WI: Operational Requirement F.155 hadn't been cancelled?

Zachariah

Banned
Operational Requirement F.155 was a specification issued by the British Ministry of Supply for an interceptor aircraft to defend the United Kingdom from high-flying supersonic bombers. Although a nuclear threat from Soviet nuclear-armed bombers was identified as early as in 1955, F.155 calling for supersonic interceptors (which would ideally be in service by 1962) was superseded by the 1957 Defence White Paper, a major review of military spending. One of its key elements was the cancellation of nearly all manned fighter projects, as a radical change had occurred in strategic threats with the expectation that intercontinental ballistic missiles and low-level strikes would replace high flying bombers.

Operation Requirement F.155 specified exacting demands; this machine was to be capable of all-weather interception of targets within 20 minutes of target contact (250 miles from the UK), flying at 60,000 feet and Mach 1.3, using guided weapons (a mixture of infra-red guided missiles and radar guided missiles). From start up, the fighter was to reach 60,000 feet at a range of 70 nautical miles from base in 6 minutes, at a speed of at least Mach 2. A crew of two was also specified because of the anticipated workload. This specification went out to several aircraft companies, and several British aircraft manufacturers submitted their designs for planes that would meet the RAF's specified requirements.

Among these were Armstrong-Whitworth's AW.169:
aw169_46sqdn_raf_1.png

De Havilland's DH.117:
dh117_89sqdn_raf_1.png

English Electric's P.8:
eep8_23sqdn_raf_1.png

Fairey's Delta III:
fd_iii_33sqdn_raf_1.png

Hawker's P.1103:
h_p1103_85sqdn_raf_1.png

Saunders-Roe's P.187:
p187_41sqdn_raf_1.png

and Vickers-Armstrong's Type 559:
t559_25sqdn_raf_1.png


Due to the length of design and development, for the interim the RAF also considered purchasing the Canadian Avro Arrow, projected to be operational by 1961, to meet this specification:
ac_cf105_60sqdn_raf_1.png


So then, what if the 1957 Defence White Paper hadn't terminated nearly all British manned fighter development projects, and one of these aircraft had been ordered to meet Operational Requirement F.155? Which one would have been the most interesting?
 
A British Arrow would be interesting. Actually quite plausible when the treasury realizes they can just dump the research cost on someone else, and then just buy a production licence.
 
Did Gerry Anderson work for Saunders-Roe or Vickers-Armstrong?????? :p
Some of the ideas they were playing around with were quite interesting
 

Archibald

Banned
Oh yes so cool I red Tony Butler books a decade ago and loved F.155T. The Saro P.187 was pure awesomeness. The Arrow option was explored but only as an interim type - even the mighty CF-105 did not filled F.155 specs.

I can't remember the name of the air-to-air-missile F.155T were to carry (edit: RED DEAN) but it was an enormous beast which drag was considered a major issues by all the contenders. The author of the Vickers profile did not got the missile wrong: the Red Dean was that big.

51T8XYQP73L._SX349_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 

Zachariah

Banned
Did Gerry Anderson work for Saunders-Roe or Vickers-Armstrong?????? :p
Some of the ideas they were playing around with were quite interesting
Indeed- those aircraft do bear quite some resemblance to those Gerry Anderson designed for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, don't they?
 

Zachariah

Banned
Oh yes so cool I red Tony Butler books a decade ago and loved F.155T. The Saro P.187 was pure awesomeness. The Arrow option was explored but only as an interim type - even the mighty CF-105 did not filled F.155 specs.

I can't remember the name of the air-to-air-missile F.155T were to carry (edit: RED DEAN) but it was an enormous beast which drag was considered a major issues by all the contenders. The author of the Vickers profile did not got the missile wrong: the Red Dean was that big.

51T8XYQP73L._SX349_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Are you sure that the CF-105 wouldn't have filled the specs? After all, the British would have fitted it with different engines, with 30-54kN (14%-25%) more thrust than the engines used for the flight-tested Mk1 Avro Arrows. As for the Saro P.187, do you think that it could have been a successful aircraft? Or was it "too big"?
 
I can't remember the name of the air-to-air-missile F.155T were to carry (edit: RED DEAN) but it was an enormous beast which drag was considered a major issues by all the contenders. The author of the Vickers profile did not got the missile wrong: the Red Dean was that big.
They were big, but only for their capability at the time.
Un0000missiles.jpg
 
We should have let Gerry and his team have a go (looking at some of the Soviet ideas I think that they took Thunderbirds as a documentary, lol). It was a much more interesting time the Hawker P.1103 looks far ahead of its time.
 
Which was the proposed RAF design with a jet engine for take-off & cruise, but an actual liquid-fuelled rocket motor for interceptions ?
IIRC, it could climb even faster than a Lightning on steroids, make road-kill of those Russian Bears...

But why bother when ground-based missile batteries could do the business for a fraction of the up-keep ??
 

Zachariah

Banned
Which was the proposed RAF design with a jet engine for take-off & cruise, but an actual liquid-fuelled rocket motor for interceptions ?
IIRC, it could climb even faster than a Lightning on steroids, make road-kill of those Russian Bears...

That would be pretty much all of them, excluding the Avro Arrow and the English Electric P.8 (Electric Thunderbolt?)- those were the only two which didn't feature rocket boosters. Although, with the Fairey Delta III, there were merely provisions to fit rocket engines, as opposed to them being integral parts of the aircraft design. The Saro P.187 (designed as a progression from the SR.177) did rely on its rocket motors most heavily though- it had four of them, as opposed to the Hawker P.1103 and the Vickers-Armstrong Type 559's two rocket boosters, and the single rocket boosters built into the AW.169 and DH.117.
 
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