Look at what you could've won....

That title is a catchphrase from a cheesy TV darts quiz in the UK where the couple who have just blown the star prize are given a tour of it just to rub it in

However it is also appropriate when considering the aircraft your air force might have recieved but never did and which in retrospect was a mistake.

For the UK the TSR.2 obviously springs to mind, it was at least 25 years ahead of its time and, unlike the other projects cancelled at the time, actually worked, I know it has been done to death so I won't go into detail but I was wondering what is the Russian or American equivalent, or anywhere else come to that. What is your countries most ill advised cancellation of a working aircraft? as opposed to a design study that was never followed through, if I was including those I would need a web site for the UK entries not a thread

Well, I know for a fact that the RA-5 Vigilante came close to it...
However, I don't think the Russian made a clone for it...

Good point though...

You misunderstand, I don't mean what is most like a TSR 2, I mean which plane getting scrapped hurt your air force like the loss of TSR 2 hurt the RAF.

For instance I expect the Avro Arrows loss was the worst decision Canada ever made regarding a plane, that sort of thing. Maybe France rues the scrapping of the Mirage 4000 or the G8? but which one was most missed?

OH Crap, sorry about that...

the RAH-66 is one of the worst decisions the Army made, but that can be argued about...

The Russians scrapped the MFI which isn't a great decision...but I dunno really, difficult question...

Perhaps the XB-70 was a bad call as well to cancel..