[video=youtube;sN6f96o1yjY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN6f96o1yjY[/video]



AVRO VULCAN XH558 DISPLAY THROCKMORTON, SAT 6 JUNE 2015

Beautiful old girl.

I spent many hours working on Vulcans and even today the Vulcan 'howl' makes me shiver.

Sadly, I believe this will be her last flying season.

Sad old git note: the reason the cockpit is so small, is that it was originally designed for only one pilot.

I never realised what a scary looking thing the Vulcan was in the air; I've only ever seen one one the ground - at Wellesbourne airfield - and it almost looks sad and dejected.

Lex, from memory Vulcans are about 100 ft long by 100ft wide at their wingtips. The delta area gave great shelter when it was raining.

If you ever get the chance go up into the cockpit area: it really is an eye opener. If there was ever an emergency, only the pilots had ejector seats, the rest of the crew had to take their chances via the normal exit.

Another sad old git note: the AEO (Airborne Equipment Operator. - Port seat on the navigation table) had a periscope device to view the underside and topside of the aircraft.

The last they were on active service was in the Falklands, which is incredible really, and I recall that they were fuelled in flight somewhere over the South Atlantic. But I'd be interested to know what is the full range of them when they carry a full tank?

Am I right in thinking that Delta wing was a British invention, but they don't seem to be very popular these days. The Concorde was a similar design.

Margaret,

Operation Black Buck (Falklands) was a cobble up of what we had left. We were very lucky to get away with it. Many museum pieces were robbed to make the Vulcans serviceable and refuelable.

The refuelling was carried out by Victors. Here is the plan...



The Vulcan that actually hit Stanley airport was originally the reserve aircraft. The first aircraft developed a fault with the cockpit opening windows (DVs) and couldn't pressurise.

Martin Withers, (the pilot of the reserve aircraft that took over) thought that it was a suicide mission. And indeed, it nearly turned out that way as he was running on fumes before his final refuel rendezvous. (Someone miscalculated big time!)

The outcome was one bomb hitting the runway, which despite all the accolades, was not really what was wanted. However, it did put the fear of God into the Argies and they feared that their mainland might be attacked.

The range of a standard Vulcan (14 fuel tanks IIRC) is about 2500 miles, but this can be extended if saddle tanks (2) are fitted in the bomb bay. I don't know if the Black Buck aircraft had a saddle tank fitted or not.

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White is a great read about the Falklands operation. A very brief outline can be read here link

As regards the Delta wing, I don't think we can claim the design of it, though we carried out a lot of development on it. Many military aircraft today use it. As well as the Vulcan, we used in on the Javelin; it is currently used on the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault company used it extensively.

If you look at the US stealth bomber and then the AW52 you can see more than a passing resemblance. The AW52 first flew in 1946/7 (I think). Of course, the Germans also had a delta wing development programme.

And yet another sad old git note: The Vulcan has 5 jet turbines. Four Rolls Royce Olympus units for main propulsion, and one Rover turbine (concealed in the tail) as an auxiliary power unit (APU).