<p>Built 1956. Originally designed as a prototype for a rocket interceptor, the SR.53 had a rocket motor to allow rapid climb, but also a conventional jet to prolong flight at altitude.
The interceptor project was cancelled after the 1957 Defence White Paper, with the aircraft then seeing research use only. Her first flight was on 16th May 1957. During test flying she reached an altitude of 56,000ft and a maximum speed of Mach 1.45. 
Her last flight was on 20th October 1959 and by December 1960 she in use for ground running various rocket engines at the Ministry of Technology Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Wescott, Aylesbury. In 1969 she moved to RAF Henlow and was put in store for the RAF Museum. She was taken to RAF Brize Norton in 1978 for restoration by a volunteer team and the completed aircraft was rolled out in November 1981.
She has been on display at Cosford since 1982 and is currently in the ‘Test Flight’ hangar.
RAF Museum, Cosford, Shropshire, UK.
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9th June 2018
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/65001151@N03">Alan Wilson</a> from Peterborough, Cambs, UK
CC BY-SA 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/46989570722/">Saunders Roe SR.53 ‘XD145’</a>