Back in 2001, I was at a Treasury retirement drinks do, and the lady retiring had been involved in the cancellation debate at the beginning of her career. She remembered it vividly, and was very clear on what actually caused the cancellation: the growth in the cost estimates from early 1964 to spring of 1965 - and specifically in the first quarter of 1965. It was a case of "how high will the bill go?" as each "final bill" was superseded by an ever higher figure. Worse, though XR219 looked beautiful and when the gear retraction / oscillation problem was fixed, it was unlikely to have been in squadron service before 1969/70.
At this point, two things appear to have happened; first, the Treasury progressively lost confidence in the Air Ministry's (MoD from 1964) ability not only to control, but crucially to predict, the costs of TSR-2. Second, there was serious opposition to the aircraft from the MoD and the RAF itself - it was so expensive it was gobbling up all of the available procurement cash.
As a result, when Beamont launched XR219 into the Wiltshire sky in Sep 64, the tectonic plates that govern these things in Whitehall were already firmly against the programme, especially as the Tories had left an unaffordable defence procurement budget. The only thing in her view that would've saved TSR-2 at that point was a high level of confidence in the budgeting in the first quarter of 1965, which was the opposite of what happened.
All terribly sad - but that was the story as she remembered it.
S41
Last edited by Squirrel 41; 25th Oct 2013 at 13:20.