A bit of news!

Great pictures but the sun shone on the Victor twice!! It is of course in a different colour scheme to the Falkland, Operation Granby and later aircraft, but she still looks good in the sunshine. Two points of interest, Bob Tuxford was in the left hand seat with Mike Beer in the AEO position. Terry Stephenson the crew chief was on board, and I was in the RHS doing my QFI thing! As it was Black Buck One anniversary time, we marked the occasion as Bob T and Mike flew the last stage of the Vulcan AAR support for that operation. Regrettably, we had a problem getting the brake parachute repacked and so one was not fitted. This limited our maximum speed for the run. Better luck in August! Bob P

Great Day all round!

Yes, for the visitors and operators I think it went very well. Pity about the odd shower, and programme changes because of minor un-serviceabilities. That said, all who were meant to show off did just that! The Victor went on full power today being in a good serviceability state. In addition, it was able to stream its brake parachute for the first time in about two years. (Long story!) If anyone has any pictures of the actual stream sequence I would be most grateful to see them for analysis. Thanks to everyone who came to support the event, and thanks to all the people I met and their comments about the Victor. Who needs a Vulcan anyway!! LOL Bob

Picture Magic

Well I stumbled on this thread and must say there are some great pics of both fantastic and awful looking aircraft!! Needless to say I searched through, and sure enough there was a picture of a real working man’s machine, very different to the picture of the Victor prototype. Two things come to mind: firstly, despite some comment, the Victor was by far the most technically advanced of the cold war bombers based on amazing foresight by “Sir Fred”, ambitious research, and a team of exceptional aviation engineers who developed a truly visionary aircraft well ahead of its time in terms of aerodynamic performance, construction techniques, and innovative design. It out-performed the Vulcan and all US bombers in range, (OK the US had a different problem), altitude, and bomb load. Ironically, the “brick built” Vulcan was eventually better suited to low level operations in later years, but I remember overtaking and overflying Vulcans on the way to Goose Bay!! The Vulcan and the string of “B” aircraft really produced no major technical innovation beyond the Lincoln and B 17 technology!

Secondly, I have been searching, largely in vain, for Victor pictures of the B1, B1A, B2 and B2(BS) in their white “nuclear” finish. (Although a few exist of the camoflaged finish “low level” BS and 543 Sqn aircraft. All being very “Hush Hush” I know, there were restrictions on photography of the V Force in those days, but how I wsih I could find some close up airborne pictures of the Victors in the 1957 to 1967 period. Do any exist amongst the photo community??

Bit off thread I know, but the Victor was the most stunning looking British V Bomber – supersonic as well!! Tornado/Typhoon bomber replacements? Come on get real!!!

Any more great Victor pics about? Bob

Good News and an answer to an old question

Hi Ollie and all, Just found this thread and agree your last post was great news and certainly goes to show how 231 is getting near pristine condition!!

Reading back through posts earlier this year, I think I can shed some light on the Vulcan flying issue vis a vis the Victor. I was in a senior policy position in Strike Command in the early 80s and oversaw the Vulcan run down plan. Then one day, the C in C (ex Vulcans) asked as an aside if it would be possible to keep a Vulcan flying after the “drop dead” date. You guessed it – I got the job of saying “Yes Master!” Working with the Engineers, suppliers, air staff and all, I wrote the plan that became an AFB paper, which when approved, kept 588, as a lowish fatigue airframe, displaying for a number of years – at no extra cost was the guideline. Thus, the pilots and crew were ex Vulcan aircrew who had a front line day to day job on Victors, and the basing was kept at Waddington where it had a home and servicing personnel who had recent experience on the type. I cannot remember now, but I believe that the only dedicated person on the Vulcan in those days was the crew chief. Of course, there were additional costs – like fuel – but these were absorbed within the overall Strike Command budget. The key to making all this work out was the fact that nearly all if not all of the senior – 2*, 3* and 4* officers in the decision chain were ex- V Force, and ex – Vulcans in particular. The whole programme, on which the Vulcan Display Flight was the outcome, had a very high level of sponsorship in the RAF, and this carried on to the eventual purchase of the aircraft by David Walton, and the present Vulcan situation.

Ten years later, the situation was very different. The victors were flown into the ground by 1993 – I doubt if there were more than a handfull of Fatigue Index units left between the last few aircraft flying. Even if there had been one that could heve been kept flying, the overheads would have been severe – not acceptable in those austere days. Moreover, Marham was by then a total fast jet unit. On top of that, all the V Force/Tanker senior staffs were retired or had moved away and replaced by fast-jet types. There was no one left to sponsor any Victor interest; in short, apart from a handful of dedicated Victor enthusiasts, no one gave a damn.

Sad, but then the Victor nearly had the last word!!!

Snap Decision

LOL Thanks for that!! Some of you out there might be interested to know that I did for a faction of a second (it seemed) think of going back to full power and flying a circuit. Despite the fact I had not flown a Victor circuit since 1980, I had that much faith in the aircraft and its systems and system redundancy. But ….. a crew on board, no parachutes, no seat cartridges ….very high risk, and I could see the runway, the cross wind effect was huge, but I had control of the aircraft. Snap decision, half the runway was available, I could control the yaw and get the aircraft back towards the runway, go for the landing. Diving to keep flying speed, a good round out and a firm landing without float, and it all worked out. I still shake thinking about it! RAF Flying training!! Bob