Aircraft that would have been awesome

Just looking through a couple of threads about great aircraft etc and I thought I would start a thread on aircraft that almost were.

My favourite one would have to be the BAC TSR2 which got scrubbed beacuse the british forces said they were going to buy the F111.
Eventually the scrapped the tsr and never bothered buying the F111.
Such a waste!

www.unrealaircraft.com...

Anyone else got a similar aircraft they have a passion for?

Hands-down - the YF-23





It was the competitor to the F-22 for the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition.

And quite a beautiful aircraft, if I do say so myself.

Yeah I really like the BAC TSR2, shame it was never put into production. A beautiful and unique design.

reply to post by Defender89


It was cutting edge stuff aswell. Us brits are good at regressing in technology take concorde for instance.

I don't have a picture, but I have always liked the -- very impressive __ B-36.

It was an older prop driven bomber about the size of a B-52.

Can you believe the U S Navy wanted to build a carrier for it?

That thing would have been about the size of the state of Rhode Island.

reply to post by hdutton


like this one?

www.flickr.com...

its a shame really, there are a large number of british aircraft designed before and during WW2, such as the Miles M.52 this was a British designed aircraft which was cancelled by the government as it was too expensive, but they turned over the designs and data to the American airforce, and a few months later Ole' Chuck made Mach 1.05

There are examples of flying wings, and other variants designed the in the UK well before equivalent designs were made in other countries,

Halton Meteor

Then we have the BAC Mustard - Lockheed took a few notes here and there on their designs Pictures

You just have to look at the companies of the time
Miles / Hunters / Gloster / Avro

Links to Aircraft designed in the UK 50-59 link

If you are interested there is a really good book Empires Of the Clouds by James Hamilton-Paterson or as always the Janes Manuals for this period

Wee Mad

reply to post by benintheuk


Tis a sobering thought that at the end of the 1960's we were flying supersonic airliners and jump jets and looking to an exciting future, and forty years on we have neither.


Following on from Mustard, see also BAe HOTOL.

While the X-1 only really benefitted in a relatively small way from M.52, the flying tail for instance and it's true that the M.52 was more advanced in overall concept, it's fun, and in a way reassuring for a beleagured Brit, to spot UK programmes that seem to be realised much later elsewhere.

Examples including the current V-22 and the Westland WG22 of 1968, the Boeing 757 and the Hawker Siddeley HS.134 of 1967 and the 1954 Vickers SP.4 and the near-as-dammit identical B-70 Valkyrie which flew a decade later, only with the wingtips turning down instead of up. And so many others, but also in general areas such as the 1949 Bristol Brabazon being the first electrically controlled, now called fly by wire, aircraft to fly, the proposal of sidestick controllers a full 20 years before the F-16 made them real, and of course the things like jets, radar and aircraft carriers with angled decks and catapults goes without saying, but at least we used those too.

While we're recommending books do a search for 'Project Cancelled' and 'Stuck on the Drawing Board' plus the excellent Ian Allen 'Secret Projects' series for more examp,es of coulda, woulda, shoulda, if only we had the dosh

The Canadian in me has to point out the Avro Arrow.

reply to post by intrepid


Avro aircraft are great

reply to post by intrepid

Hi intrepid.

Hoooo man ! Do I love to hate the government that
scrapped/killed that marvel ! ! !

! ! Imagine the performances, with the "Iroquois" engines ! !

Blue skies.

My list of capable jets that have flown and didn't enter production:

CF-105 Arrow
TSR2
IAI F-4E-2000 Super Phantom
Mirage 4000
F-20 Tigershark
F-15 ACTIVE
F-16 MATV
F-16XL
YF-23
X-29