The Vickers Valiant B2 had gone ahead?
A little background, I’ve read a couple of books on the V-force not to mention watched a couple of documentaries, one; Vulcans, Victors and Cuba being very good, and a thought has occured to me.
The Vickers Valiant was ordered because of concerns by the Government that the Avro 698 (Vulcan) and Handley-Page HP-80 (Victor) were so experimental that there may be development problems leading to dangerous delays/cost overruns. The Valiant was of a slightly simpler design and entered service in a year or two before the Vulcan B1. In 1953 off their own backs Vickers produced an improved Valiant B2 but it never progressed beyond the prototype stage. Its many improvements included the ability to fly low level which many years later finished the Valiant B1 and caused fatigue problems with the Vulcan and Victor.
My query is this, had the Valiant B2 gone ahead, with its many improvements over the B1, would there have still have been a need for the Vulcan and Victor? As much as I like the Vulcan and Victor, especially the B2s it seems in the end that it may have been a waste of money to have continued their development over the Valiant B2.
By: F-18RN - 8th June 2005 at 19:34
Thats the point though. As I understand it, the wing problems which contributed to the demise of the Valiant B1 had been sorted on the B2, hence its ability to fly low level.
By: Ray Jade - 8th June 2005 at 13:59
Depends if the Valiant B2 would have had its wings stuck on properly…
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June 7, 2005 at 9:36 pm