Is it any co-incidence I wonder that Labour governments were in power when both the M52 and TSR2 were cancelled?
Probably. Duncan Sandys was the Conservative minister who famously produced the 1957 Defence White paper that saw off various military aircraft projects. He went on to be Minister for Aviation and got shut of the Fairy Rotodyne.
Sandys also lost his head in the famous polaroid sex scandal photographs featuring the Dutches of Argylle. At the time the only polaroid camera in the country was in the possession of the Ministry of Defence and Sandys had access to it.