Vickers Interim Type 581 ER.206/2 Bomber

[Michel Van]

This is a Vickers proposal from october 1959 on the Operational Requirement OR.346


A unusual proposal
It's put four RB.153 Jet-engine inside a four square block on upper rear fuselage
The Fuselage also very unusual with variable geometry wings with none elevator in empennage section
The arrow VG wing stretches far to the pilots cockpit and swept from 25° to 75°
For low speed landing blown flaps had to be used and two Rolls-Royce lift-enignes behind two men cockpit!
Also was the aircraft nose down movable for better view for pilot (like Concorde)
Inside nose is the largest practical radar with 36in dish
Under Cockpit lies a sideway looking navigation radar (similar like TRS.2 Radar)
The bomb/weapon bay lies under wings center section, means nothing is carry outside the aircraft
Next to bomb had to be also semi active AAM


50000lb take-off weight
maximum speed mach 3


source:
British Secret Projects: Jet Bombers since 1949 by Tony Buttler, Midland publishing
Page 119+120


note on graphic
there the forum rule not to use of Midland material in post
i made a drawing of aircraft, after graphic of Vickers proposal

 

[taildragger]

This configuration is similar to the "Swallow" VG airliner and I've never understood how it was supposed to be controlled in pitch, particularly with the wings unswept. Can anyone explain or did Barnes Wallis take the secret to his grave?

 

[Kryptid]

I suppose the lift engines behind the cockpit could be used to pitch the nose up with the positive stability used to pitch the nose down (if it is a stable design), but that method certainly doesn't seem efficient to me. I'm at a loss otherwise.

 

[danielgrimes]

I'm not sure were I read it, but i recall the type 581 was part of the Barnes wallace work with NASA and there was some share thinking / design work that evolved into the F111 in the states - I think that Vickers aimed to submit a proposal for the F111 at this time too.

The type 581 design evolved to ER.206/4 where the number of engines had been reduced to 2 and the wing tip elevons had moved to a diagonal position where they worked in all sweep positions. The Type 581s had full span blown flaps and a lift jet behind the cockpit for up and down pitch control. The tactical bombers at this period were designed for STOL and flew zero flare landings - i.e. constant (steep) angle of attack maintained by autopilot and speed and rate of descent controlled by changes in engine thrust - as per a carrier landing. So this aircraft would not need elevators in the unswept landing configuration, and I assume that the lift jet was sufficient to rotate on takeoff? Not sure how pitch control would work in the 200-300knot part of the envelope?

Incidentally, pitch control on this 'type' of aircraft is a challenge hence huge horizontal stabilisers on the TSR2 and Tornado.

 

[Jemiba]

In Derek Woods "Project Cancelled" is an internal arrangement drawing, wherer those
lift engines actually are called "trimming engines".