XH558 display this year - her last season of flight
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I was never enamoured by the bloody tankers! :laugh: I have read Vulcan 607 and it was a truly remarkable achievement. One thing that stands out for me is the "Aaah..." moment when the first wave of Vics return to Wideawake and they realise that they've slightly, marginally underestimated the fuel needed by a tad...
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Yeah, well that's what you get by using a calculator from a market stall! :)
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And if you can't make it to the UK in the summer you can take a look here[^] <Nomex suit on>The Victor looked a lot cooler</Nomex suit on>
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
To quote a member of the USAF it looks like it's going Mach 1 on the hard standing ;)
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And if you can't make it to the UK in the summer you can take a look here[^] <Nomex suit on>The Victor looked a lot cooler</Nomex suit on>
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
Nomex suit on
You'll bally well need more than *THAT*!:mad:
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Jörgen Andersson wrote:
Nomex suit on
You'll bally well need more than *THAT*!:mad:
veni bibi saltavi
Well it did look 'cool' and served longer than any other V Bomber (alright as Petrol Station but...)
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Yeah, well that's what you get by using a calculator from a market stall! :)
It makes you realise how much traffic the RAF had down there when you think that Wideawake, with her single runway, was the busiest airport in the world during May 1982. The only limiting factor was not the speed at which they could taxi the planes on and off, but the rate they could pump the av-gas ashore from the tankers in the harbour. :laugh:
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Well it did look 'cool' and served longer than any other V Bomber (alright as Petrol Station but...)
Even as a tanker it was useless. It was too slow for the Vulcans and the later fast jets, and they had little to no rear visibility to know what the refuelling plane was doing or where it was.
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Even as a tanker it was useless. It was too slow for the Vulcans and the later fast jets, and they had little to no rear visibility to know what the refuelling plane was doing or where it was.
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Point, they did however serve up 'til Gulf 1 as tankers I have seen a photo of two F18's tanking off one so it was doing some thing useful. I think there was a news story about one that was set up for fast taxi runs at Brunitng Thorpe getting air borne by 'accident' :rolleyes:
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She is the last airworthy Vulcan, but sadly her flying days end this year. I have been able to see her both static and flying and the Vulcan is the bog's dollocks of all Cold War aircraft. No-one, with the exception of the garrison at Port Stanley in May 1982, has witnessed her majesty and not found it a life-lifting experience. If you get the chance this summer, go and see her. Here[^] is her current schedule; it will be regularly updated.
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There's a great video somewhere on youtube, from the BBC in the 1980's, about the attack on the runway by the Vulcans. It's amazing how many tankers they had to fly and then use flying tankers to refuel other flying tankers which would go on to refuel the Vulcans - all for one pass over the runway then heading back home.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Even as a tanker it was useless. It was too slow for the Vulcans and the later fast jets, and they had little to no rear visibility to know what the refuelling plane was doing or where it was.
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Nagy Vilmos wrote:
It was too slow for the Vulcans
The top speed of the Vulcan was only 29 km/h higher than the Victor, I feel you are a bit picky here, Shirley they can let of the accelerator a tiniest bit while refuelling. The Victor was better than the Vulcan in most areas until the RAF changed tactics and decided to do low level bombing instead of flying at max height. Something the airframe of the Victor wasn't good enough for.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Point, they did however serve up 'til Gulf 1 as tankers I have seen a photo of two F18's tanking off one so it was doing some thing useful. I think there was a news story about one that was set up for fast taxi runs at Brunitng Thorpe getting air borne by 'accident' :rolleyes:
They had problems with the Tornado, the Victor's maximum airspeed was below the Tornado's stall speed. They fixed it by... ... flying the Victor in a downward parabola, reminiscent of the Vommit Commit, with the Tornado in tow. :laugh:
veni bibi saltavi
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There's a great video somewhere on youtube, from the BBC in the 1980's, about the attack on the runway by the Vulcans. It's amazing how many tankers they had to fly and then use flying tankers to refuel other flying tankers which would go on to refuel the Vulcans - all for one pass over the runway then heading back home.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
This is the 607 mission called Black Buck. Read the book it's fecking great. The pilot from BB1, Martin Whithers, is also one of the few pilots left who is allowed to fly XH558. He will most probably fly at least once this summer and I would bet good money he gets the last go before she retires.
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Nagy Vilmos wrote:
It was too slow for the Vulcans
The top speed of the Vulcan was only 29 km/h higher than the Victor, I feel you are a bit picky here, Shirley they can let of the accelerator a tiniest bit while refuelling. The Victor was better than the Vulcan in most areas until the RAF changed tactics and decided to do low level bombing instead of flying at max height. Something the airframe of the Victor wasn't good enough for.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I \*may\* be being unfair, though I doubt it, but I just think the Vulcan is a great plane. Unlike the Victor, she also fired in anger.
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They had problems with the Tornado, the Victor's maximum airspeed was below the Tornado's stall speed. They fixed it by... ... flying the Victor in a downward parabola, reminiscent of the Vommit Commit, with the Tornado in tow. :laugh:
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If memory serves when they flew Maggie & Dennis to the Falklands in a Herc they had all sorts of problems and had to do a similar thing. Today the VC10 has a similar problem with the Typhoon (one reason they are changing to Airbus tankers??)
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I \*may\* be being unfair, though I doubt it, but I just think the Vulcan is a great plane. Unlike the Victor, she also fired in anger.
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The bombing of the Falkland islands in '82 must be one of the looniest missions ever. :) Need Brits to come up with something like that. The tactical effect was small at the best, but strategically it was one of the most important missions ever. When the Argentinians realized they could get bombed, they kept the majority of their air force at home.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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The bombing of the Falkland islands in '82 must be one of the looniest missions ever. :) Need Brits to come up with something like that. The tactical effect was small at the best, but strategically it was one of the most important missions ever. When the Argentinians realized they could get bombed, they kept the majority of their air force at home.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Get a copy of *Vulcan 607*, it is fascinating what they had to do. Apart from anything, the Vulcans were all but ready to be disbanded, they had no one who knew how to fly refuelling in one, the release mechanism wasn't suitable for multiple bombs and there was no real air-to-air on them.
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Get a copy of *Vulcan 607*, it is fascinating what they had to do. Apart from anything, the Vulcans were all but ready to be disbanded, they had no one who knew how to fly refuelling in one, the release mechanism wasn't suitable for multiple bombs and there was no real air-to-air on them.
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I did read a book about those missions many years ago, but I'm pretty sure it was another book.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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I did read a book about those missions many years ago, but I'm pretty sure it was another book.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I'm with Nagy read Vulcan 607, only then the sheer lunacy of Black Buck is revealed (attempts to seal pressure seal on a window with sandwich wrappers). Roland White wrote it after the 25 year limit on secrets was lifted. It was a typical lash up op that the we Brits are famous for!
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I'm with Nagy read Vulcan 607, only then the sheer lunacy of Black Buck is revealed (attempts to seal pressure seal on a window with sandwich wrappers). Roland White wrote it after the 25 year limit on secrets was lifted. It was a typical lash up op that the we Brits are famous for!
Ok, it's on my wish list.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
-
She is the last airworthy Vulcan, but sadly her flying days end this year. I have been able to see her both static and flying and the Vulcan is the bog's dollocks of all Cold War aircraft. No-one, with the exception of the garrison at Port Stanley in May 1982, has witnessed her majesty and not found it a life-lifting experience. If you get the chance this summer, go and see her. Here[^] is her current schedule; it will be regularly updated.
veni bibi saltavi
Rare Photographs Show Vulcan Bomber Mock-up from Bond Film Thunderball [^] Was a beautiful plane, along with the spitfire and lightning. I had airfix models of them all when I were a nipper.
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They had problems with the Tornado, the Victor's maximum airspeed was below the Tornado's stall speed. They fixed it by... ... flying the Victor in a downward parabola, reminiscent of the Vommit Commit, with the Tornado in tow. :laugh:
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Rubbish. The Victor flew at M0.95. Any plane that stalled under Mach 1 would never get off the ground. Also the Victor could carry 48,000 pounds of ordnance as standard, with up to 70,000 overload, and could go slightly supersonic in a shallow dive. The ex-chief aerodynamicist of Handley Page was one of my lecturers in the late 70's, so you can be sure I didn't get these facts off some stupid internet site.