V Bombers

The Vulcan was always intended to have Olympus engines, but the first prototype had to fly with Avons (on August 30, 1952) because of delays in getting the Olympus ready in time. Olympus 100 engines were ready and fitted to the second prototype which first flew on September 3, 1953.

Many thanks PL. I knew there was something about the Vulcan and Avons but couldn’t remember what it was. You cleared it up nicely.

One could say that rear-engined aircraft (eg DH.125, V.C.10, BAC 111) had pylon mounted engines – its just that the pylons stuck out sideways.

Roger Smith.

Did any of the Valiant, Victor or Vulcan designs look at an engine mounting other than in the wing root – pylon mounted or directly on the wing as in Concorde (at least for the Vulcan)?

Could these positions have offered any advantage?

I always assumed that the engines were root mounted to make life as difficult as possible for the groundcrew (as usual with brit designers !! );)
but seriously i would imagine that the only advantage to root mounted engines would be to reduce the assymetric control forces if you had engine problems.

Did any British jet aircraft, apart from the 146, have pylon mounted engines?
I always assumed that burying the engines was just the way we designed aircraft, while the Americans went for pylons. Of course pylons went onto be the predominant engine installation.

The Vulcan was always intended to have Olympus engines, but the first prototype had to fly with Avons (on August 30, 1952) because of delays in getting the Olympus ready in time. Olympus 100 engines were ready and fitted to the second prototype which first flew on September 3, 1953.

If Whittle’s LR1 turbofan had been built, would an uprated version have fitted inside the wings?

Possibly, IIRC the Vulcan started life wiith Avons and changed to Olympus power later in life though I may be wrong.

If Whittle’s LR1 turbofan had been built, would an uprated version have fitted inside the wings?

The V-bombers were built to the same Air Ministry specification but, in case it had been too demanding, they called for a conventional design to spec B.14/46. This became the Short Sperrin which had four engines, two on each wing in large and ungainly pods – no pylons there either.

The proposed Mk 3 Vulcan would have had either 6 Skybolts AGM’s or three Gnat type drone aircraft fixed under the wings.

Tim Lamming’s book title The Vulcan Story gives an excellent insight into the reasons why the Vulcan (and others) where designed the way they were.

The need for a large bomb load made for a large fuselage and therefore deep wingroots would accomodate engines and undercarriage and at the same time present a sleek and smooth airframe that would be fast and fuel efficient.

It was a design that was utilised right from the start and as far as I recall there were no other designs that used engine pods.

John.

Engines mounted on a pylon are give easier access, and therefore simpler maintainence.

XM607

Thats a shame she is in such poor condition inside. I wonder if the cockpit would be restorable if she is indeed scrapped. Hopefully someone has the sense to recover the missile pylons from her before they are scrapped as well so they can be refitted to other ex black buck vulcans

I thought 607 was better looked after now?

For contact details for XM603, put ‘XM603’ into the search at the top of the page and you’ll find my recent posts with the information and details.

J man

re:

The Vulcan at newark urgently needs attention round the jet pipes

what state is the Cosford one in?

The ammount of water pouring out of XM607 makes me cringe

The bext vulcans right now in my books are XM655 and XL360 with victors being the two taxiable ones with the duxford example close behind only because she still carries bomber command colors.

Afraid not – the Duxford Vic is painted in the colours of 57 when it formed part of Strike Command as a tanker unit. It’s the only complete one still in the 70s grey/green camoflage but that was applied to pretty much everything from Jet Provosts to the Hercules! This machine is also in pretty poor external shape, though I can’t say how much of this is significant damage or just very bad weathering.

Waddingtons vulcan isnt that bad a shape?! I saw a recent pic of her at her new display parking area and she looks quite good. I know the cockpit is stripped inside…
The bext vulcans right now in my books are XM655 and XL360 with victors being the two taxiable ones with the duxford example close behind only because she still carries bomber command colors.

I had my soul stirred by Lusty Lindy at Elvington in the summer (and their Bucc)

what of the Valiants? I know that there is one at Hendon, but are there any others? (other than Simon Steggall’s 17′ span one…I enclose pictures that I have posted before from the Large Model Association’s website)

Nice. There’s only one complete Valiant left, now at Cosford, plus a couple of nose sections.

Hmm Albert!

Better get ducking! Althoguh 715 at bruntingthorpe is looking much better now and is a credit to the people who look after her, she went a period of time at bruntingthorpe with little maintenance which may have affected some of her systems. 231 However, and i know i am a bit biased, has every system functioning including all of the avionics, radios and radar.

Although saying this it is maybe a bit unfair on bruntingthorpe they do a very good job with the large numbers if arframes they need to look after and after all both victors will never fly again without large amounts of money a la vulcan and keeping them live keeps the corrosion at bay.

Ollie

Albert – I should duck down before the ‘friendly fire’ hits you from Elvington Victor crew! Regards the RAFM Vulcans – certainly corrosion shouldn’t be an issue with the Hendon example but a look up in the undercarriage bays reveals that much of the pipework and wiring isn’t intact because of her move.

I had my soul stirred by Lusty Lindy at Elvington in the summer (and their Bucc)

what of the Valiants? I know that there is one at Hendon, but are there any others? (other than Simon Steggall’s 17′ span one…I enclose pictures that I have posted before from the Large Model Association’s website)