The lightning is XI(F) sqn’s gate guard, now with them at conningsby – the long running gag on the squadron was for new guys to be sent to ‘BF the lightning’. Bloody hilarious….

(BF – Before Flight servicing)

The phantoms were apparently painted on after the real ones were chopped. The remaining one is alledgedly inside a hangar now…. and may not have to be killed i.a.w. salt II…. 😉

We used to send the new boys to check the tyre pressures on the gate guard at Honington. Always garanteed to get them a bollocking from the SWO.

Well, when the Victor K2’s were our only assets there were 24 at most.The Victor had a much smaller fuel load than the present aircraft have and there were far more aircraft in the inventory that needed servicing. I can´t see why 14 airframes shouldn´t suffice.

This is almost certainly XH668 although no tail number has been applied

A silly question but why do you use the tail number of the (ill fated) Victor B2 prototype?

Now thats exactly what i wanted, great info chaps, much appreciated. whilst were on the subject what about the B1 & 2 Victors 😉

The major differences were.
The 18″ stub wing, the mk 1 had intakes blended into the fuselage the mk 2 you see a parallel section of mainplane before the intake

Longer span, indeed when they were converted to K2 they were cropped slightly.

Conway engines instead of Sapphires

RATs the scoops are visible on the top fuselage.

Extended intake in front of fin

Shock bodies (window boxes, Whitcomb pods etc) on trailing edge of mainplane.

AAPP mounted in stbd side stub wing.

Internally.
An improved electrical system

Improved avionics

No 2 tank fitted

No 9 tank fitted

Yes…but not this one. 🙂

Mark

MH434, part of 9th order to contract no.981687/39/C23(c) for mk Vc’s but built as mk IX. Built at Castle Bromwich.

Hi Robert,

Unfortunatly we do not have a Zero stage measuring device, I have never heard of such a thing! What was its purpose and is there any other method of detecting an imminant faliure (unusual vibrations etc?). Making me nervous all this talk of zero stage faliure!

Ollie

The zero stage measuring device was a Heath-Robinson contraption consisting of a base with two datum points fore, a perspex strip perpendicular to the base with three lines on it. The lines were one black and two red (if I remember correctly) marking out the nominal and acceptable twist limits of the blade. There was a rod mounted to it to help you place it on the base of the blade. The thinking was that if the zero stage started to twist it would fail iminently. I personally never found a single blade ven close to the limit. The two main reasons a zero stage can fail is if it falls off the front bearing (it hangs in front of the bearing if I remember correctly) or if one blade stops moving and the rest catch it up ie breaks off.
How do you detect a zero stage failure? Generally by the time you think that something doesn’t sound right, there is a big bang and it’s happened.
The most important whenever doing high rpm runs, directly into wind.

so another 4000 hours added onto her airframe thats a fairly impressive figure, spare conways wont be hard to come by, since the VC10’s are on their way out soonish, when ive made my millions, ill be in touch 😀

You’ll have to stock up on Conways, ‘cos when them zero stages start failing you’ll be busy. One bit of luck at least it isn’t XL164, no 4 engine was always a pig to fit.