Avro Vulcan Bomber

Stevieluvsye

I saw a documentary about the last flight of the Vulcan bomber yesterday and i have to say i have never seen a more beautiful plane/jet in my life.

Also the sheer size of the thing is unreal, the engineering capabilities from that era are astonishing and the sound of it!!!If you have ear phones i'd suggest using them for full effect of clip attached below


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU_X5QYBSto

AndyBoBandy

The British spent a pretty penny developing it at a time when Russia & America were perfecting their long range ballistic missiles, so it kind of ended up being pretty pointless.

Still though, Didn't they do a bombing run from their home base down to the Falklands and back?

PinOnTheRight

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The British spent a pretty penny developing it at a time when Russia & America were perfecting their long range ballistic missiles, so it kind of ended up being pretty pointless.

Still though, Didn't they do a bombing run from their home base down to the Falklands and back?

Operation Black Buck was the mission to bomb the Falklands with Vulcans and a fleet of 11 Victors as refuellers. There's a really good documentary on Youtube about it, definitely worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8FEmLVHE_w

banie01

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The British spent a pretty penny developing it at a time when Russia & America were perfecting their long range ballistic missiles, so it kind of ended up being pretty pointless.

Still though, Didn't they do a bombing run from their home base down to the Falklands and back?

Up until quite recently those Black Buck bombing raids were the longest ranged bomber strikes ever flown.

The U.S overtook it recently with some raids launched from Diego Garcia IIRC.

The whole V Bomber programme, whilst it resulted in 1 throwaway and 2 very capable airframes that were very rapidly rendered obsolete for their intended mission by the emergence of the ICBM/SLBM and the US cancellation of Skybolt.

Did result in some fantastic technically brilliant aircraft.
That any country would approach the design of a nuclear bomber with a 3 pronged approach, and that all 3 saw service is incredible both in the achievement and the capital expended.

Vulcan, Victor and Valiant all achieved their goals.
The UK would IMO however have been far better served by investing in an improved canberra as a stopgap to TSR2 along with a far greater investment in fighters.

One would have to question the need for a strategic bomber after '69?
Unfortunately by that point the UK had developed 3 and cancelled 2 missile programmes as well as TSR2.

The Vulcan b2 climbing under full power is a sight and sound to behold.

Fantastic aircraft whose concept was unfortunately overtaken by technology in competing areas IMO.

Davidth88

The Vulcan was a fantastic aeroplane

I remember to this day going past Waddington and seeing them lined up , I wasn't around for their heyday this would have been in the early 80s. There was no real fence between you and the runway just a wooden 3 ft picket fence.

The howl they gave off was something to behold

The Victor had a great career as a tanker , some Vulcans were also converted too IIRC

Never saw a Valiant flying.

Still think that in it's heyday British aircraft design was unreal , Harrier anyone ?

AndyBoBandy

Davidth88 wrote: »

Still think that in it's heyday British aircraft design was unreal , Harrier anyone ?

They certainly had a can do attitude, and more often than not, they got it done remarkably well.

Tenger

I was lucky enough to see the Vulcan (and feel the howl!!) back in 2014.
Saw it at RIAT. Got a nice shot upon landing as it deployed its chute ring in front of me.
Also paid to get the underwing tour as well.
Thats was its last year flying I believe.

smurfjed

I was standing at Farnborough airport as it did its farewell flypast, awesome sound.

Chris_5339762

I saw it on one of its first outings at Farnborough. I've never heard a crowd of so many people be so quiet as this loud monster approached, howling its head off. Fantastic aircraft.

JohnC.

I saw one in the 80s, just before they first retired from the RAF. It was at an airshow, was announced as an unscheduled visitor which happened to be passing nearby and approached as if to land, but just before landing, it roared enough to shake the ground and flew off again. I was only about 7 but it's something I'll never forget.

Inquitus

Saw this at Mildenhall Air Fete a few times, awesome plane, and that used to be an awesome Airshow, shame it's gone now. Saw among others, all flying, the SR71, B2 Stealth Bomber, A10 Tankbuster firing blanks, Lightnings, Harriers etc. etc.

Davidth88

Inquitus wrote: »

Saw this at Mildenhall Air Fete a few times, awesome plane, and that used to be an awesome Airshow, shame it's gone now. Saw among others, all flying, the SR71, B2 Stealth Bomber, A10 Tankbuster firing blanks, Lightnings, Harriers etc. etc.

Mildenhall was indeed one of the best airshows

Each squadron had a BBQ running with American beer being sold.

Victor

banie01 wrote: »

The U.S overtook it recently with some raids launched from Diego Garcia IIRC.

The Americans bombed Iraq from bases in the USA as far back as the 1990s - about 12,000 miles round trip.

They also bombed Afghanistan from the USA. https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2016/December%202016/1216hours.pdf 14,500 miles as the crow flies, but they went the long way around.

Davidth88

getting off-track slightly , but I remember the F111 from LH and UH bombing Libya.

Every spotter in the ' know ' ( including myself ) was sitting at Mildenhall watching streams of KC10 arrive and depart

They were unusual enough visitors in those days with the KC135 being based there of course.

Hotblack Desiato

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The British spent a pretty penny developing it at a time when Russia & America were perfecting their long range ballistic missiles, so it kind of ended up being pretty pointless.

Its development and production period pretty much overlaps that of the B-52, and that was far from the last US manned bomber programme...

Stovepipe

Dont forget that the Vulcan was also a testbed aircraft and a lot of what was tested on it served on later aircraft,such as the Olympus engines on Concorde and various radar and avionics developments.

Nforce

Can't have a thread about the Vulcan without mentioning THAT passing out parade at RAF Swinderby...




:eek::cool::D

AndyBoBandy

Please tell me there's video footage of that? ^^

Victor

I wonder if they told the officers to expect the overpass.

ednwireland

when i was a teenager used to go church fenton airshows, the vulcan low fly pasts were always amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7JxYjEYTUE

pretty sure i was at this one 14:50 on for the vulcan

EchoIndia

A few images from my archives:
Lancaster and Vulcan by Irish251, on Flickr
G-VLCN (XH558) Vulcan B.2 by Irish251, on Flickr
XL426 Vulcan B.2 by Irish251, on Flickr
G-VLCN (XH558) Vulcan B.2 by Irish251, on Flickr
XJ825 Vulcan K.2 by Irish251, on Flickr

Bebop

Great aircraft! When I lived in Birmingham in the sixties they were a common sight overhead, that silhouette was a dead giveaway, I remember seeing the inside of one at Farnborough

The Vulcan was designed by Roy Chadwick who also designed the Lancaster bomber, it shared a similar interior layout with the two pilots sitting up on top (on ejection seats) and the crew on a lower level sitting on chairs, this was a factor in the decision to ground the last flying Vulcan XH558 in 2015 following a failure of the landing gear to deploy at an air show, the crew managed to resolve the problem and landed safely but the CoA was widthdrawn, I think they were allowed a last farewell tour

CrankyHaus

Apparently it had quite a capable ECM suite which it used to successfully penetrate US air defences while simulating Soviet bombers in the 1960s Skyshield exercises.

EchoIndia

Bebop wrote: »

Great aircraft! When I lived in Birmingham in the sixties they were a common sight overhead, that silhouette was a dead giveaway, I remember seeing the inside of one at Farnborough

The Vulcan was designed by Roy Chadwick who also designed the Lancaster bomber, it shared a similar interior layout with the two pilots sitting up on top (on ejection seats) and the crew on a lower level sitting on chairs, this was a factor in the decision to ground the last flying Vulcan XH558 in 2015 following a failure of the landing gear to deploy at an air show, the crew managed to resolve the problem and landed safely but the CoA was widthdrawn, I think they were allowed a last farewell tour

I saw that on a TV programme but I think the retirement was spurred primarily by the impending withdrawal of technical support - see here:
https://vulcantothesky.org/history/end-of-flight-2

EchoIndia

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Apparently it had quite a capable ECM suite which it used to successfully penetrate US air defences while simulating Soviet bombers in the 1960s Skyshield exercises.

Its high-altitude capability also enabled it to exceed the height achievable by the USAF interceptors of the late 1950s but this advantage was reduced as newer types and missiles took over.

Bebop

EchoIndia wrote: »

I saw that on a TV programme but I think the retirement was spurred primarily by the impending withdrawal of technical support - see here:
https://vulcantothesky.org/history/end-of-flight-2

It’s clear from the documentary that the display pilots aircrew and ground crew were mostly retired RAF ex Vulcan personnel, they would have needed a lot of training and support, licenses and certification not to mention medical certs etc (all provided by the RAF) before being allowed to fly an old warbird like that,
Also the technology was pretty basic 1950s era, with the emphasis on delivery of a nuclear weapon, crew safety and survivability was not a big concern in that era

PukkaStukka

Took this at Duxford museum a while back. You can get up and very close to this truly beautiful aircraft

Tenger

Info given by the crew members who gave the underwing tour at RIAT in 2014 was that the scarcity of parts and increasing cost of upkeep meant that that summer had to be their last display season. (I'm sure insurance and age of volunteers was a factor too)
They always knew ir would come to an end and didn't think it would last as long as it did.

I actually got to chat to the EI chairman back in 2007/08. He was one of the founding members of The Vulcan to the Sky Trust.
Edit: John Sharmen was his name I think

PukkaStukka

As an aside, there's great reading if you research Britain's "V force" bombers. This included the Vickers Valiant, the Handley Page Victor and the aforementioned Vulcan. There was a Victor on display in Duxford a while back but I don't know if it's still there. I can dig out a pic if there's any interest

banie01

Watching Guy Martin's Vulcan docu on More4 at the moment.
Just happened upon whilst flicking thru.

His enthusiasm is bloody infectious

EchoIndia

PukkaStukka wrote: »

As an aside, there's great reading if you research Britain's "V force" bombers. This included the Vickers Valiant, the Handley Page Victor and the aforementioned Vulcan. There was a Victor on display in Duxford a while back but I don't know if it's still there. I can dig out a pic if there's any interest

The Victor at Duxford is currently undergoing a comprehensive restoration, having been stripped down to its bare bones. It should be good for many more years when this is complete.