What would they have called the TSR.2 in service?

A

AndyG43

SOH-CM-2023
Steve's post about Paul Foster's wonderful Vulcan, and our little detour into the wonderful world of Lightnings & TSR.2s, got me thinking about my little avatar.

One thing I've always wondered, what would the TSR.2 have been called in service? There were a set of decals around for the Airfix kit that called it the BAC Eagle, but that was based on spurious information and never worked for me. And I've heard the word "Claymore" mooted based, I would imagine, on the merging of Supermarine into BAC & therefore following on from the Scimitar; again, that has never worked for me - a claymore is a clunking great scottish broadsword, or a rather nasty anti-personnel device used in Vietnam, not a piece of supremely elegant engineering?

So any thoughts? They've had the discussion at Pprune, but came to no conclusion; but they are all techy types, and we are creative artists here, with more imagination. :icon_lol:
 
LOL, not a huge help, but thanks for playing. :icon_lol:

One further thought I've had; the RAF haven't always given types a name, another aircraft that went in service at about the time TSR2 should have done (and is still in service - just) was the Vickers VC10. So could the RAF have stuck with TSR.2?
 
dhasdell said:
Well, the TSR.1 entered service as the Swordfish, if that's any help!
:wiggle:
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Hmmm...interesting...I had always been led to believe the TSR.1 was in fact the Canberra not the Swordfish with TSR standing for 'Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance'.
 
Ditto on hearing the Canberra as the TSR.1. I have read to the same effect it was due to be called BAC Eagle. Can't remember where mind you, but it does have a ring to it. Mind you, by now the term 'TSR.2; is so firmly embedded in collective conscious that it's hard to imagine it as anything else...
 
I'm going to make this easy for you...


There is good precedent to follow, and here I'm just paraphrasing Wiki:
Many British aircraft were named alliteratively, Blacburn Buccaneer, Hawker Harrier, Vickers Valiant.
Heavy bombers received the names of cities and towns e.g. Short Stirling
Land-based maritime patrol aircraft were given names with nautical exploration associations - Avro Anson


Being a strike and reconnaisance plane, the TSR2 would have to be the BAC [city with nautical exploration association, starting with "B"]!
The TSR2 part might even survive as a suffix, they all had some further identifier: Vulcan B.2, Valiant B(K).1, Hunter FR.10, Lancaster GR.III not to mention the ghastly Sea King HAR.3


Being somewhat historically and geographically challenged, I'll leave the next step up to the British contingent...
 
Wing_Z said:
I'm going to make this easy for you...


There is good precedent to follow, and here I'm just paraphrasing Wiki:
Many British aircraft were named alliteratively, Blacburn Buccaneer, Hawker Harrier, Vickers Valiant.
Heavy bombers received the names of cities and towns e.g. Short Stirling
Land-based maritime patrol aircraft were given names with nautical exploration associations - Avro Anson


Being a strike and reconnaisance plane, the TSR2 would have to be the BAC [city with nautical exploration association, starting with "B"]!
The TSR2 part might even survive as a suffix, they all had some further identifier: Vulcan B.2, Valiant B(K).1, Hunter FR.10, Lancaster GR.III not to mention the ghastly Sea King HAR.3


Being somewhat historically and geographically challenged, I'll leave the next step up to the British contingent...
Click to expand...

Problem with Wiki, it is only as good as the person writing it, and there are flaws in the logic of whoever wrote that; the Valiant is undoubtedly a heavy bomber (by RAF standards) but I don't know of a city called 'Valiant' (I have, however, heard of a town called malice..... :kilroy:); and Vulcan Victor aren't alliterative. Hawker Harrier sounds plausible, until you remember it got the name as a follow on from Kestrel.

There were traditions in naming; for example, Supermarine used the letter 's' - Spitfire, Seafire, Spiteful, Swift, Scimitar, Sattacker .... oh wait, think that might be wrong. Problem was BAC was a new entity, so whose tradition did you follow, Vickers-Supermarine or English Electric. I quite like Pete's suggestion, but 'Thunderbolt' might work a little better, as a stablemate to the Lightning.
 
I saw this subject in a different thread and thought I'd post my reply here. The name "Vengance" was originally thought up by JDTinballs, so he get's all the credit for any cudos...

"Vengance" has a nice sound to it, only because it's right along the same premise as "Spitful", a fighter which was born from the ultimate developement of the Spitfire. Some may have taken offence to the name, "Vengance", even back when the TSR2 was undergoing test flights. Still, the name "TSR2 Vengance" fits that magnificent machine perfectly. Aside from haveing a somewhat "spooky" appearance, (from the front). The TSR2 looks "vengeful".

BB686:USA-flag:
 
Vengeance... has 3 "e's".
Lightning and Thunderbolt does have a solid ring, I must say.
Would've been a formidable pair, too.
 
Having worked on the beast at Weybridge in the D.O., there was never any name put forward that I heard, but the MRCA was in the Project office at the time & we know what that became!
Expensive? Do not forget that it was the UK's first Weapons System type contract, so will look worse relative to previous contracts.
Keith
 
Tako_Kichi said:
BAC Blackpool and BAC Bognor Regis don't work either. :isadizzy:

BAC Bankrupt might! :icon_lol:
Click to expand...

Famous quote "B***** Bognor!"

BAC Battle? Both a place name and alliterative...
mind you BAC Budleigh Salterton or Burton Latimer don't work IMHO :icon_lol:

Going further afield into the colonial past...

BAC Bombay (India)

BAC Boston (USA)

BAC Bonaventure (Canada)

ttfn

Pete
 
Lets see. BAC, Aerological naming conventions, hmm... Hurricane,Tornado(1st one) Typhoon, Tempest, Lightning. Hmm... BAe 'Drizzle' is very English, but lacks meteorlogic impact...
Breeze, even 'Stiff Breeze' won't do at all. Storm? Gale, Thunder? 'V' follow ons- I agree, Vengeance is very good, Vandal has a nice ring for an interdictor.
 
OK I don't often find myself chuckling out loud in here, but BAC Stiff Breeze...

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the airshow. In just a few moments, approaching from the left, you will be able to see a..."
 
I think one can rule out Vigilante - there was a A5 Vigilante manual in the Weybridge DO at the time - any similarity purely co-incidental!
Keith
 
Meteorlogical i like, hey i know... a captured one (By Russia) TSR.2 Buran *Ducks to avoid flying objects after mentioning TSR2, Captured and Russia in one sentence"

'Vanquish' also works... or 'Excalibur', the latter being the legendary sword King Arthur freed from the rock, and was kinda iconic... was said to be the finest blade there ever was.... names i've seen in the past include 'Eagle' (wouldn't really work, although you could talk to the World Wildlife fund to see if you could have it put on an endangered list), another idea i've been toying with is overseas names for TSR2, for example i like to think the Greeks would call it 'Μαχαιρα', a Μαχαιρα is a type of sword and was carried by the likes of Leonidas, Achilles and Alexander the Great..... had a curved blade hence the Mach (ch as in loch, Μαχ=ma-ch) in Machete :salute:
 
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