I'm still on my historical aviation kick. In keeping with that mood I present three more examples of what I believe is aviation excellence. The F8U-3...an airplane that by all rights was more capable than the F-4 Phantom yet died an undeserved death due to politics...The Avro Arrow...another victim of politics and a government that was short sighted. Imagine a robust and capable Canadian aviation industry today if this project had continued! And finally the TRS-2. Another victim of politics dressed in the form of White Paper studies.
I am by no means an aviation expert but the Arrow and the TRS-2 appear competitive even today...add modern engines to the basic airframes in addition to cutting edge avionics and you have airplanes that would still fulfill their basic missions.
I don't know how, I don't know why but we seem to have lost something that our predecessors had in bunches...imagination and the ability to make it work.
And finally...one airplane to make Sweetman weep softly, bang his head against his desk, reach for the Black Velvet (click here for the description) to comfort him and finally go simpering to bed in agony...
The BAC TRS-2...
Thank you very much for the videos Solomon, I enjoy them a lot. The Arrow is an old favourite of mine, I was in a book shop in London in the late ninetees and saw a book about it but I was too cheap to buy it... I regret that decision to this day.
ReplyDeleteBut at the same trip I went to Duxford and saw the TSR2, it is a massive beauty. worth seeing.
Thanks Again.
/RAF
glad you like RAF.
ReplyDeletei'm really getting into the old experimental airplanes. something a little pure about the innovation, imagination and design that they had back then.
imagine what they would do today? all they had were slide rules!