When the requirements for what became Vulcan and Victor where put out, Vickers already had done extensive design work on their own jet bomber, this did not meet the requirements for the new bombers, but it was well advanced, design followed fairly traditional ideas and the powers that be put out a revised specification just for the Valiant, the idea being to get one new jet bomber up even if the new designs of Vulcan, Victor promised much but could also be and where lengthy in development.

The sad thing is by the time Valiant B1 was ready for production Valiant B2 was already a viable airframe. With more power, strength, a greater fuel capacity and would fulfil the spec for the other V bombers, (I was lucky enough to see the only B2 flown at Farnborough), but a new bomber was needed now, so B1 production went ahead and with typical political thinking the B2 was scrapped never to return. As a matter of interest, the Valiant as far as I know was the only jet bomber at that time which had a specifically designed tanker variant rather than the usual conversion.

So many seem to need to have a pop at TVOC for various reasons, that piece of film from Vulcan 903 is the best answer to all of it.

A marvelous sight and sound, after we all thought, that 15 years ago was the end, incidentally I am not getting over sentimental about a display aircraft, because I am old enough to have seen Vulcans flying from the very first prototype. From the very first, the Vulcan as always been an airshow crowd pleaser.

For my favourite 5

Buccaneer s2
Valiant B2 (only one built was used as target practice)
EE Lightning
Hunter (as long as its single seat) I suppose the Black Arrows are out of the question
Mosquito (lovely aircraft)

I`m well aware that seeing some of these fly again is slim to zero, but we can all dream.

What do you propose to do with the angry , frustrated truckers stuck behind?

Late 50`s, as part of a mob of scouts flying from Manchester to Jersey, memorable, because as we were taking a fair bit of kit with us the aicraft was actually a Silver City Airways car transporter.

Wood floor with gaps between the boards, no windows, and some very temporary seating. Todays H & S people would be frothing at the mouth.

Hi all, new on here so please forgive if this has been asked before.

Does anyone remember seeing a BBC news clip shown on Naitionwide of very low flying Buccaneers at a Red Flag exercise in Nevada.

This was the first year that the RAF had been invited to attend, the high speed, low flying tactics employed had the cousins bewildered and totally unable to detect or “shoot down” the Buccaneer “bombing runs”, the clip is particularly memorable by the commentary, plus the comments from the crews manning the missile sites, who basically gave up and went outside to watch.

I along with many others have made searches to locate this clip, does anyone know if or where this piece of film could viewed, bought or downloaded ?