Project Ysbadden - "Britian’s Billion Pound Bird"
In 1973, the RAF was forced to admit to a black project that truly become a blackhole. The Vickers/BAC Type 719e, referred to as the Ysbaddaden, had been snapped by a pair of birdwatchers in the early morning light off Scapa Flow returning a flight. For 9 years this aircraft had been flying out of a secret base to perform surveillance, prompting complaints from the Scottish Northern coast as to damaged windows which were always chalked up to young pilots violating orders and larking too low. In fact, the Ysbaddaden required so much thrust to operate off her less-than-ideal runway that she’d be leaving the ground with over 1150kN of thrust being produced. Born out of frustration with the slow nature of the British Empire's space endeavor to have a satellite constellation to observe Soviet installations, they instead turned to something they already had a leading hand in. OR330 was initially the call to produce the Ysbaddaden, as a strategic intercontinental bomber. However, Avro was awarded the contract which would be canceled in 1968. Vickers’s research however revealed the potential for a reconnaissance model to be produced albeit with a greater altitude than stipulated in OR330, hence additional funding was made as a demonstrator of the technology.
YS001, was a third-scale version that manage to perform well but her lack of forward visibility led to a loss of the airframe when landing at Boscombe Downs. In light of this success and failure, a single prototype was announced and was key to BAC’s TSR-2 project later as well as some features being adopted by the second run of the Concorde SST. At the time of construction, the Ysbaddaden was the longest aircraft in the world and would keep that record unofficially for some years. Constructed at Brooklands in a separate shed, she was shipped in parts to RAF Dounrey where she was kept in a shed that officially was a “radioactive medical waste storage”. Flights revealed that she was a prodigious drinker of fuel, at full tilt, her de Havilland PS56 Gyron R’s would drink 164kg of specialized kerosene-based fuel a second. Fortunately for the taxpayer, the engines would be smoothly transitioned into a quasi-ramjet phase for cruising above 70kft reducing the fuel consumption to a quarter. During development, both the US and British lost high altitude, but slow reconnaissance flights to missiles and as it was falsely believed at the time, interceptors. With this in mind, she was fitted with 4 de Havilland Spectre rocket motors to enable a “sprint” mode, also assisting with takeoff. Should a missile launched at the aircraft be detected by her twin Red Steer System, she could “sprint”. This was never formally tested beyond Mach 3.6. Although in 1968 over Murmansk, she accelerated through Mach 4.1. beyond the scope her analogue dials and was estimated to have reached Mach 4.4 when the crew throttled back in light of the missile running out of range some 200 km behind them. Returning to base in need of a new paint job and some fittings that were deemed to have exceeded their thermal fatigue limit. In fact, despite her size, Ysbaddaden carried enough HTP for only 10 minutes of full thrust from the Spectres, this was originally envisioned as a means to evade the barrier of air defense stations in the USSR by essentially speeding past them in a shallow trajectory peaking out at 95kt, intending to evade detection or at the very least evade any countermeasure by simply skipping through their coverage.
Unlike her American counterparts, the SR-71 and RB-70, the Ysbaddaden was technically armed, making her capable of downing pursuing aircraft. Six rear-facing de Havilland Fireball AA unguided missiles were situated in the rear of the aircraft in sealed bays that launched the rocket via a burst of intake air from the outer engine's bypass, which would jettison the missile before a pin was triggered, igniting the small solid rocket in the missile. A short distance in the wake of the Ysbaddaden, this would detonate, releasing a shotgun-like spread of 256 25g ball bearings which any pursuant aircraft would have to fly through. This was technically never used in anger in regards to the Soviets but was used to shake an Egyptian MIG25 that got too close over the Sinai which resulted in the loss of the airframe.
The MIG25 would be a bit of a shock to the small cabal of Ysbaddaden pilots when they’d see a small dart come ramping up to their altitude with flamed-out engines. Initially, it was curiosity as the Ysbaddaden was like a larger RB-70 but after a handful of encounters, an RB40 AAM was fired at Ysbaddaden in 1971 but jamming and the closing speed meant the missile detonated far behind. After that event, flights were paused temporarily while they assessed the risk however it was decided they were unlikely to score a hit unless they were able to close to less than a mile. Funding, however, was drying up against the rising cost of its fuel and maintenance, Ysbaddaden was supplanted by cheaper satellites that were quickly taking the role. After being revealed, the Ysbaddaden would make only two more flights as supersonic research test beds for the second generation of Concorde. Now well-aged and out of a job, she was mothballed, her asbestos-laden structure making it difficult to determine a disposal method. Eventually, she was cut up for scrap in 1979 as part of defense cuts and all that remained was her asbestos ceramic nose assembly which was donated to the Glasgow Museum in 1998 after resting in storage.
Length-76.4m
Wingspan-33.54m
Height-9.05m
Crew: 3
Wing area: 805.6 m2
Empty weight: 141,000 kg
Gross weight: 280,500 kg
Max takeoff weight: 295,000 kg
Fuel capacity: 140,000 kg AVKG5+20,000kg of HTP
Powerplant: 6 × DeHavilland Gyron R PS.56 afterburning turbojet, 118 kN thrust each dry, 162.7kN with afterburner, 4 x DeHavilland Sprite Rocket engines, 44kN thrust each
Maximum speed: Mach 3.9 (Exceeded on occasion at low fuel loads)
Cruise speed: 3.4
Combat range: 4090km at Mach 3.4,
Service ceiling: 95,000 ft (28,956 m)
