For example. Think of an extreme high flying reconaisans aircraft and you think U2.. long thin wings The TSR2 wasn't spec'd for high-level photo-recce, but for photo-reconnaissance at medium and low levels day and night. That may sound like a strange specification for the middle of the Cold War....but the RAF up until then had very successfully been using the Supermarine Swift FR.5 for low-level photo recce until it was retired in 1961. Firstly the mission profile for the tactical strike was High, Low, High. then it was changed to Low, High, Low and then changed to... well... low, low, low Well, let's not hold those changes against it - after all, if the VULCAN could be adapted to even more extreme mission profile changes during its history, the TSR2 certainly could have been!
Buccaneer did the low level nuke thing and the Phantom did the high level interception thing... And then the Navy got sole control of the nukes anyway... It wasn't a straight choice between the Blackburn Buccaneer and the TSR2....for the decision to buy the F-111 instead of the TSR2 came in the middle! IT was to be the off-the-shelf alternative for TSR2....except as we know THAT purchase got cancelled too! Buccaneer replaced the no-show F-111... As to the Navy getting sole control of Britian's nukes anyway - that came as late as 1998, quite a few years after the disappearance of the TSR2! Prior to that, the RAF had possession of a significant part of our WE.177 airdropped nukes, first for its Buccaneers then Tornado.
Re the Navy and the nukes. 1998? blimey. I hadnt realiser the RAF had nukes up until then. I was under the misaprehension that the Navy took over the nuking role with the introduction of the Polaris submarines... I type corrected! I wish I had my books out of store... I definately remember there being coment about the unsuitability of the small wings for high altitude flight and that at over 50,000 feet Mach 2 would be needed to stop the wings from stalling.
