1968...what would you do differently?

[Pittsextra]

So TSR2 has been binned and now its 1968 and the F-111 order has been cancelled. What would you do if anything differently from this point on??

[blaireau]

Buy F4's. I liked, indeed insisted on a good aircraft for my weekends away.

[SASless]

Done and excursion to Hanoi along with my mates....all 500,000 of them.

[LowObservable]

Modern avionics in the Bucc. Multimode radar, inertial, EW. And to continue the what-if, we'd probably be fitting them today with AESA, F414s and the next generation of RCS-reduction kit, and confusing the F-22s at Red Flag like they baffled the F-15s in the 1970s.

[jamesdevice]

Put Wedgewood Benn on trial for Treason?
And maybe Wilson as well for good measure?

[Pittsextra]

and confusing the F-22s at Red Flag like they baffled the F-15s in the 1970s.

Lets have some 1970's Bucc stories....

[newt]

Lets not!!!

[Pittsextra]

you prefer Jag stories

[newt]

Much better

[cuefaye]

They'd be very short ones though

[CoffmanStarter]

I'd still have bought the F4 ... but more of them and not bu99ered about with the engines.

[Pittsextra]

What were the French Mirage's like?

[CoffmanStarter]

French ... Simples !

[Squirrel 41]

Pitts:

Meaning elegant, cheap to buy, likely to break, expensive when they did, and long waits for the bits to arrive.

S41

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

I never did understand why they insisted on Speys in the F4s. Didn't the increased drag of the fuselage to accomodate the engines negate any power gain, while bestowing a greater fuel burn for the unrealised (because of the said drag) extra engine power?

[CoffmanStarter]

SSD ... Political meddling ... Simples !

[SOSL]

Shaggy, you're quite right - the F4J we bought backs you up. But the Spey was a beautiful jet engine.

Rgds SOS

[Aileron Drag]

1968...what would you do differently?
So TSR2 has been binned and now its 1968 and the F-111 order has been cancelled. What would you do if anything differently from this point on??

Absolutely nothing. It was at that point I resigned, handed in my blue suit, and joined BEA. At least there, I thought, I'd get to fly an up-to-date jet! Bl**dy Socialists.

[airborne_artist]

The real question is whether the TSR2 would have been any good for any of the many roles for which it was intended?

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

The real question is whether the TSR2 would have been any good for any of the many roles for which it was intended?

That's a very interesting question. Those involved in its few flights insist it was an amazingly capable aeroplane, but it looks to me to have a tiny wing; great for straight line speed but not so good for manouvering and STOL despite blown surfaces.