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??

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

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

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.

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

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

Lets not!!!

you prefer Jag stories :E

Much better:D:D:D:D

They'd be very short ones though :eek:

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

What were the French Mirage's like?

French ... Simples !

Pitts:

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

S41

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?

SSD ... Political meddling ... Simples !

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

Rgds SOS

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. :ugh:

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.