Pretty-much as I said previously – such manoeuvres were flown but as to whether LABS-type profiles were every attempted by regular service crews, it’s hard to say but as has been said, such profiles certainly were not part of standard procedures.

The Woodford test pilots certainly performed plenty of very enthusiastic manoeuvres as I know from direct interviews with former personnel. It would seem that public displays of such flying effectively ended when the RAF officially asked Avro to stop it (as I mentioned previously, it was encouraging service crews to attempt the same manoeuvres) but I’m assured by one former member of the flight test crews that the “aerobatics” still took place, albeit away from ground-based scrutiny.

Anyway, I think the point of all this is that there doesn’t seem to be much evidence to suggest that anything particulary unusual took place on the afore-mentioned day in 1975. Really do think it’s a case of memory playing tricks.

DCPage – the book you mention is pretty old now – if you get a chance, keep a look-out for The Avro Vulcan-The Complete Story published by Crecy as it’s rather better. I’m allowed to compare as I wrote ’em both!

Naturally, I digested the afore-mentioned book very careful the minute it was published many years ago (I seem to think my copy is under my bed somewhere gathering dust now!). As I said previously, I don’t have any reason to believe that LABS or toss bombing of any sort was ever part of the V-Force’s established delivery options but I found enough references (and sufficient comments from crews and people associated with the aircraft) to know that such manoeuvres were performed. My point was merely to say that this type of manoeuvre – whether regularly practised or otherwise – was long abandoned by 1975!

Incidentally, I should say in passing that Wynn’s book, impressive though it may be, is less-than accurate in parts…

Have to say that as a long-time Vulcan fan (and author of three well-known commercial books on the subject), I suspect these stories make the events sound rather more colourful than they actually were.

Certainly (as any former Vulcan crews on here will confirm) the Vulcan was more than capable of performing loops and rolls. Falk demonstrated the Vulcan’s rolling capability many times, as did Harrison, but the RAF/MoD put a stop to the practise because service pilots were trying the same manouevre, but failing to keep a steady 1g applied (in effect Falk’s roll was actually a barrel roll), resulting in some near-catastrophic recoveries and lots of unnecessary stress to the airframes. I believe Harrison’s last roll took place at Finningley during a visit, and by the time he arrived back at Woodford, the RAF’s plea for rolls to be stopped had arrived on his desk.

Vulcans (and Victors) performed half loops as a means of delivering their nuclear weapons (I suspect the manoeuvre applied mostly to the Red Beard bomb) and both movie and still pictures of both aircraft types can be found, performing this manoeuvre. However, I believe the manoeuvre had largely been dropped from regular training by the end of the 1960’s (can any former aircrew confirm this?) and it seems very unlikely that anyone would be practicing the manoeuvre by 1975, especially overhead Waddington. You sure it wasn’t simply a steep climb?

As for Joe L’Estrage and his antics, Joe is of course famous for his flamboyant demonstrations of the Vulcan, but I don’t think Joe would have ever done anything so unwise as to stress the airframe – he was too experienced to do that sort of thing. He certainly knew a thing or two about making low fly-by’s though!

First flight – Dakota (C-47) G-AMPO (now on guard at Lyneham) when she was with Eastern Airways. Second flight – Canberra WJ715 7 Squadron… talk about an eclectic mix!

Although I can understand the reasons why, I hope you guys at Bruntingthorpe resist the temptation to repaint either one of the machines silver. It would be fantastic to see an F6 in the old bare metal finish with any of the squadron markings which are appropriate, but spraying silver paint just looks plain wrong. If bare metal isn’t an option I’d much rather settle for camouflage or grey. There’s nothing more depressing than seeing unique aircraft wearing slightly “fake” colour schemes! Maybe it’s just me, but it constantly drives me crazy to marvel at how so many magnificent aircraft have been lovingly restored (some to flying condition) at huge expense and effort, only to have the “final touches” spoiled by inaccurate paint schemes. It just seems like a real shame to me.

Maybe you guys could keep 904 in camouflage but re-attach the over-wing tanks? That would be something worth seeing. Ugly as sin I know, but unique to the Lightning!

I agree that the manuals are very disappointing. I used to write books for Haynes but they lost their way when the aviation section was transferred to Sutton Publishing and they’ve never produced anything of any significance ever since. The manuals are just a cynical use of the “Haynes Manual” title and theme, but when you open the book, it’s simply another generic WWII publication. It’s a shame, as they could have produced books which really were more like manuals, but of course it’s all about promotion and sales, rather than actual content. It’s a missed opportunity in my opinion.