in 1945, when the English Electric company was awarded a contract to design and develop a jet bomber to replace the de Havilland Mosquito. During the war English Electric had impressed the government with its production of Handley Page Hampden and Halifax bombers, and had expanded its aviation activities by buying up the Napier & Son aero-engine company and by producing Vampire jet fighters for de Havilland. It was therefore not quite so surprising, perhaps, that English Electric, rather than one of the more established aircraft manufacturers, was given the job of producing the RAF’s first jet bomber, the Canberra.
The RAF’s strategic bomber force suffered badly, soldiering on with obsolete Avro Lancasters, and Lincolns that were little better. Only in 1947 did work begin on jet-powered replacements, a requirement that would result in the V-bomber trio of Vickers Valiant, Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan. Meanwhile, the Communist threat became ever greater, and, by the time the Canberra had flown, the Iron Curtain was firmly in place. Just months after the Canberra’s first
flight, in August 1949, an atomic explosion bloomed over the Semipalatinsk test site in what is now northern Kazakhstan. The Russians now had The Bomb too.
Instead of being able to concentrate on recovery, the British nation was forced to prepare for a new war, one that would be fought not with bullets and high explosive but with atomic fire. The run-down of the country’s anti-aircraft gun sites that had begun with the end of World War Two was halted, and hundreds of new gun sites were built to protect the major cities and industrial areas. Across the country spread a sophisticated network of radars, antiaircraft guns and hardened bunkers. Stores of the supplies that would be needed after an atomic attack – food, clothing, and so on – were secreted in various locations. Large numbers of fire fighting vehicles were dispersed in depots located at safe distances from expected targets. The government put in place plans for running a country torn apart by an atomic attack, devolving responsibility to individual regions in the event of central government being obliterated.