The Last Bass Outpost

I find the TSR2 endlessly fascinating. A certain tranche of the UK aviation scene like to suggest that the TSR2 was a faultless feat of engineering marvel killed off by greedy politicians, bumbling civil servants, meddling Royals and Johnny Foreigner. I think the truth is probably a bit more complex than that, not helped by the fact that the aircraft was right on the bleeding edge of technology for the time, and that every aspect of the design was innovative in one way or another. I would compare it to the APT trains we briefly developed; lots of innovation and design overkill but generally not well understood by the guys that had to work on them and hard to justify financially. The fact that the F111 was late rubs salt into the wounds, yes, but the decision made sense to go with it, for me. I think people try and simplify it into a 'death of British aviation' narrative, which it almost certainly wasn't. I think the failed attempt to upgrade the Nimrods to the MRA4 platform could work as a similar allegory.

Where TSR2 gets messy, and interesting, for me is when you try and figure out what happened to XR219; the only TSR2 to ever fly. The jigs for TSR2, along with various airframe components and models were very publically, and petulantly, scrapped. The official line for years after was that none of the TSR2s remained, yet a fairly complete airframe appeared out of Cranwell a while later, a less-complete airframe surfaced as well as a procedures trainer, which is now at Newark. Some jigs are, I think, at Brooklands as well though left in the long grass(!). Various other TSR2 parts have appeared over the years from the back of stores and teaching facilities and I recently saw the radar from one at East Fortune airfield here in Scotland. XR219 was, again, publically and theatrically dragged off to the weapons testing facility at Foulness and blown to bits. However, the main fuselage from about the engines forward was removed some time towards the end of the '70s, and supposedly scrapped. It seems to be an open secret, or wild conspiracy theory, that it was in fact saved from the scrappies. I have a couple of names on record as to who might be responsible for this intervention, though it is likely that it didn't happen at all. In reality if it did survive you would be left with a gutted, fragmented cockpit section minus any avionics. However it is a remnant of the only TSR2 to fly, so it would be nice to see it some day if it exists! TSR2 sections remained on Foulness until the early '90s, yet there was clearly a culture of denial even then.

If anybody wants more details then drop me a PM...

.  And apparently there are no fans of Japanese planes here?

They seem too utilitarian to love. They look bulky, they tend to have paint missing everywhere and they outperformed a whole bunch of Allied aircraft. What is there to love? British designs, like our cars, tended to be either graceful or pig ugly, and at least half of them had some fatal design flaw or handling characteristic that gave them further character.

What can you say about a Zero? It was scary fast and looked a bit like a Harvard. 

All said with half a tongue in half a cheek...

 Back in the days of The Dudepit someone posted a shot of a Thunderbird painted in WWI lozenge camo (it may have been Glen Cornick's), I'd think that would work 

Roger Waters had the Panzer camouflage bass...

 Somebody's Sea Vixen model needs help - Crappy decal job! Only the English could put the canopy off to one side! 

It must have made sense on the carriers, or something, though some English Electric Canberras had the same thing.



That's the Martin B-57, to you yankees. 

Speaking of US aircraft, I see another twin Mustang is being restored, presumably also taken from the Soplata collection. Shame they crashed the first one.

Credit where it's due, their voices all blend together really well even on the live recordings I've heard.

The section of Blowing Free 'In my dreams everything was all right/In your schemes you can only try' sounds like it could be a bit of Suite Judy Blue Eyes and Turner's frenetic bass licks in Sometime World remind me a lot of Hillman's lines on So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star of the Byrds. Coincidence? I think there is a CSNY feel that crept in to both Pink Floyd and early Yes at different times as well, so I wouldn't rule it out!

I would say that there just isn't enough of anything on the 2002 mix. The drums are a bit underwhelming, being mono on most (all?) of the tracks and sitting dead centre in the mix. They don't meld with the bass at all. Some of the guitar tones are pretty ratty as well. I guess the mix just isn't very unified for my tastes.

Vaguely related, I purchased a Tokai Thunderbird last night as it was on sale. I purchased it online, and it is hopefully making its way to my inlaws' house. I went for a cream one, ala Martin Turner, Overend Watts... everybody has a black or sunburst T-bird, right? 

Its a De Havilland Mosquito, a Merlin-powered plywood wonder. 

It seems like De Havilland really liked wood, as they build the cockpit pods of the Vampire jets out of wood as well. Poorly maintained examples tend to delaminate over time.  This seems very much like classic British engineering, a good mix of stylish design and 'what the **** were they thinking'?

De Havilland also made the Sea Vixen, which has to be their most brutalist design as it looks, to me, like part flatfish and part spacecraft.



Back to T-birds, I saw a link to a 7-string Chinese monstrosity today;

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=171881266163&globalID=EBAY-US