One of only two complete TSR-2s to survive, XR220 now resides in the prototype hall of the RAF Museum in Cosford and is the most complete of the survivors, with the other aircraft being partially stripped before preservation.
XR220 would have been the second airframe to fly had it not been damaged in transit to Boscombe Down to make its maiden flight. The date of its first flight was set to be 6th April 1965 – a date that lived on in infamy for the TSR2 programme, as it marked the cancellation of the project announced to the public by the Labour government.
Due to spiralling costs and the potential of ordering cheaper aircraft from America, notably the F111K, the government of the time took the decision to cancel the programme hoping to save millions of pounds in the process. However, the F111 programme for the RAF was also cancelled and it was left to the F4 Phantom and Buccaneer, two aircrafts rejected in favour of the TSR-2, to fulfil the low level strike role until the introduction of the Jaguar and the Tornado in the 1980s.