Saunders Roe SR.177

Here's something rocketry related: a documentary about Britain's hybrid rocket/jet fighters of the 50s.
I really enjoyed this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGk9omJF9AM
Apparently the jet engines of the late 40s/early 50s didn't have enough oomf to push interceptors fast enough and high enough so they needed some rocket help. These would have been bitchin' had they made it to production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.53
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR177

Another victim of the 1957 White Paper where Duncan Sandys decided that manned aircraft would be obsolete and the future was guided weapons. Strange really because Sandys was on the Crossbow Committee looking at German missile development in WW2 and was one of the staunchest believers that such weapons were 'impossible' - there's nothing like the zeal of a new convert to a creed so its perhaps understandable that having been wrong footed so spectacularly he became an ardent fan of missile technology.

Fact is though the UK in the 1950s was like Germany in the 1940s - too many manufacturers, too many projects, too much speculative development and wildcatting and too many manufacturers building stuff without any clear idea where the market/need was - fantastic innovation, some of it lightyears ahead but too little thought about the business end. Very, very sad in so many ways.

We needed to sell the F 104 to someone! Now what will it take to get your interest in the F 35? A MILLION DOLLARS?

Both the the F 104 and SR 177 make good model rockets.

We needed to sell the F 104 to someone! Now what will it take to get your interest in the F 35? A MILLION DOLLARS?

Click to expand...

Just getting it working might be a start