Testing Time by Keith Aspinall [Print]

Aircraft Depicted: BAC TSR2 [other products featuring this aircraft]

Artist: Keith Aspinall [browse all Keith Aspinall]

Open Edition.

Image size 14.5 inches x 9.5 inches (37cm x 24cm)

A TSR2 deploys its parachute while a Lightning flies by. Test pilot Roland Beamont finally made the first flight from the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, on 27th September 1964. Initial flight tests were all performed with the undercarriage down and engine power strictly controlled - with limits of 250 kn and 10,000 ft on the first (15-minute) flight. Shortly after take off on XR219's second flight, vibration from a fuel pump at the resonant frequency of the human eyeball caused the pilot to throttle back one engine to avoid momentary loss of vision. Only on the 10th test flight was the landing gear successfully retracted - problems preventing this on previous occasions, but serious vibration problems on landing persisted throughout the flight testing programme. The first supersonic test flight (Flight 14) was achieved on the transfer from A&AEE, Boscombe Down, to BAC Warton. During the flight, the aircraft achieved Mach 1 on dry power only (supercruise). Following this, Beamont lit a single reheat unit only (because of problems with the other engine's reheat fuel pump), with the result that the aircraft accelerated away from the chase Lightning flown by Wing Commander James 'Jimmy' Dell, who had to catch up using reheat on both engines. On flying the TSR-2 himself, Dell described the prototype as handling 'like a big Lightning'. Over a period of six months, a total of 24 test flights were conducted.