Why VFW-614; why M.45H?
US had funded a phoenix FRG Aero industry from 1956, to spread the burden of defending N.Europe. By 1961 licences had restored production capability, but R&D had not matched that. FRG Govt. looked for niches not dominated by their licencees, and came up with V/STOL (which also offered military logic - vulnerability of runways close to Red mass). RR was funded - in part by FRG - to pursue Griffth's (deadweight) liftjets; BSEL was funded to work with its (Noratlas)Hercules licencee (M.A.N, soon MTU) on Pegasus for Do.31. Until Healey chopped well, early-1965, BSEL was the heftier UK aero-engineer, working (66.6%) with SNECMA on B.Ol.593. On 17/5/65 UK Minister of Defence Healey chose Jaguar+AFVG; MoA technical staff, on the back of an envelope, carved up workshare, as RR lead Turbomeca on Jaguar engine, so SNECMA lead BSEL on AFVG; airframes, recip: BAC junior on Jag, senior on AFVG. No techno-logic pretended or attempted, else HSAL, not BAC would have been given the swinger (AWA and Folland had long toyed with pivots; BAC, nay, even the Main Board of Vickers, had seen no future in Wallis' notions). So, that put HSAL in pole for a Euro civil wide-body, soon funded into Feasilibility Study. HSAL teamed with Breguet; BAC, naturally, with SST partner Sud. FRG Govt. wanted a slice of this.
FRG had entered civil aero on niche No.1, bizjet. Can do better, they said, than Sabreliner and Jetstar. So HFB tried, chose the USP of forward sweep...and later found why others had not done that. Then on niche No.2, jet Friendship: why leave that to little Fokker, they said, and chose the USP of over-wing engines...and later &tc. But that work-in-progress gave HFB+VFW a (slim) pedigree, to join HBN-100 (N= FRG Nord Gruppe, HFB+VFW {as well as France's Nord Avn.}). FRG laboured at that time under a commitment to offset DM:£ pain incurred by UK Forces defending W.Germany (and UK). There was a limit to how many Skeeters, Sycamores, Gannets and other turkeys she could impose on her fighting men. A cash contribution to UK R&D met the political need and secured techno-transfer if UK had anything to transfer. Such as on hot turbines. An engine was needed for VFW-614. RR was brewing one for Fokker (to be RB183/F-100), so: Q: what's our old mate BSEL got? Well, nothing...but BSEL's mate SNECMA invented a civil derivative of its front end of M.45G. Overnight. Making all FRG's political mates happy.
9/10/66 RR bought BSEL; 29/6/67 Dassault caused demise of AFVG/M.45G. M.45H was orphaned...but FRG chose to persevere with it and VFW-614 as its pedigree in worksharing negotiations on the Big Twin. (and FRG retained a full share of A300B and all later family models...even though most work went to not-VFW).
