What's this aircraft?

Gwynston

I was flicking through an aircraft magazine in Eason's the other day and this page caught my eye. It was an ad for books available from site www.crecy.co.uk but it had a strange looking aircraft in the background. I took a quick pic - see attached.

The midwing jet engines look similar in shape to a SR-71 Blackbird, except for the square outlets. But it has a central tail fin and odd straught front winglets.

It's depicted with an RAF roundel but is otherwise all white.

Was it a real (or planned) aircraft? You can't really tell from my photo, but the image on the page looked computer generated, so it could just be an artist's fantasy image, but I wondered if it was based on anything in real aircraft history?

de biz

Looks like the ill fated TSR-2 to me....that program got chopped in defence cuts back in the day!

Very much real,there is one on display at the RAF Museum at Cosford thankfully,preservation at it's finest.

EchoIndia

It's an Avro 730, one of those British "drawing board" designs of the 1950s that never saw the light of day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_730

cerastes

Iwas going to say TSR (not sure if it was 1 or 2)
but it had no canards, plus I think their engines werent mounted mid wing.

cerastes

EchoIndia wrote: »

It's an Avro 730, one of those British "drawing board" designs of the 1950s that never saw the light of day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_730

Jasus, never even heard of it
I was wondering was it pilotless, but the chances, wiki says no, 2 crew intended.

eatmyshorts

de biz wrote: »

Looks like the ill fated TSR-2 to me....that program got chopped in defence cuts back in the day!

Very much real,there is one on display at the RAF Museum at Cosford thankfully,preservation at it's finest.

The TSR-2 is pictured in the background of the ad, below the words "Vulcan's Hammer" on the book cover.

Tenger

EchoIndia wrote: »

It's an Avro 730, one of those British "drawing board" designs of the 1950s that never saw the light of day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_730

"Empire of the Clouds" is a great read.
Details how the once illustrious UK aerospace industry was stifled and pretty much shut down by successive Govt decisions in the 1950's.

Personally I love the Dan Dare styling on those 1950's concepts

knucklehead6

The TSR2 was a damn fine looking aircraft. I saw one at Cosford in the museum and she still holds her own as a beauty IMO.

Gwynston

Thanks for the replies - good detective work.
I was quite into aircraft as a kid and grew up in Britain, so am surprised to discover such an amazing-looking aircraft that I didn't recognise! :cool:

The wing and engine treatment looks similar to the SR-71 (but with 8 engines internally!), while the rear end looks like Concorde!
The front half is just unique, but I don't much fancy the plan for an enclosed cockpit. It would be possible this century of course (even cars have sophisticated parking cameras!), but 50 years ago the idea was to use a periscope for takeoff and landing! :eek:

Here are some nice pics of model kit showing different angles:
http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/Avro730Page.htm

cml387

I don't know if you're aware of this site:thunder and lightnings which has an impressive amount of detail about British postwar military aircraft that did actually make it off the plans.

cerastes

knucklehead6 wrote: »

The TSR2 was a damn fine looking aircraft. I saw one at Cosford in the museum and she still holds her own as a beauty IMO.

I always thought the TSR2 looked like it had suprisingly small wings,
I never really got around to comparing its range or fuel load compared to say a Vulcan, which has a huge wing and one imagines a large fuel capacity.
I say Vulcan as it carried out raids on the Falklands, and I wonder did the TSR2 have the same load and endurance, probably easy enough to find out.


quick google, suggests a larger range, smaller aircraft, but a smaller bomb load than the vulcan, although that depends on the range and type of mission (altitude/speed).

Looks like the costs killed it and it was too far ahead of its time? wiki even suggests a swing winged version?

You wonder what its introduction would have done to further aircraft development in the future?
No need for the MRCA Tornado

dogmatix

Tenger wrote: »

"Empire of the Clouds" is a great read.
Details how the once illustrious UK aerospace industry was stifled and pretty much shut down by successive Govt decisions in the 1950's.

Personally I love the Dan Dare styling on those 1950's concepts

+ 1. One of the most interesting reads of last year. As a result of that book I went on to buy and read "the quick and the dead" by Bill Waterton, glosters test pilot during the late 40's and early 50's. And thats a great book also. I'm not sure in which of these books it was mentioned - but apparently it was reckoned the TSR2 would have a been a real dog to fly due to the small wing. It was hinted that the TSR 2 test pilot was miffed he was not chosen for the forthcoming Concorde test program and may have exaggerated the flying qualities of the TSR 2 as a result.

Fabio

Tenger wrote: »

"Empire of the Clouds" is a great read.
Details how the once illustrious UK aerospace industry was stifled and pretty much shut down by successive Govt decisions in the 1950's.

Personally I love the Dan Dare styling on those 1950's concepts

Great read.

pidgeoneyes

cml387 wrote: »

I don't know if you're aware of this site:thunder and lightnings which has an impressive amount of detail about British postwar military aircraft that did actually make it off the plans.

Great find!