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...
