Avro 730

The Avro 730 was a planned Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft and strategic bomber that Avro Aircraft was developing for the Royal Air Force in the mid 1950s. It began as a very high speed reconnaissance aircraft under Air Ministry Specification OR.330, was redesigned when the requirement merged with RB.156T to carry nuclear weapons, and would have replaced the V bombers as the airborne platform of the British nuclear deterrent. The design was an unswept canard that made extensive use of stainless steel and was to be powered by Armstrong Siddeley P.176 turbojets, in the revised version eight of them in two engine pods. The first prototype was under construction when the project was cancelled in early 1957 after the Defence White Paper, partly because Soviet air defences were expected to have outpaced it. The TSR-2 followed under a later specification.