The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2, an advanced Cold War tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft that was later cancelled, made its maiden flight.

The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a cancelled supersonic strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed around both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons delivery, intended to be able to penetrate well-defended frontline areas at low altitudes and very high speeds and attack high-value targets in rear areas. Another intended combat role was to provide high-altitude, high-speed stand-off, side-looking radar and photographic imagery and signals intelligence, aerial reconnaissance. Only one example flew and test flights and weight increases during design indicated that the aircraft would be unable to meet its original stringent design specifications. The design specifications were reduced as the result.

The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.