Naturally I'm biased but I think this is the reference work on the TSR2! 351 pages covering every aspect from the background to the requirement, competing designs to GOR.339, design and build, test flying, structure, electronics, weapons, the cancellation and unbuilt versions. Over 400 illustrations, many in colour. More info here.
An entertaining look at what might have been if the aircraft had entered service, with bags of colour drawings showing wild and wacky weapons loads and various RAF paint schemes (no foreign ones though - a major missed opportunity). Generally well researched but occasionally hard going especially when you get into details like paint formulations. Well worth getting hold of and a good companion volume to my own book.
A short print run make this a tricky title to get hold of - thankfully it can be downloaded as a PDF file from the RAF Museum website, here (Journal 17B). It contains accounts of the various discussions held at a seminar on the TSR2 held in 1997, attended by many of those involved with the project. Refreshingly open and critical of all that went wrong, this is a warts and all overview and a must-read.
A detailed account of the TSR2 programme (from before it started right up to the restoration of XR222) that used to be regarded as the TSR2 bible, though it turns out that there are quite a few errors in it. The author was involved in the restoration of XR222 at Duxford, and the book is understandably scathing of the treatment the programme received from the government. Includes information on the whereabouts of all known remaining TSR2 components at the time. Recommended. It was reprinted in 1998 but is currently once again out of print.
The ever-excellent series of volumes includes this one which is worth buying for the TSR2 article alone, never mind all the other excellent articles. Development history, technical description, detail colour images, cut-away and colour profile. Some inaccuracies and obviously retouched photos detract from the article.
Includes around 25 pages on the development of the Olympus used in the TSR2 with several black and white pictures. Also has Vulcan material; well worth getting hold of.
The title says it all really. The content is non technical, dealing a great deal with the politics surrounding the cancellation and backed up by a fair amount of factual information especially concerning costs. The author was at the time a Conservative MP and a director of Handley Page Ltd. Because it was written shortly after cancellation it has virtually no hindsight element to it, which makes it worth seeking out and reading as long as you bear in mind how much of the real problems of the project were unknown publicly at the time. Extremely one-sided of course, and rare these days so can be very expensive.
Long out of print, this is the TSR2's original test pilot's account of his flying career, with a section on the TSR2. If you can find a copy, worth a read.
Includes a chapter on the TSR2 with 6 pictures and a mass of flight log information.
Includes some mention of the TSR2 but by this time Bea appeared to be writing from memory without checking his own logbooks - and gets badly confused about which flight was which. For the record, when he mentions flight 3 he means flight 5; flight 4 means flight 7; flight 5 is flight 5! He also mentions a major technical problem with the undercarriage on flight 1 - there was no such problem, as he makes clear shortly afterwards, and also makes an error about the speed at which he deployed the braking parachute on flight 1.
Covers a number of experimental types and nearly-made-it programmes, including the TSR2. Both the 1975 and 1986 editions devote one chapter to the 'run up' to the TSR2 and one chapter to the TSR2 itself. Long out of print but often available second hand at fairly reasonable prices.
Includes 13 pages on the TSR2 with a double-page layout of artwork/diagrams.
Design, development and histories of every English Electric aircraft, including a good but dry section on the TSR2. Recommended generally, but not a book purely on the TSR2.
A video/DVD on the TSR2 affair, worth getting for the sequences of the TSR2 flying alone. Uses much footage from the time interspersed with interviews with many surviving personalities that were involved. Dennis Healey is the only 'anti-TSR2' figure to take part in the film, which is accordingly highly weighted towards the whole 'murder of a superjet' view of things. Highly recommended for the flying scenes; not quite so much for the numerous inaccuracies - Beamont in particular by this time was coming out with some clearly inaccurate statements e.g. talking about burning airframes, with magnesium parts "burning like a holocaust" - the TSR2 contained no magnesium and no airframes were burned, only a wooden mockup.
This section would have been greatly the poorer without contributions from the following - so many thanks to (in
alphabetical order):
BAE Systems Heritage, Frank Barnett-Jones, Phil Callihan, Dick Clements (RIP), Burkhard Domke, Keith Dugan, Martin Gatter, IR & AL Fowler,
Tony Hewitt, Rick Kent, Garry Lakin, Evan L. Mayerle and Martin Pengelly.
Tony Hewitt would welcome correspondence
with others to exchange TSR2 reference material - write to him at
48 Mill House Drive,
Cheadle,
Staffordshire.
ST10 1XL