iscover
In the long term probably the most damaging act by the British government was the scuttling of the Vickers Vt000 transport project. The Vt000 was powered by four RR Conway engines, was 146ft in length, had a span of 140ft and could transport 120 troops over ranges in excess of 4,000 miles. This was at a time when the KC-135 project was just getting underway and the DC-8 was merely a dream in some Long Beach design office. Vickers planned to offer a civil version of the new transport, designated VC7, which would have placed Britain (which at that stage enjoyed a wealth of commercial jet transport knowledge via the Comet) well ahead of the US when the 707 and DC-8 became reality. As it was, the Vt000 was cancelled, the VC7 was lost forever, the Comet IV was annihilated by the 707 and eventually the VC10 was purchased for the same role as originally envisaged for the V1000, only a decade later when the Americans had already scooped the international jet transport market. (Pilot Press).
Death of an Industry, Part II
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The British Aircraft Industry since the end of World War II has given birth to more cancelled programs than any other nation. The real tragedy of this fast is not so much the massive waste of public monies, but the acute loss of opportunity and overseas sales, both military and civil, that inflicted the British aircraft industry stemming from The obsessive and inane interference in almost every design project by ill-informed politicians that ensured the . . .
Death of an Industry
Part II
After the Sandys Axe struck in 1957, with devastating effect, there was virtually only one project worth considering; that was the Canberra replacement which led to the sad, sad death of the TSR 2 project.
The story reads like some fiction masterpiece. There was political intrigue, visits to far-off places like Australia to bad-mouth the project, a plethora of Committees intent on fighting within themselves in supreme ignorance of technical experience, Whitehall warriors pulling every doubtful string they could for the shallow satisfaction of getting into the act . . .
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