//Roland Beamont, the test pilot, reported that he engaged reheat on one engine and left the Lightning escort standing.//
The TSR2 (well, at least the one and only one which flew) was certainly an impressive aircraft. It was far more sophisticated than the Lightning (which was basically a seat bolted on the top of two Rolls Royce engines). Its avionics, armaments and payload capabilities were far in advance of the Lightning (the design of which was at least ten years older) and most of all it had a far more useful range. At high speed the Lightning would be looking for an airstrip or a tanker after about twenty minutes. As far as performance is concerned the Lightning remains one of the quickest production aircraft ever built, even to this day. Here’s a passage from “The TSR2 with hindsight” by Wing Commander Jimmy Dell, who was one of Bee Beaumont’s team of test pilots and who succeeded him as Chief Test Pilot:
“After line-up for take-off the procedure was to hold the aircraft on the brakes, engage minimum reheat, check engine readings, release brakes on increasing reheat to maximum. Acceleration was impressive if not quite up to Lightning standard.”
It’s difficult to say whether the TSR2 would have bettered the raw performance of the Lightning (whose phenomenal rate of climb remains the envy of “Fighter Jockeys” even today). But it would have been a much better all round aircraft and it was tragic that it was cancelled. Instead the MoD bought Blackburn Buccaneers, McDonnel-Douglas Phantoms and eventually Panavia Tornados (only retired in April this year). All superb aircraft but probably not as good as the TSR2 might have been.