2av8
April 24, 2007 at 10:38 pm

XA903 – B1 Vulcan Info required

Vulcan B1 XA903 was used as a flying test bed to test the Blue Steel, the Olympus 593 (Concorde) engine and the RB199 (Tornado) engine.
As part of the restoration of this aircraft (nose section) back to its Olympus 593 fit, I am desperately short of information of what it looked like inside.

Did you fly in ‘903 or do you have any pics, info of what it looked like. It was totally different to an operation aircraft, so general B1 stuff doesn’t help a great deal. I could ideally do with a photo of the rear desk (especially the AEO position) – in fact anything will help.

(ps I have started a website about 903 that may jog a few memories – http://www.2av8.co.uk)

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By: 2av8 - 27th April 2007 at 17:24

‘903

Thanks David for those links.

I have already spoken to John Hassell but unfortunately he could not remember much since it was so long ago – just another job at the time I guess.

I have also bought a set of pilot notes (CD) from the www.pilot-notes.co.uk website. The 903 supplement is a written document with no pictures, and so didnt help a great deal regarding the instruments/ internal layout.

Some of the other links look good – I’ll spend a few moments looking at them this evening. Thanks,

2AV8

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By: David Eyre - 27th April 2007 at 02:42

Hi 2AV8,

Found a website with CV’s of ex-RAF Apprentices – scroll down to John Hassell. He says:
“1965 Demobbed after my 12 yrs and took a staff job in the Development Flight Test Hangar at Bristol Siddeley Engines at Filton. I spent 16 months designing and building the radio installation into a very non-standard Vulcan XA903. This aircraft then test flew the Olympus 593b which was fitted into it’s bomb bay, later to power Concorde.”
http://members.lycos.co.uk/barryfrog/index2.html

Here’s a site with pilot notes for the Vulcan, including those for XA903. It says:
“The B1a notes include a supplementary set of notes relating to XA903 which was used as the Bristol/Rolls Royce Olympus test bed for Concorde.”
http://www.pilot-notes.co.uk/bombers.htm

Video clip of XA903 at Farnborough in 1960s with Olympus test engine:
http://photo.livevideo.com/video/FB0EB8A1400D48A6A43A5475F8E71D06/airshow-action-avro-vulcan-test-bed.aspx

I haven’t been able to find any cockpit shots yet, but thought you may be interested to see these other shots of XA903:
http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/table.php?searchitem=%25xa903%25&mtv=G1&pnum=1

http://www.avrovulcan.org.uk/903/index.htm

http://www.avrovulcan.org.uk/903/903_fb.htm

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1036644/

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1044482/

Regards,
David