WOW Day Zero

[Charl]

A sneak preview for those who came early.
Could it be? Surely not?



Is this a Warbird?
Well yes and no.
See the Oz Gummint is struggling to find a replacement for its aging F-111.
The Superhornet is very sexy, but also very expensive.
Someone pointed out that, in the corner of a shed at the GAF, there is a pristine 50's prototype aircraft that would nicely fit the bill.




So the lads outfitted one with some 21st century hardware and sent it over to see if it would fly.
Oh it does...

[Naki]

Nice one Charl - one wonders if the TSR 2 wasnt cancelled whether it would of made it into RAAF service, considering the problems they had with the F-111 earlier including the long delay of getting it into service.

[Alfashark]

Amen!
A perfect case of the "what if..."

I recall an IPMS meeting held at the RSA in The Mount one evening, someone had brought along a beautiful scratch-built TSR-2 in about 1/48 scale

At one point an older gentleman wandered over and explained he had been working for BAC on the project and spent about an hour giving us the full rundown of its various features and systems.

[Florian_S]

....very well done Charl...interesting plane!

[Daniel]

Nice shots Charl
I like the 3 part shot

[K5054NZ]

I looooooooooooooooove TSR.2! when the Airfix 1:72 model first came out I snagged a couple and built it up as an RNZAF machine.

Superb stuff Charl! Which model? I think Alpha did one payware but I had a fantastic freeware one a coupla years back (Kazunori Ito?).

[Charl]

Thanks all, it's one of my favourite aircraft of all time - just "looks" right.

QUOTE (Naki @ Jul 29 2008, 09:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice one Charl - one wonders if the TSR 2 wasnt cancelled whether it would of made it into RAAF service, considering the problems they had with the F-111 earlier including the long delay of getting it into service.

Yeah it was lightyears ahead of its time - I think the term "swing-role" would be the best current description.
You have to wonder, if they hadn't shredded the engineering drawings (Sacrilege!)...
Could you have used the airframe now, perhaps re-engined and with 21st century avionics?

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 29 2008, 09:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...At one point an older gentleman wandered over and explained he had been working for BAC on the project and spent about an hour giving us the full rundown of its various features and systems.

Wow! Did he offer an opinion on why it was killed?

QUOTE (K5054NZ @ Jul 30 2008, 03:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I looooooooooooooooove TSR.2! ...Which model?

Heh, me too! This is the ALPHA one, there are some newish repaints (=RAAF among others) which prompted me to dig it out.

[Anthony]

Nice Charl
Cool shots here of an interesting aircraft.

[spongebob206]

Really nice work.

Thanks,

Wheres the Mossie?

[Charl]

QUOTE (spongebob206 @ Jul 30 2008, 06:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...Wheres the Mossie?

What a question...

[Alfashark]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 30 2008, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! Did he offer an opinion on why it was killed?

Pretty much the same reasons quoted in various pieces of literature on the subject...

A growing belief that manned air to air combat was to be quickly surpassed by missile technology (this was mainly down to a few high ranking officials including the Minister of Defence)

Thoughts (that may have been partially influenced by the above reason) that it would be cheaper to buy an "off the shelf" item - The F-111 (that never happened due to big issues with the development of the F-111 and the massive budget blowout that resulted)

Various design works were done by the M.o.D themselves as opposed to being done by BAC or one of their contractors - Ever dealt with a govt. department for something simple like a tax rebate? Imagine essentially the same govt department almost 50 years ago trying to design what would have been one of the worlds most complex and capable strike aircraft...