Buttler/Bombers,P.42: 17 B.2 ordered 10/51.."a later (LR) version would have...Conway". All were converted 9/52 to Avon/B.1s.
Hives had recruited Dr.AA Griffiths from RAE, 6/39 ("almost a Delphic Oracle" Bulman,RRHT,P.308) and made him Chief Scientist (in Britain's eponym down-to-earth rude mechanical). He was kept off AJ.65 and given lightweight schemes (to be expendable Soar) and, after its transfer from Napier, the augmented flow (by-pass) notion derived from W2/700, and MoS-funded 1950 as RB.80.
AJ Pierre (an American), Nuclear Politics,OUP,1972, has Attlee as ever-hoping that UK research would master the atomic Art, but that US Aid would provide the Article: P.153: "until the Korean War (and resultant cascades of $, Attlee) hesitated to commit (to) the nuclear bomber force...willingness to leave strategic bombing to US". P.154: "the decision to give priority to the creation of the V-bomber force...co-incided with (Churchill's) adoption of the nuclear deterrent strategy in 1952". (So, I deduce Nov.,1950 Spec B.104D/Valiant B.2 was to be Pathfinder...for SAC, and to be fitted asap with the only powerplant that could offer range with a hefty low level sector. B.2 was confined, Sept,1952, to one in build Avon-prototype, to concentrate on delivering part-US MSP-funded B.1s. Some B.(P.R.)1s would suffice to show the way.
