Issue No 22 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 37
of the problems of the tactical strike aircraft, and
fulfils the intentions of the GOR”.
It had been agreed on November 13, 1957,
that each company within the Hawker Siddeley
Group (HSG) would submit its own projects to
GOR.339, with the result that Avro proposed
its Type 739 and Hawker the P.1129 — two
very similar designs. Gloster had studied
developments of its Thin-Wing Javelin but these
were not submitted, although the company
did independently evaluate both the Avro and
Hawker designs. On March 19, 1958, Morien
Morgan at RAE Farnborough reported that
the P.1129 brochure had been well received at
the Establishment. However, HSG did receive
criticism for producing competing designs and so
on July 4, 1958, there was a move to resubmit a
single HSG project to GOR.339.
It was agreed to use the P.1129 as the basic
design but to incorporate certain improvements
from the Avro 739, and a full brochure for this
“P.1129 Development” was issued in August
1958 as a single submission from HSG. This
unnumbered project essentially retained the
wings and empennage of the P.1129, but had
a redesigned fuselage with square intakes. Yet
another P.1129 development, incorporating
swept-forward intakes and reduced wingspan,
was put forward that November, but, by the time
it was submitted, the combined English Electric/
Vickers design that would become the merged
British Aircraft Corporation’s TSR.2 was secure,
and HSG’s project fell by the wayside.
TWO’S A CROWD
On January 1, 1959, the Minister of Supply,
Aubrey Jones, publicly announced that Vickers-
Armstrongs and English Electric had been
awarded the contract to develop a new strike
aircraft designated TSR.2, and that this was to
be powered by the Bristol Olympus engine.
Presumably, if the HSG submission had been
selected instead then it too would have been
labelled TSR.2 (the programme did not survive
long enough for an official Service name to be
given to the aircraft).
Would the project have progressed more
smoothly and more quickly in the hands of a
different design organisation in the form of the
Hawker Siddeley Group, and thus perhaps
have survived? We will never know.TONY BUTTLER is
the author of the highly
acclaimed British Secret
ProjectsProjectsProjects series of books, series of books,
Volume 1 of which (Jet
Fighters Since 1950) is
now available in a second
edition, with Volume 2 (Jet
Bombers Since 1949) due
for publication in February- For more information 2018. For more information
on this definitive series of
high-quality books, visit the
Crécy Publishing website at Crécy Publishing website at
http://www.crecy.co.uk
ABOVE And the winner is... Vickers-Armstrongs and
English Electric had fielded a strong candidate for
GOR.339, focusing on its capabilities as a weapons-
system rather than merely an airframe. The sole flying
example of the BAC TSR.2, XR219, made its first flight
in September 1964 — and was cancelled in April 1965.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author and Editor
would like to thank Chris Farara and Andrew Lewis
at Brooklands Museum and Alison Jenner for their
invaluable help with the preparation of this articleTAHTAH ARCHIVE