Avro Vulcan
- Thread starter Kittyhawk
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Gosh - mention of Bucaneers brings back memories, I in my early career worked for Marconi Avionics and I'd often end up on some windswept airfield in Norfolk/Suffolk or occasionally Lossiemouth sitting underneath them with 'scopes and test gear hooked up into the pods whilst kerosene leaked out of the wings like a sieve!!
Never got a ride in one but sat in them plenty of times whilst testing missile systems.
I reported in to an old boy whose claim to fame was to have invented chaff and remember many an hour with him reminiscing his exploits - Happy Days!
Ed
stuckinthemud
Established Member
If we are on a prettiest airliner diversion my vote is for the DeHaviland Comet. Surely one of the most beautiful planes of any type
AES
Established Member
Well, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and all that, but for me, although the Comet looks "quite pretty", at least in some aspects, both the aforementioned Connie and the DH (note!) Albatross beat it for looks
stuckinthemud
Established Member
They’re so close you could throw a blanket over them but I always liked how neat the jet intakes were on the Comet
Till the wings fell off them !
stuckinthemud
Established Member
Wings dint fall off, cabin windows unzipped….
The window cracking was cured by rounding the corners.
+1 for the Comet.
To the OP have you thought about an A10 would look cool with the gatling gun protruding out the front.
shad3925
Established Member
I have been a forum member for over 2 years and have not needed to post before.
My first posting after training as an RAF Aircraft Instrument engineer was to to 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton where I spent 5 years working on Mk1 & 2 Vulcans and was one of the few who flew in a Vulcan which was to a Norwegian airbase where the aircraft then took part in a flying display over Oslo.
My final year at Scampton was spent doing many courses training to be a Transport Aircraft Specialist in in various parts of the country following which I was posted to RAF Gan in the Maldives which was a staging post for aircraft flying to the Far East and I worked on a multitude of different aircraft.
Next posting was to RAF Valley working on Gnats, after 2 years I joined a new Squadron of C130 Hercules where we flew out to RAF Changi in Singapore for 3 years.
Final posting was nearer home at RAF Sealand where I serviced and stripped complex aircraft instrument.
All of which were very happy days.
My first posting after training as an RAF Aircraft Instrument engineer was to to 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton where I spent 5 years working on Mk1 & 2 Vulcans and was one of the few who flew in a Vulcan which was to a Norwegian airbase where the aircraft then took part in a flying display over Oslo.
My final year at Scampton was spent doing many courses training to be a Transport Aircraft Specialist in in various parts of the country following which I was posted to RAF Gan in the Maldives which was a staging post for aircraft flying to the Far East and I worked on a multitude of different aircraft.
Next posting was to RAF Valley working on Gnats, after 2 years I joined a new Squadron of C130 Hercules where we flew out to RAF Changi in Singapore for 3 years.
Final posting was nearer home at RAF Sealand where I serviced and stripped complex aircraft instrument.
All of which were very happy days.
I remember watching my father fly a Vulcan one Saturday morning at Bitteswell in, 1 think 1962. He was a test pilot for Hawker Siddeley, so it was probably test flight after maintenance or repairs, which they used to do there. He left me in the control tower with the two air traffic controllers who looked after me and showed me around. A 'quiet' morning in different times.
Kittyhawk
Established Member
Thank you to everyone who has replied with anecdotes of the Vulcan and similar era aircraft.
This is the reason I build these things.
Over the years I have met the most fascinating bunch of model commissioners from top dress pilots who flew Tiger Moths and DC3's, the wife of a SR71 Blackbird pilot, a AS350 helicopter pilot who was employed to film the America's Cup series, sons and other relations of forebears who flew or maintained everything from Sopwith Camels, Wellingtons, Corsairs, Lightnings...
As such I get to hear the most interesting stories and recollections as well as see old logbooks and photographs dug out of family albums, all stuff that aught to be preserved for posterity. I would do it myself if I was a historian.
Apart from one off models I have a small client base of regulars who have got to know one another and there is a whisper among them that the better the yarns or photographs, the cheaper the model. True
This is the reason I build these things.
Over the years I have met the most fascinating bunch of model commissioners from top dress pilots who flew Tiger Moths and DC3's, the wife of a SR71 Blackbird pilot, a AS350 helicopter pilot who was employed to film the America's Cup series, sons and other relations of forebears who flew or maintained everything from Sopwith Camels, Wellingtons, Corsairs, Lightnings...
As such I get to hear the most interesting stories and recollections as well as see old logbooks and photographs dug out of family albums, all stuff that aught to be preserved for posterity. I would do it myself if I was a historian.
Apart from one off models I have a small client base of regulars who have got to know one another and there is a whisper among them that the better the yarns or photographs, the cheaper the model. True
They have a Blackbird at the museum at Duxford …..its amazing and considering it was an unarmed aircraft it looks so menacing etc
They leaked enough when not flying to be dangerous ( pollution ) to their own side on the ground. Lovely aircraft though.
And when the Russians tried to shoot one down with a missile ….they simply accelerated away from it 
Richard_C
Established Member
Back to Vulcans. They did carry conventional bombs, but the raison d'etre was to be the UK cold war nuclear deterrent until everyone realised that SAMs made it impossible and that polaris submarines were the answer. So Vulcans (and the other V bombers) main task was to carry Blue Steel standoff missiles. Wikipedia has a good feature about Blue Steel, which indirectly explains a lot about the role of the Vulcan and why it suddenly went from being a high altitude bomber to a (very) low altitude one.
