Jetrader - Winter 2018 - 35

Flight Testing
The first flight date was moved to
January 1964, but there were more
delays with engine development problems
through the summer until eventually the
first ship, XR219, flew in September 1964

BAE SYSTEMS

The first TSR-2 off the line was serial number XR219. This photo was probably taken during one of
several flights when the landing gear could not be retracted. Visible features are the deflected wing
trailing-edge flaps and air scoops on the engine fairings open to take in extra air at low speeds.

BAE SYSTEMS

reconnaissance roles using photographic
and radar sensors. In addition, in a threat
of attack, the aircraft must be expected
to be dispersed to take off and land at
rudimentary short airstrips.
Eleven firms submitted proposals:
A.V. Roe, Vickers-Armstrong, Blackburn,
Bristol, de Havilland, English Electric,
Short Brothers & Harland, Fairey, Gloster,
Handley Page, and Hawker Siddeley. Their
proposed configurations included delta
wings, straight wings, variable sweep
wings, canard surfaces, V-tails, engines
on wing pylons, engines on the wingtips, engines buried in the fuselage, and
various combinations.
After much horse trading, in mid-1960
the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was
formed, consisting of Vickers and English
Electric as subsidiaries that would design
and build the airframe, with Bristol providing the engines while hundreds of subcontractors got pieces of the program.
Vickers, in their facility at Weybridge,
was responsible for the front half of the
aircraft including the cockpits, fuel tanks
and various systems, while English Electric
took over the aft fuselage plus the wings,
horizontal tail and fin, mostly to be done
at Preston.
A contract was agreed upon in October
1960 for a development batch of nine aircraft to carry serial numbers XR219 through
XR227, to be followed by a pre-production
batch of 11, with serial numbers XS660
through XS670, and these would be the first
ones to be delivered to the RAF. The designation was to be TSR-2, for "Tactical Strike
and Reconnaissance Mach 2." Several other
designations were used by BAC, including
TSR2, TSR/2, TSR.2 and T.S.R.2., while the
aircraft was never given a name.
By November 1961, the first components
began to be put together at the two factories, with August 1963 as the planned
date for the first flight. Not surprisingly,
with a project like none before, there were
production problems and delays as well as
creeping cost estimates.

TSR-2 number XR219 on short final for landing.

for all of 14 minutes, after which it was
laid up for engine changes and various
modifications. It looked like the prototype wouldn't be ready for a second flight
until Christmas.
With winter weather in Britain being
what it is, it was not until New Year's Eve
that the second flight took place, logging
only 13 minutes of intolerable engine vibration and severe landing gear oscillations.
Flight number three came back after just
eight minutes of engine vibration again,
with the pilots' eyeballs shaking so much
that they could barely see.
And so it went through January, February
and March of 1965 with most flights experiencing troublesome engine vibrations or

landing gear malfunctions. By the end of
March, XR219 had logged 24 flights - all
but one of which were shorter than an hour
and only one exceeded Mach 1, reaching
Mach 1.12 at 30,000 feet.
The second aircraft, XR220, had its own
bad luck. As the fuselage was being trucked
toward the hangar at the airfield to be
mated to its wings, the trailer jackknifed
and dumped the fuselage onto the ground
on its side. Fortunately, the damage was
relatively slight. Four cranes and a pile
of airbags managed to right it and lift it
high enough for the undercarriage to be
extended so it could be towed on its own
wheels into the hangar. Soon, XR220 was
being prepared for its own first flight in
Jetrader * Winter 2018 35

Jetrader - Winter 2018

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