Meet The Avro 730: The Mach 2.5 ‘SR-71’ Plane Designed To Spy On Russia
ByMichael PeckPublished5 hours ago
SR-71 Avro 730SR-71 Spy Plane. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The UK wanted their very own SR-71-like spy plane to monitor Russia: Had history turned out differently, the first Mach 3 spy plane of the Cold War might have been British rather than American.
The U.S. Air Force first deployed the legendary SR-71 Blackbird in January 1966. Yet Britain had plans for a high-altitude, supersonic reconnaissance aircraft that could have flown as early as 1965.
The Avro 730 was born during the early 1950s, in the golden twilight of manned strategic bombers before ICBMs made their fiery debut. To support its force of nuclear-armed V- bombers—the Valiant, Victor and Vulcan—the Royal Air Force called for a high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance jet that could fly at a speed of at least Mach 2.5 (1,918 miles per hour).
Just how ambitious these goals were can be seen by the fact that Britain would not field its first supersonic fighter, the Mach 2–capable Lightning, until 1959. And to make development of the spy plane even more complicated, the RAF eventually added a requirement that the aircraft become a reconnaissance bomber capable of dropping nuclear weapons.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/03/meet-the-avro-730-the-mach-2-5-sr-71-plane-designed-to-spy-on-russia/
