OR.948

[daniel_g]

I've recently read that the TSR.2's cockpit instruments were built to 'OR.948 The Pilot's Standard Instrument Control Panel'.  I've never seen the post war Operation Requirements go above 3xx - did the AST designation replace OR?  ANyway, if anybody can illuminate me, I'd be most appreciative!

Daniel

[DamienB]

OR.948 doesn't ring any bells I have to say but I'd need to go digging in my reference material to check.

OR.946 was a de facto standard for a set of Navigation Display instruments (e.g. attitude indicator, altimeter, flight director, airspeed indicator and standby versions of them, etc.); BAC didn't want to use this standard as there wouldn't be room on the panel for all the standard instruments as they had a large moving map display to fit in and wanted to use a HUD for much of the primary flight information, so TSR2 used it more as a guideline to try and retain some standardisation while giving the designers freedom to size and position instruments to best suit the crew's needs. That way at least the presentation of the instruments would be familiar to pilots coming in from another type. You couldn't say the TSR2's instruments were 'built to' an OR as nothing ever was - they were built to specifications rather than requirements. Built to meet a requirement, sure.

There are loads of high-numbered ORs - only the triple digit ones get mentioned normally, as they are the 'sexy' stuff i.e. complete aircraft. Higher numbers cover weapons and subsidiary equipment for the most part (e.g. 1127 was Red Beard atomic bomb, 3044 was the TSR2 navigation, bombing, recce & flight control system, 8023 was for lightweight helmets, etc.).

[daniel_g]

Many thanks Damien - do you know of any resources that get into the detail of OR.946 instruments?

thanks,

Daniel

[DamienB]

You may find a copy in the National Archives. Plug "OR.946" into the catalogue search there and you find some flight trials documentation but you'd need to search for related phrases like 'flight instruments' as well to really make sure.

[daniel_g]

Thanks Damien - there's obviously a skill in search engine syntax in order to get the right results.

For the benefit of anyone interested, OR.946 defined navigation 'computers' and cockpit instrumentation.  Probably a sucessor to the Smiths [Military] Flight System that is at the centre of the Comen and Vulcan panels.  The first OR.946 equipped aircraft was a test Lightning F1 flown by Roland Beaumant in 1959.  The system was built into the lightning F2 and F3 also used in the Bucanneer.  Given the Warton base for this development, it will be interesting to find out to what extent it was built into the TSR2 where the systems elements were lead by Vickers, not EE?

[daniel_g]

And a quick web search has confirmed the common usage of OR.946.  I'm surprised that I've never noticed TSR2 style attitude indicator and navigation display in the Lightning or Buc.  They do have a very modernist two dimensional look to them which makes them look more Russian than British to me!

http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/Pages1_files/Technical_files/Tech6_files/Cockpit.html

http://www.lightning.org.uk/cockpit.html