After the official cancellation of the project airframe XR219, the only TSR-2 to fly, along with the virtually complete airframes of TSR-2 XR221 and XR223 were transported to the Ministry of Defence site at Shoeburyness in Essex. There, the aircraft were sacrificed to test the effectiveness of ammunition against an airframe. It was a tragic waste, the latter two airframe were scrapped between 1972 and 1973, while XR219 soldiered on until 1982.
All other components were scrapped, along with all the production tooling and assembly lines. All vestiges of the TSR-2 project including documentation, flight records and photographs were systematically purged in an attempt to ensure the project could never be resurrected. Despite this official act of internal sabotage two airframes survived. The second and fourth prototypes, XR220 and XR222, miraculously escaped destruction.
Along with the two surviving BAC TSR-2 aeroplanes a small number of components manufactured for the TSR-2 survived the purge after the cancellation of the project.
TSR-2 XR222 at Imperial War Musuem Duxford, Cambridgeshire
TSR-2 components located in the United Kingdom
