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Message: <blockquote data-quote="zen" data-source="post: 54316" data-attributes="member: 717">I don't buy Jenkins perspective. UK aviation industry had been held back, first with the delays post 1945, then with the cancelation of a whole generation of aircraft that would've much reduced the technical risks associated with the TSR.2 if not outright killed the OR339 requirements as was.Consider the state of knowledge of reheat in the UK upto the 60s was confined to a very limited number of operational aircraft. Real supersonic flight did'nt start producing military feedback until the Lightning entered service.BTW the RAF had an utterly unrealistic attitude to maintence hours for the Lightning at the start of its career, they did'nt think it needed more than a Hunter!such was the learning curve of moving from dry thrust transonic aircraft to reheated supersonic machines let alone supersonic flight at low level and the issues of navigation.Because of this the TSR.2 had to carry a huge effort to get back to the leading edge of technology. A lot of 'new' technology for the next generation of aircraft had to be developed regardless of whether it was just for the TSR.2 or for a variety of aircraft. By carrying that its costs where far higher. Exclude 'generation of technology' costs and it would look very different in terms of price.Nor does his comment really reflect the RAFs desire for the very best possible solution to their requirements. They demanded superlative performance, and as one industry offical said at the time "why 1000nm? You do realise its going to cost a million per mile for the last 100nm", the very 1000nm figure looks suspiciously like a rounded up number plucked from the ether that looks nice and simple to the RAF.No this was a 'perfect storm' produced by the convergence of RAF demands/sop, Government forced mergers in the industry and Government idiocy (deliberately overcommiting on projects full in the knowledge the next government will have to cancel them).Consider what happens if the '57 review had'nt come along, the UK would've had a lot more understanding of supersonic flight and several aircraft that could perform the high altitude supersonic parts of OR.339.The real issues that effect SAM interception of mach2.5 aircraft at 65,000ft would also become clear, in which case the very basis of the whole low level approach to strike would be called into question.</blockquote>

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