Red Flag Vulcans

I took the 2 pictures of 607 at Nellis with a pocket camera so the negs are tiny unfortunately. The other Vulcan so painted was XM648. Here’s the story behind the painting:

This was the first RAF participation in Red Flag and the Vulcans and Buccaneers went for 2 successive Flags 77/8 and 77/9. After about a week of 77/8 we got the message at Waddington that the Vulcans were being spotted any time they turned because the sun glinted off their light grey undersides. So there was a panic paint job using the same 2-tone brown that the Buccs were done in. I recall that we did a fighter affiliation sortie just before leaving for Nellis in the new colours and the UK fighter guys said it made us easier to spot, but that was at 40000ft! 607 was captained by Sqn Ldr, later Air Cdr, Chris Lumb and 648 by Flt Lt Phil Nelson. My log book shows arrival at Nellis on 19 Aug 77, trips on 22/24/26/30 (in 648)/31 Aug/1 Sep and depart on 2 Sep.

Our Red Flag was a daytime experience but subsequent Flags for the Vulcan were at night using TFR and so there was no need for fancy painting.

I’ve certainly seen video taken from a SAM site on the ranges of a Vulcan smokin’ through with some impressed commentry from the operators. At one point just the tail of the Vulcan fills the screen and there’s not much space between us and the ground. We’re all beyond court martial now so I can admit that we flew at around 100 to 150 ft most of the time which was certainly exhillerating.

There’s a colour profile of XM607 in the “desert” scheme in my Vulcan book published late last year (Crecy Publications). I spotted the two photos on the excellent Vulcans in Camera site a very long time ago, and after getting larger copies from the photographer, we figured that the underside scheme was a mirror of the top, as with the more standard grey/green wrap-around scheme.

There is a much better photograph of XM607 in the desert colours, pictured in Goose Bay’s hangar. Roger Brookes has the shot but he’s been reluctant to release it for publication – maybe we should have a whip-round to persuade him?! The identity of the other “desert” aircraft seems to be XM597 but I haven’t found any conclusive evidence as yet. The only real clue was a close look at the aircraft in 1984, when patches of paint were falling off, and the colour underneath did appear to be brown…

Incidentally, regarding the colours of XH558, the standard upper surface camouflage on Vulcans was Dark Green and Medium Sea Grey (Light Aircraft Grey or White undersides). This changed to Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey for wrap-around aircraft. XH558 has the latter colours but they look slightly odd because the aircraft was given a coat of gloss which makes the colours look very different from the usual matt finish used on wrap-around aircraft. They also applied a soft-edged spray pattern to the camouflage which was only applied to a handful of aircraft in the 1960’s and to the B2(MRR) aircraft in the 1970’s. All in all, XH558 has a bizarre colour scheme and if I had the money, I’d pay the guys at Bruntingthorpe to cover it up with something more appropriate!

Have been doing some more digging on Vulcan’s painted in the wrap scheme and have updated the list to include XL318 and XL359….

XH561, XL318, XL359, XL389, XL425, XL426, XL427, XL444, XL445, XM575, XM605, XM648, XM652 & XM657 (plus XH558 in gloss display scheme)

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Just to emphasise that ‘558s paint job was very much a one off designed to give a long lasting finish in a spurious wrap over scheme. The grey used was light a/c grey, so inaccurate in many ways. So when (if)you see the old girl at airshows in the future, turn away in disgust as its not a representative cold war Vulcan which was a requiremnet of lottery funding!!

Have been doing some more digging on Vulcan’s painted in the wrap scheme and have updated the list to include XL318 and XL359….

XH561, XL318, XL359, XL389, XL425, XL426, XL427, XL444, XL445, XM575, XM605, XM648, XM652 & XM657 (plus XH558 in gloss display scheme)

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Just to follow up on the Falklands Vulcans, all the Black Buck aircraft were still painted in the ‘old’ medium Sea Grey/Dark Green over Light Aircraft Grey scheme (iirc the wrap round ones were all 200 series engines, the BB bombers were 300 series).

Given a coat of DSG underneath as LACG stood out like a sore thumb in a dark sky.

Just to finish this one. It would appear that the Neptunes came to St. Eval primarily for administrative reasons due to the comparative importance of St Eval vs the other Coastal Stations.
Certainly the infrastructure was better developed at the time than St. Mawgan and I remember large numbers of additional married quarters, new NAAFI etc. being constructed in the early 50’s.
Doubtless all was completed just in time for the airfield to then be closed down and everything moved up the road to St Mawgan.

Coincidentally I have a retired Nav Mate who was on 217 Neptunes from ’52 and whom I’ll be meeting for a drink in a couple of weeks in Jo’berg.
Lets see if he knows why the Neptunes were initially delivered to St Eval.
I’ll get back.
My memory had convinced that all the squadron flew in to St Mawgan -about 10 of them.
But there again, I was three at the time!

Well I never knew that the Truculant one came to St Eval, or that she survives, thanks. I know a Neptune (possibly Dutch) was trying to land at St Mawgan and landed at St Eval instead. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, eccept St eval was closed and large concrete obstacles were placed on the runways.

Funnily enough , the one Neptune that I can positively confirm did come in to St Eval was the US Navy’s “Truculent Turtle” long range flier, which came in heavy and burnt its brakes out on landing due to the short runway.
The “Turtle” is of course now preserved at Pensacola.

The first two Neptunes MR.1s for the RAF were delivered to St Eval and the freshly reformed 217 Sqdn in Jan 1952, there is a picture of the event and they were parked in front of the tower and C type hangers. They moved to Kinloss in April, so why they were delivered to St Eval is a mystery to me, as no other Neptune unit were based there. Maybe Kinloss was under refurbishment at the time?
Neptunes were never based at St Mawgan neither, though it is possible they might of flown excercises from there.

[QUOTE=pagen01; I want to model one of the first pair delivered to the RAF at St Eval.
[/QUOTE]

I may well be mistaken ,but as a small boy at RAF St Eval in the early 50’s I recall going across with my father to St Mawgan to see the Neptunes arrive. Memory plays tricks I know, however I don’t remember seeing Neptunes at St Eval up until when we left in mid ’54.

Zaps !!

Of course one of the best zaps was the “RNZAF Vulcan” whereby a red kiwi had been painted over the red in the roundel during a visit down under.

Surely one of the best “zaps” was the Royal Navy Phantoms that were tagged with an early WW2 USAAF emblem and the title “Colonial Navy” in place of Royal Navy.

t can get a bit extreme. I believe a Jaguar on a squadron exchange in Germany (WEST) collected an Iron cross and german style serial number. I saw a B52 once wearing a 617 tail fin badge.

XL319 was zapped by the confederate air force while out there.

I believe a Phantom was zapped by the staff at the place that doesn’t exist, when subject of a tech emergency. I believe the crew also had a very intense debrief before being allowed to return to nellis.

Perhaps we require a separate thread on the theme of Zaps?
Be lucky
David

This pic of camo trials shows the effectiveness of the ‘northern latitudes’ camo for the Vulc.

Nice pic. Is that the standard medium sea grey/ dark green??

Just to add . . .

This pic of camo trials shows the effectiveness of the ‘northern latitudes’ camo for the Vulc.

Surely one of the best “zaps” was the Royal Navy Phantoms that were tagged with an early WW2 USAAF emblem and the title “Colonial Navy” in place of Royal Navy.

Cant find a pic at the moment.

Paul, sorry I got the wrong name, bad day in the office (which might be gone soon!). As previous poster says it is as described in XM607 book, it’s nice to see these events captured on canvas, especially so beautifully.

Thanks again XM

“Not Below 2,000 Feet”

GREAT picture, Paul.
JUST as I visualised it when reading “Vulcan 607”!
Many Thanks for posting it.
Regards
Paul

Paul,

Outstanding picture. Very nice indeed !!!

… re Neptunes do you know where I can get the Falcon vacform converion? I want to model one of the first pair delivered to the RAF at St Eval.

James, yes Falcon Models in New Zealand produce one for the Hasegawa 1/72 kit (it’s in one of their triple-vacform conversions.

Some more info HERE on P2V.org

😀

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Used to know fantasy print shop quite well, based just around the corner in Newquay, not sure where they are now. Very good quallity as you say, and these look very comprehensive sheets. re Neptunes do you know where I can get the Falcon vacform converion? I want to model one of the first pair delivered to the RAF at St Eval.

John, that is an amazing picture, don’t think any of my walls are worthy of it!

Some great info here, a number of things cleared up for me so thanks to all. And now the reason for the original question the painting I have been working on based on a short passage from ‘Vulcan 607’ the title of the painting is ‘Not below 20,00ft’ not a great photograph of it but you get the idea.

Cheers
PaulC

www.paulcouper.co.uk