Tim McLelland

As I slowly work my way through the TSR2 books available on the market, I believe of this volume is superior to the two other ones on my shelf.
TSR-2: Phoenix or Folly?
TSR2: Britain's lost Cold War strike jet (X-Planes)
Be aware the Crowood volume has consistently received better reviews than the older non-revised edition of this volume.
However, this new revised edition has an analysis of the F-111K authored by Tony Buttler and benefits from newly declassified information. Therefore, the decision was made to purchase this new revised edition that has been massaged by Mr. Butler over the now 5-year-old Crowood volume. (Which is next on the list.)

The book follows a pretty common format, operational concept, paper airplanes, politics, manufacturing, flight test, etc. However, Mr. McLelland and Mr. Buttler do a great job of delving into the conflicts between the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, the Sandy's paper and the general climate that shaped the airplane the airplane. A chapter also provides a "political post mortem" and includes a few paragraphs on the role of Lord Mountbatten in killing the program.
Overall? The book is well written, heavily illustrated with quite a few good pictures and drawings. For the nuts and bolts types, system descriptions are adequate with a small appendix of a few detail drawings and plan views. (The drawing of the maintenance jack is a bit of unnecessary fluff.) The stick and rudder types get a few rudimentary performance charts covering range speed with various stores. As an engine guy, I particularly enjoyed the engine control system drawing showing how the throttles interfaced with the airframe, engine nozzles, computers, amplifiers and actuators. Aside from the illustrations and appendixes noted above, modelers also get just over a page describing the available models and accessory kits for such things as the electronics bay, airbrakes, exhaust nozzles, etc.
Also included is a brief section on other TSR2 references (Both direct and indirect.)
This book deserves space on the shelf of anyone interested in the TSR2 itself, or the politics that killed it.
Highly recommended without reservation for both history buffs and modelers… (mais)

A detailed yet fairly readable history of the development of Britain's phenomenal early 1960s tactical strike aircraft TSR-2, with photographs drawn from the BAE Systems Heritage archive at Warton. Difficult though to describe it, as Amazon do in their blurb, as a photographic history. While there are some lovely colour shots sprinkled throughout the work, McLellands earnest tome has been produced by Classic Publications for Ian Allan and as such is designed down to a budget and format - the text packed into its 120 pages so densely that it is uncomfortable to read and Caruana's profile artworks spread over two pages with most of the drawings lost to the tight page binding. No museum or walkaround photos for modellers and only a page or two of equipment drawings. However the Amazon discount certainly invites a purchase if you only need one volume on the type on your shelves. McLelland looks more at the developmental side of the story rather the political shenanigans which he appears to dismiss as the work of alarmists and dreamers - there were no conspiracy theories - just an advanced new aircraft type that may or may not have performed. Given the array of cutting edge early -60s technology then being designed for it, you suspect the author rather feels it wouldn't have.… (mais)