The BAC Panther

[Spinners 15,986]

BAC Panther FGR.1 - No.54 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1971

 

After a couple of blissful years when it was allowed to proceed in relative peace and quiet, 1963 was not a good year for the TSR.2 programme.

 

At the start of the year both Olympus 22R test engines at BAC's Patchway engine testing facility were playing up with LP shaft problems and turbine disc failures eventually traced to high-frequency oscillations of the LP shaft. With a view to reducing the unit cost per aircraft an export order to Australia was deemed vital to the TSR.2 programme but when technical reports got back to the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, he publicly stated that Australia couldn't wait for the TSR.2 and that they needed to replace their ageing Canberra's within three years. With the British opposition Labour party openly stating that they "would cancel the TSR.2 when elected" the Australian government felt that they simply dare not rely on an aircraft that might not get built so it was no real surprise when on October 24th, 1963 Menzies signed for 24 F-111C's at a cost of US$ 91million. In early November 1963, whilst still reeling from that blow, BAC were devastated when a prototype Olympus 22R engine blew up under the Vulcan test bed at Filton destroying not only the engine but also the heavily instrumented Vulcan.

 

By this time, Britain had a new Prime Minister after Alec Douglas-Home had succeeded an ailing Harold Macmillan in October 1963. Douglas-Home knew that his Conservative government, still unpopular from the Profumo scandal, would likely lose the forthcoming General Election to a resurgent Labour party under the leadership of Harold Wilson. Therefore, in a bold move, Douglas-Home decided to take away one of Wilson's Tory-bashing weapons by cancelling the TSR.2 programme himself and BAC's recent woes played right into his hands. The assassination of US President John F Kennedy in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963 allowed Douglas-Home to quietly announce the cancellation of the TSR.2 the day following Kennedy's tragic death to a nation and a world focused on just one sad story.

 

British interest in variable-geometry (VG) had stemmed from Dr. Barnes Wallis' 1944 studies on 'polymorphic' aircraft but whilst English Electric had finally settled on a small, highly blown, fixed wing design for the TSR.2 both they and the counterparts at Vickers had sketched many and various VG designs for aircraft ranging in size from small supersonic light-attack aircraft to supersonic airliners. In early 1964, with the RAF still looking for a Hunter replacement, BAC dusted off their private-venture P.45 design for a small VG fighter-bomber powered a single afterburning Spey turbofan and gambled on an eager RAF requiring slightly more range and payload so they designed an overall larger aircraft powered by two turbofan engines in the 16,000lbs thrust category. With engines generally taking longer development time than airframes this could have caused BAC considerable problems but Rolls-Royce and MAN-Turbomotoren had already been running the RB.153 turbofan since November 1963 and were confident of upsizing this advanced three-shaft turbofan "to fit anything up to F-4 size" and BAC confidently settled on the RB.199 engine proposed by Rolls-Royce. With a view to making their new aircraft design as marketable as possible BAC named it the MRCA-70 (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for 1970) and were soon waving brochures around the Air Ministry and posting copies to senior RAF officials.

 

Having lost the TSR.2 (and feeling sour at the prospect of being forced into adopting Mountbatten's beloved F-4 Phantom) the RAF were desperate to order the MRCA-70 and politics once again played it's part. Labour leader Harold Wilson stated that "only Labour could lead the technological revolution necessary for a modern Britain". So, to counter this, on April 6th, 1964 Alec Douglas-Home announced that Britain was to develop it's own variable-geometry multi-role combat aircraft and that contracts would be placed with the British Aircraft Corporation for 120 MRCA-70 aircraft for delivery in the 1969 to 1970 timeline to replace Hunters and Canberras in the strike/attack role and that further orders were likely to replace Lightnings in the air defence role. In 1966 the aircraft was christened Panther by BAC and development moved swiftly with the first flight of the prototype taking place on April 1st, 1968 as part of the celebrations to mark the RAF's 50th anniversary. Development and testing continued during 1968 and 1969 and in November 1970 No. 228 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Coningsby became the first squadron to equip with the Panther FGR.1 followed in March 1971 by No.54 Squadron at RAF Coltishall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Dora 171]

Nicely done Spinners,

I can still remember when the then in-development MRCA was initially to be called the Panther, before it was renamed Tornado. This must have been in the 1969-70 time frame. I recall preparing hand-drawn scale drawings of it while still at high school, with the optimistic intention of one day scratch-building a model (oh well) . In those days all the artists' impressions showed a much sleeker airframe - something more akin to the eventual Tornado F3 than the stubby GR1- with half-circle intakes plus half-cone centrebodies á la Mirage III.

After I joined the RAF in 1972 I discovered what MRCA was believed to really stand for in the eyes of the Service at that time: "Must Refurbish Canberra Again".

Only the really cynical said it stood for "Mother Riley's Cardboard Aeroplane"..

Mike

Edited January 14, 2019 by Mike Dora

[Spinners 15,986]

Before being rolled out it was surrounded by more secrecy than most modern aircraft and had a troubled birth with the Dutch bailing out early (idea!) and real dithering over whether it was to be a single-seater (favoured by Germany) or a two-seater (favoured by the UK).

What emerged was an absolute cracker although I'm not so fond of the F3.