Project MUSTARD - the 'other TSR.2'

[ColdCollation]

I've read about MUSTARD before, and seen it described as another Miles M.52... in that in the 'spirit of cooperation' it was shared with the US, who once they had the plans suddenly found that what they had was too secret to be shared. The Miles M.52, of course, looks very much like the Bell X-1 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&catId=220&item=140863476139), which went on to break the sound barrier for the first time.

MUSTARD fate's was apparently similar, though I'd love to learn more from those in the know. Some of us would know it as the Space Shuttle.

Anyway, its designer has just died, RIP:

Tom Smith - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/9649596/Tom-Smith.html)

Why 'the other TSR.2?' Well, just another aerospace project where we were once so far in the lead...

[Kitbag]

Not quite as easy to read across; Flight did something on it back in the '60's; Flight (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200816.html)next page (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200817.html), (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200816.html)next page (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200818.html)
(http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200816.html)

[wiggy]

Not quite as easy to read across

Agreed,

You can go back to the late 1930's, to the likes of the proposed Sanger-Bredt bomber, through a multitude of 1950's and '60s concepts for "space planes" ( probably the most important was the the X-20 "Dyna-Soar"), and see all sorts of precursors to the Space Shuttle, MUSTARD was just one of many.

PROJECT 1947: German Hypersonic Bomber Prototype? - Joel Carpenter (http://www.project1947.com/gfb/antiplofer.htm)

I've certainly no wish to be churlish over about an obit of a very distinguished engineer and designer, but the author of the piece is a bit naughty to claim "About three years after MUSTARD was cancelled, the Americans became interested in a reusable aircraft [sic]."...that's simply untrue, as one look at the timelines of the below projects will show.

MARTIN (http://www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld002.htm)

Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar)

[Windy Militant]

Sad News.

Before there is another troll fest remember that there were a number of collaborations in Aerospace in the 1960s and 1970s. NASA and the RAE shared a great deal of information at that time.
There were projects at Woomera using the Black Night missile, Gaslight and Dazzle. These were to reasearch reentry of ICBMs.
NASA picked up on the idea of water cooled thermal control for space suits from the RAE.
The Concorde stress rig was used for testing space shuttle components.
The Blue Streak RZ2 motors evolved from the Noth American S3 Thor Motors built under licence, Rolls Royce made a few improvements to the design which they then sold back to North American when Blue streak was cancelled.
I made camera mounts for NASA as an RAE apprentice in the late seventies.
Finally there was a display in the National AeroSpace museum which had a number of models of concepts that NASA considered before settling on the final design of the shuttle, one of which was MUSTARD.
This caused a great deal of consternation amongst British space buffs who'd not heard of it this side of the Herring Pond. ;)

It's still there!
Model, Space Shuttle, British Aircraft Corporation MUSTARD Triamese Concept - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19900223000)

[ColdCollation]

... and it even explains the acronym - I hadn't even realised it was an acronym and not just a code name. Thank you.