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TSR2: Britain's lost Cold War strike jet
The TSR2 is one of the greatest "what-if" aircraft of the Cold War, whose cancellation still generates anger and controversy among aviation fans. It was a magnificent, cutting-edge aircraft, one of the most striking of the Cold War, but fell victim to cost overruns, overambitious requirements, and politics. Its scrapping marked the point when Britain's aerospace industry could no longer build world-class aircraft independently. After the demise of TSR2 the RAF's future jets would be modified US aircraft like the Phantom and pan-European collaborations like Tornado and Typhoon.
In this book the eminent air power analyst and ex-Vulcan bomber pilot Andrew Brookes takes a fresh, hard-headed look at the TSR2 project, telling the story of its development, short career, and cancellation, and evaluating how it would have performed in Cold War strike roles as well as in the recent wars in the Middle East.
In this book the eminent air power analyst and ex-Vulcan bomber pilot Andrew Brookes takes a fresh, hard-headed look at the TSR2 project, telling the story of its development, short career, and cancellation, and evaluating how it would have performed in Cold War strike roles as well as in the recent wars in the Middle East.
80 pages, Paperback
Published October 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 25, 2018
This is book for those people who might have seen the TSR2 prototype at Duxford and wondered "what if". The books details the project to create the TSR2 and its eventual cancellation. It seems that the TSR2 was overambitious but probably achievable and suffered due to government mismanagement.
May 21, 2018
Rather a dry read. As someone who actually saw the TSR2 flying more than once, I wanted a bit more emotion.
August 19, 2019
Took me about three days to read this after buying the full-price paperback in Duxford's shop. I don't mind paying nearly 14 quid from them when I could have got the Kindle version for half that as the museum is well worth our support (so visit whenever you can).
An appropriate buy since that is the home of one of the two survivors of this sorry saga. Read all about that and what might have been in Brookes's neat slim tome. It will not please you much if you know anything about the machinations over this potentially superb national effort. There is no happy ending except to take consolation in the presence of many of the bits in other aircraft like Nimrod as he says here. Tornado is the daughter of TSR2 you might say but it took three countries locked into a program to get that aloft. We were flying solo through flak-heavy skies and the author does a good job navigating us through it all.
However good his books are - I have some of his books - this one is a bit below par. It is not his fault, all the facts are here along with some useful insight. He has had to conform to the format of the series so if you have read the earlier ones then you will be familiar with the tiny font and acres of white space. This is something I abhor (having once been a magazine Editor).
Also there is some superb specially done artwork in here. The 3-views are fine and tickle the fancy over "what might have been" it is the spreads that do not work in a perfect bound paperback. Maybe they are ok on the Kindle tho. You would break the spine if you spread the book flat and I would not like that having spent that much on a book. Yes, OK, I know about production costs and limited sales runs but come on publishers!
It will now go up on my shelf of Osprey books and I might buy another in the X-Series which is a great series from what I have seen in samples. But I shall have to weigh up the bang-for-buck aspect carefully, maybe I shall try a Kindle one... and report back.
On a final note or two about the aircraft itself I have a soft spot for it having read about it in the news as a kid. Imagine my feelings when I saw the real thing skulking in a gloomy hangar at Cranfield's annual airshow! Nowadays I can stand back and admire that very same spectacular machine in all her glory at Duxford alongside some more successful machines.
Lastly, nations like Politicians and Generals must exactly define what their objective is before embarking on giant endeavours whether it is the Somme, Stalingrad, Vietnam, the Falklands or the latest fighter-bomber. Otherwise we are as a nation doomed to repeat sagas like that of the TSR2 and dissipate money and livelihoods (or worse) for little real value other than a couple of museum exhibits...
It was the Cold War when tomorrow could mean nuclear armageddon so what price the means to deter the supposed enemy? If we had tactical nukes how were we to get them there? The Post Office was suffering from lack of investment no less than defence so some dedicated platform was needed but soon enough the poor old Vulcan would be re-badged and Navy Buccs would have to step into the breech. It was all a very sorry state of affairs.
Could also add that the TSR2 must have been the most expensive aircraft ever developed in the UK. Since only three were built and only one of those flew (not the Duxford example) they must share the expense which was over 500 million, making the example in Duxford a very valuable item, worth more than all the others put together, well, maybe except for Concorde.
To further illustrate the madness, the flyer, XR219 and two other airframes, ended up as gunnery targets at Shoeburyness.
An appropriate buy since that is the home of one of the two survivors of this sorry saga. Read all about that and what might have been in Brookes's neat slim tome. It will not please you much if you know anything about the machinations over this potentially superb national effort. There is no happy ending except to take consolation in the presence of many of the bits in other aircraft like Nimrod as he says here. Tornado is the daughter of TSR2 you might say but it took three countries locked into a program to get that aloft. We were flying solo through flak-heavy skies and the author does a good job navigating us through it all.
However good his books are - I have some of his books - this one is a bit below par. It is not his fault, all the facts are here along with some useful insight. He has had to conform to the format of the series so if you have read the earlier ones then you will be familiar with the tiny font and acres of white space. This is something I abhor (having once been a magazine Editor).
Also there is some superb specially done artwork in here. The 3-views are fine and tickle the fancy over "what might have been" it is the spreads that do not work in a perfect bound paperback. Maybe they are ok on the Kindle tho. You would break the spine if you spread the book flat and I would not like that having spent that much on a book. Yes, OK, I know about production costs and limited sales runs but come on publishers!
It will now go up on my shelf of Osprey books and I might buy another in the X-Series which is a great series from what I have seen in samples. But I shall have to weigh up the bang-for-buck aspect carefully, maybe I shall try a Kindle one... and report back.
On a final note or two about the aircraft itself I have a soft spot for it having read about it in the news as a kid. Imagine my feelings when I saw the real thing skulking in a gloomy hangar at Cranfield's annual airshow! Nowadays I can stand back and admire that very same spectacular machine in all her glory at Duxford alongside some more successful machines.
Lastly, nations like Politicians and Generals must exactly define what their objective is before embarking on giant endeavours whether it is the Somme, Stalingrad, Vietnam, the Falklands or the latest fighter-bomber. Otherwise we are as a nation doomed to repeat sagas like that of the TSR2 and dissipate money and livelihoods (or worse) for little real value other than a couple of museum exhibits...
It was the Cold War when tomorrow could mean nuclear armageddon so what price the means to deter the supposed enemy? If we had tactical nukes how were we to get them there? The Post Office was suffering from lack of investment no less than defence so some dedicated platform was needed but soon enough the poor old Vulcan would be re-badged and Navy Buccs would have to step into the breech. It was all a very sorry state of affairs.
Could also add that the TSR2 must have been the most expensive aircraft ever developed in the UK. Since only three were built and only one of those flew (not the Duxford example) they must share the expense which was over 500 million, making the example in Duxford a very valuable item, worth more than all the others put together, well, maybe except for Concorde.
To further illustrate the madness, the flyer, XR219 and two other airframes, ended up as gunnery targets at Shoeburyness.
August 1, 2018
The demise of the TSR2
A very well written, informative book for those interested in military aviation. I like the way the political angle is not ignored. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I think it was the right decision. However at the time I was insensed by the decision to scrap the TSR2.
A very well written, informative book for those interested in military aviation. I like the way the political angle is not ignored. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I think it was the right decision. However at the time I was insensed by the decision to scrap the TSR2.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews