Bac Eagle Gr4

[Hobbes]

In 1959, the British government issued specification OR.343 for an all-weather low-level bomber. The specification was very ambitious, calling for features at least a generation ahead of anything in service at the time. The British aircraft industry responded enthusiastically. MOD officials recognized quickly that the scope of the work would be beyond any single company. They also noted that the various designs each had their merits, and that the best aircraft would be a mix of the proposals.
This inspired the MOD to take a step unprecedented in military procurement: they set up a single program office at Weybridge, drafted engineers from several companies involved in the proposals, and made the program office answerable to one person: Colonel John Smith of the RAF [1]. The team quickly got down to business. Their office was jokingly called the Weybridge OKB or alternatively the British Aircraft Corporation, a name that stuck and was later adopted when (inspired by the success of the joint program) the companies involved with the TSR.2 merged.
By 1963 several prototypes were flying. Their performance impressed US and NATO officials. The US had been pressuring NATO members to develop a nuclear strike capability of their own, and the TSR.2 was seen as a prime candidate for the job. When the first production airframes were delivered to the RAF in 1966, their performance in joint exercises sealed the deal. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain all ordered TSR.2s.



The Dutch order was for 24 aircraft, to be flown by 311 and 312 squadrons from Volkel. These squadrons made up the 1st Tactical Bomber Group, which had ground attack, close air support and nuclear strike roles. For the nuclar strike role, the RNLAF purchased B61 nuclear gravity bombs. These would be under NATO control, but would be maintained by American nuclear technicians. These aircraft would be used for QRA, with four aircraft on the flightline at all times.

The aircraft performed well, but by the early 1970s was found lacking in one regard: it had no self-defence weapons. NATO trials with Sidewinders showed that missile to have insufficient performance at low level, so an alternative was sought, and found in the shape of the Hawker Siddeley SRAAM project, which was on the verge of being cancelled due to problems with the launcher tubes and earlier lack of funding.
The project was given a new lease on life as a joint project with several European weapons manufacturers. This solved the funding problem. Tests with missiles launched from a conventional pylon showed that this was the way to go.  By 1975, the kinks were worked out and the missile, now named Mongoose, handsomely outperformed anything else on the market.

Comparing the Mongoose with the Sidewinder:


The TSR.2 was modified to accept the Mongoose: an IR search sensor was added on top of the fuselage, and the radar system was tied to Mongoose fire control. The result was the GR.4 version (GR.2 was the initial export version, S.3 a longer-range antiship version). Existing airframes were updated to GR.4 standard. The GR.4 had all four wing pylons wired for the Mongoose, with up to three missiles per pylon (although the bottom position was usually reserved for the primary payload, e.g. a bomb). For most missions, two or four Mongooses (Bristish air crews preferred the plural 'Mongeese')  were carried on the inner pylons.  



The aircraft shown here is a GR.4 of squadron, armed with two B61s and two Mongooses.


It's the Airfix kit (duh), the decals are a mix of Airfix greeblies and roundels/serials from a DutchDecal sheet for the NF-5. The B61s are off an Italeri weapons set, the Mongeese and pylons are scratchbuilt.


1: Smith, already somewhat famous for being able to achieve the seemingly impossible, earned the nickname 'Hannibal' during this assignment.

[SimonR]

Great work! Anybody who manages to complete one of these b!tches and get a reasonable result out of deserves respect.

[Spey_Phantom]

A Dutch TSR-2, armed with 2 B-61 nuclear warheads, the briliance    

[Martin H]

so thats what she looks like in the flesh  

Looks good Harro, nice bit or work there.

[ysi_maniac]

GOOD      
Pitot tube?

[John Howling Mouse]

Nice job all the way around but I especially like the way you managed to get all the wheels in such good/equal contact with the ground and the paintjob on the intake splitter cone is tops, too!    

[Hobbes]

um, after taking the photos I noticed that it was missing, but didn't want to wait. Pitot tube is on now, and will be painted sometime this week.

the gear was a bit fiddly (made worse by me installing it wrong the first time around) but not too bad. This is the rig I used:



:dum: , but it worked.  

[SPINNERS]

Nice one Hobbes! It's a bitch of a kit isn't it?

[Hobbes]

yeah, the kit has a few problems. Some can be corrected: the wing and the intakes didn't give me any problems, thanks to the pointers from this site. Others (canopies don't fit) would be harder to fix. Still, I enjoyed building it.  

[GTX]

Nice!

Regards,

Greg

[Martin H]

It's a bitch of a kit isn't it?

thats as maybe, but at least we have a mainstream injection kit of the TSR-2 at long last...its only taken 40 odd years. yes it has its fualts, but what are we, modlers or kit assemblers?  most of the fualts on that kit can be sorted with a little bit of modelling.

[philp]

she looks good in Dutch markings.
Nice job.

[NARSES2]

Nice one Harro

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great modelling and backstory. Like it.
 

[Hobbes]

Thanks everyone for the kind words