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DavidKrigbaum — Brit Expat (Vulcan)
#air #airforce #aviation #avro #bomber #california #castle #conventional #falklands #museum #nuclear #raf #strategic #uk #vulcan
Published: 2015-10-26 06:37:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 696; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 0
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Description
The Avro Vulcan strategic bomber was a Royal Air Force bomber capable of delivering a conventional or nuclear payload. From Castle Air Museum's webpage:
The Vulcan made its mark in aviation history during the Falkland Islands War of 1982. Several Vulcan bombers were converted back to bomber status and flew several bombing raids against the Port Stanley Airport and several radar sites. These missions, code named "Operation Black Buck", held the record for the longest (distance) bombing raid in history. This record has since been broken by the Strategic Air Command during Desert Storm in 1991. The Black Buck missions were flown from the Ascension Islands to the Falklands and back, a distance of over 7,700 miles.
The aircraft on display at Castle Air Museum, XM 605, is a B.2 version which was operated by the Royal Air Force's 44 Squadron and was based at R.A.F. Waddington, Lincolnshire, England. It arrived in 1981 and is on indefinite loan to the museum, courtesy of Her Majesty's Government.
Castle Air Museum
Atwater, Ca.
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Comments: 7
Hard to catch the awful majesty of that thing's wing in low flight--great photograph of an amazing machine.
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Thanks, she's too much airplane to get both her full size and good details of in the same shot while on the ground.
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Technically, it still holds the longest.. SAC Bombing mission was only managed with forward based refueling aircraft, Vulcan had none, all such aircraft had to be flown with the bomber and refuelled by other refuelling aircraft to complete this one raid!
It took I believe 11 aircraft to get one bomber there..
Also, the Vulcan had such a low radar image (even though it is very big) at Red Flag events it was not seen.. When The American Air Museum asked for a B-52 to go in it, the US Government said yes ONLY if they got 2 Vulcans as a swap.. They wee used in radar tests and some time after the Northrop Stealth Fighter appeared!
Nice to see mate!
Rob
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Thanks for that.
Northrop's flying wing project goes back to the 1940s with the N-1, which without computer assistance was difficult to control. (I'll have to post some pictures of the Smithsonian's) I imagine testing Vulcan was quite useful for perfecting the shape.
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Turns out radar at that time could not see well aircraft with less than three straight edges, the Vulcan had two only.. As you can see its very curved! So it was a bugger to see and it was flown very low like a fighter.. Its joystick came from fighter designs not standard bomber wheels..
The Vulcan originally started being planned straight after the war.. Flew just after the B-52.. The Vulcan that flies now (for a few days more) was the very first B2 Mark to fly, its now the last.. 55 years in the sky!
rob
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This one will not be flying again anytime soon, so sad. Beautiful picture of a beautiful lady.
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The last flying Vulcan, XH558, was retired this year as well. Would have loved to have seen one fly.
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