Cancelled aircraft projects

Nef started a thread today about the British Vulcan bomber and it got me thinking about the golden age of aircraft design and manufacture.

Here's Nef's thread ...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'd suggest that the golden age of aircraft development was in the 1950's and 1960's.

So I thought I'd share two aircraft which made it from the design stage to flight ... and then got cancelled. Please feel free to add your own favourites too !

British Aircraft Corporation - TSR2

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ff2245878508.png[/atsimg]

The TSR2 was designed to an RAF specification for a new aircraft designed to penetrate enemy airspace at low level, high speed and to be able to deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons with a high degree of accuracy. First flight took place in 1964, the aircraft was cancelled shortly afterwards on the grounds of cost, despite the TSR2 being widely recognised as being the most advanced, most potent aircraft under development in the West.

The British then took options for the undoubtedly inferior American F111, then they cancelled that order too, leaving the RAF with a hotch potch of aircraft which served into the 1970's.

The TSR2 is the greatest "what if" of British military aviation.





The Bristol Brabazon

Perhaps the most expensive white elephant British civil aviation has ever produced, but perhaps one of the most beautiful & graceful too, the Bristol Brabazon was a proposed post WW2 transatlantic airliner, the prototype first flew in 1949. Prop driven, with enormous cabin space (probably as capacious as a modern day 767 or A320) it was designed to carry as many as 50 (!) passengers in first class luxury from London to the US East coast.

Overtaken by the jet age, Britain's own Comet jet airliner & Boeing's 707, the Brabazon was just the wrong aircraft in the wrong era. It was cancelled almost immediately.

But what a graceful giant she was !

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/24e8a19ba3c5.jpg[/atsimg]



Hey, what's your favourite cancelled aircraft projects ?

Have to say that TSR2 video is very very sad, a reminder of what Britain once was capable of.

With regard to other cancelled aircraft projects.

Got to give the XB-70 a mention. Now that was an ambitious aircraft for the time. Still looks futuristic now.....

Rather than go for the longest reply in the history of ATS () Here are links to some previous ATS posts on this subject of my own.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The other threads I was going to link to are so old they are no longer showing the pics I included (why is that?)

I may just have to write an all new reply about one of my favourite subjects!

reply to post by justwokeup


Just for you ... two vids of the XB-70 ... hard to believe these flights took place over 40 yrs ago, the XB-70 looks so futuristic even today !

Maiden flight and wheel gear incident


Crash sequence ... photo op goes badly wrong

I know an old chap who worked on the TSR2, (he's now unfortunately having cancer treatment,so don't want to push him too much).He reckoned it was a fantastic aircraft,he also saw politicians watching the jigs for it being smashed up,no doubt in his mind that they were doing as their masters in the Kremlin told them to do !.Me?,it would'nt suprise me one bit.

We have done this a few times. I have to beleive that 'Mac the Knife" Macnamara was the biggest killer of planes ever.

Under his watch he killed:

XB-70
XF-108 Rapier (The Valkyrie's Mach 3 escort fighter)
YF-12
YB-12


Also

YF-23
A-12 Avenger II
Dark Star Tier 3 Minus
AH-56 Cheyane

Originally posted by FredT
We have done this a few times. I have to beleive that 'Mac the Knife" Macnamara was the biggest killer of planes ever.

Under his watch he killed:

XB-70
XF-108 Rapier (The Valkyrie's Mach 3 escort fighter)
YF-12
YB-12

I posted something fairly recently which gave the reasons for these being canceled - there was no need for them as all intelligence indicated that the Soviets had shelved all their Mach 3 capable bombers, and their other aircraft were not as capable as previously thought. Put simply, the technology gap did not exist as accepted, and infact the US was far ahead of the USSR without having to operate hugely expensive Mach 3 fighters and bombers.

Why order and operate them if cheaper alternatives exist? Hence the cancellations - and while I would have liked to have seen more A-12 based aircraft in the air, I don't exactly hold a grudge for any of hte above projects.

Also

YF-23

Out performed by the YF-22 in quite a few tests and Northrop had dropped the ball on the B-2 program, with the result that no one had the confidence in them to deliver the product in both a timely and a fiduciary manner. The fact that Lockheed can be said to have dropped the ball on the F-22 is another matter altogether.

A-12 Avenger II

Drastically overweight, over budget and underperforming before it even flew. No real loss.

Dark Star Tier 3 Minus
AH-56 Cheyane

I have no real opinion on these.

I'm more into civil aircraft than military ones. Yet I can literally go on forever listing aircraft projects that would have been awesome if they weren't cancelled.

Boeing 2707 (Probably the biggest reason to hate hippies)

Learavia Learfan 2100

McDonell Douglas A-12 Avenger II

Boeing Sonic Cruiser

Cessna Citation Columbus

The next two might be cancelled but it is not readily disclosed:

Tupolev Tu-244

Aeroscraft ML866

Mine definitely is the XB-70 after seeing it at the museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. That is one hot looking bomber!

Originally posted by FredT
We have done this a few times. I have to beleive that 'Mac the Knife" Macnamara was the biggest killer of planes ever.

Under his watch he killed:

XB-70
XF-108 Rapier (The Valkyrie's Mach 3 escort fighter)
YF-12
YB-12


Also

YF-23
A-12 Avenger II
Dark Star Tier 3 Minus
AH-56 Cheyane

Didn't they kill the Rapier well before the Valkyrie, which shared the same engine? It dramatically caused the cost of the XB-70 to rise which made it harder to swallow...

hi everyone i found this on ebay it is a original tsr2 engine for sale thought this may be of intrested to some of you although it is a tad expensive!!!

cgi.ebay.co.uk...

After they harnessed the horse to the satellite programs in the 60's the budget priority for the fast manned planes was ridden into the flames. Look at the progress aviation made from 1940 to 1960, then compare that to the next 50 years. Imagine what they would be flying out in Groom if the appropriations for development had continued.

No fans of the Yakovlev Yak-141? It would have been the fastest VTOL aircraft ever built until the F-35 Lightning II hits the market. Definately would have given the Harrier a run for it's money.

en.wikipedia.org...

Or the Yakovlev Yak-44, which was a carrier based AWACS with twice the speed and range of an E-2 Hawkeye.

en.wikipedia.org...