Pic: Todays' Editors' Choice at Airliners.net

[FlyTexas]

How on earth did she actually fly with those tiny wings? Was it lift, or was it more like vectored thrust? An amazing machine.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air ... 0747978/L/

Brian

[DarrenL]

Beautiful aircraft.

"If it looks right, it'll fly right" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTM4ve3vZYY

[Lewis - a2a]

what could have been. Also spotted this under it; http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air ... 0747979/L/

[DaveB]

How on earth did she actually fly with those tiny wings?

I guess the answer to that is very fast

I don't know what the wing area of a Starfighter is but it's sure not a lot

ATB
DaveB

[Archer]

Well, according to Roly Beaumont she flew very well!

I saw XR222 up close again last year and I cannot get over the fact that it's one impressive aircraft. Even if it has no visible means of support

[FlyTexas]

Beautiful aircraft.

"If it looks right, it'll fly right" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTM4ve3vZYY

Thanks for the link, Darren. The first time I'd ever seen a pic of her was on airliners.net. The pic simply took my breath away. Here it is.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air ... 0979918/L/


Brian

[Paul K]

Well, according to Roly Beaumont she flew very well!

In recently read 'Empire Of The Clouds', test pilot John Farley was not quite so complimentary, stating that the wings were too small, evidenced by the extreme angle of attack during take-off and landing ( and that was in lightweight test aircraft configuration too, before carrying a military payload ). Another test pilot, who asked not to be named, said that Beamont had elected to stick with the TSR2 programme, rather than go with Concorde which at that time was under threat of cancellation, and his fortunes were firmly tied to the success of TSR2. In other words, he "talked it up".

Who knows...

[Tonks]

I was lucky enough to talk to Beamont a couple of times (what a gentleman) about TSR2 and see him talk about it at RAF Cranwell when I was a student pilot and he was certainly complementary about it but did not hide its faults. It could have been a great jet I think... I loved working on it when I was a volunteer at Cosford...

Tonks

[Chris558]

I don't know what the wing area of a Starfighter is but it's sure not a lot

ATB
DaveB

I guess that contributed to why they called it the 'Widowmaker'. Swing wings are obviously ideal, but they come with added weight - not desirable.

[delticbob]

How on earth did she actually fly with those tiny wings?

Come on.....its not what you've got, it's how you use it

How different today's RAF might have been if the TSR2 had not been cancelled

Bob