The parallels between Arrow and the TSR2 just a few years later are astounding. Both were a threat to US exports and both were shut down when almost completed, prototypes destroyed and documentation/tooling scrapped. In the case of Arrow, it is amazing how such inferior aircraft as the F101 were sold to Canada and the F104 (G Model) to European NATO partners in a role it could never have fulfilled. (The F104 also edged out the Saunders Roe SR53/177 which the Germans were very interested in - Senior officials at Lockheed were investigated over alleged illegal payments after the contract was awarded) In the case of TSR2, the Australians had placed pre production orders and the Americans wanted them to take the inferior F111 which was a number of years behind in development - It is rumoured that the US put pressure on the British government to scrap the project in order to gain American support for an IMF loan to the UK which they would otherwise have blocked. Two great aircraft that were sacrificed for political reasons and the expansion of the US military industrial complex
The parallels between Arrow and the TSR2 just a few years later are astounding. Both were a threat to US exports and both were shut down when almost completed, prototypes destroyed and documentation/tooling scrapped.
In the case of Arrow, it is amazing how such inferior aircraft as the F101 were sold to Canada and the F104 (G Model) to European NATO partners in a role it could never have fulfilled. (The F104 also edged out the Saunders Roe SR53/177 which the Germans were very interested in - Senior officials at Lockheed were investigated over alleged illegal payments after the contract was awarded)
In the case of TSR2, the Australians had placed pre production orders and the Americans wanted them to take the inferior F111 which was a number of years behind in development - It is rumoured that the US put pressure on the British government to scrap the project in order to gain American support for an IMF loan to the UK which they would otherwise have blocked.
Two great aircraft that were sacrificed for political reasons and the expansion of the US military industrial complex
Thanks for the link bro.