The V-Bombers: The UK's Strategic Nuclear Strike Force

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's your new professional just the lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace jacket they're awesome all in one platform through the link below more about them in a bit [Music] to many vicus valiant avro vulcan and the hanley page victor are simply the v bombers britain's family of cold war strategic nuclear bombers and the answer to the american boeing b-52 and the soviet tupolev tu-95 all three of them are venerable and lauded designs that did their part in keeping the united kingdom safe from nuclear annihilation during the early stages of the cold war and this is indeed true enough all the v bombers did exactly that and they did it well with two of them the biggest valiant and the avro vulcan even dropping live conventional ordnance during the suez crisis and the falklands war respectively but in reality there is significantly more to the be bomber story than that of simple nuclear deterrence their story is one of the changing nature of warfare in the late 20th century a harsh and critical environment in which advocates of the strategic bomber role had to fight for the v bombers very survival against powerful groups convinced that the strategic bomber itself was redundant and that ballistic rockets and smaller multi-role aircraft were the future of bombing it's a fight but the v-bombers and their advocates ultimately lost and today the united kingdom maintains no strategic bombers at all nevertheless the v-bombers represent an important and fascinating parts of british aviation history so let's not waste any time and in this special extra length episode we're gonna dive into their story [Music] britain emerged from the second world war as one of the big boys of the global aviation scene whether it be the super maneuverable and heavily armed supermarine spitfire the absurd speed of the de havilland mosquito or the bane of the panzer corps in the hawker hurricane all over the world a deep fearsome roar of a british rolls-royce merlin engine signaled the arrival of a high-tech world-leading aircraft an aircraft that had the occupied peoples of europe screaming for joy and the fascists of europe dashing for a change of underwear no truer is this sentiment than with britain's bombers survey the ranks of british wartime bombers and you will find the plucky little fairy swordfish which sank a greater tonnage of axes shipping than any other aircraft in the war the mighty avro lancaster which dropped 618 million kilograms that's about 1.4 billion pounds of bombs on the axis war machine during the war and hanley page halifax which provided the means for the free peoples of occupied europe to stick the boots into their fascist occupiers but despite its phenomenal wartime record in the ever-changing post-war world the united kingdom could not afford to rest on its laurels technology was advancing quickly and if the united kingdom didn't keep up the momentum it would be left behind by the u.s and the ussr both of whom were rapidly improving their own industries and racing to gobble up as many german scientists and technological secrets as they could for their own exclusive use to complicate matters even further not only was aviation technology advancing at a dizzying rate but so was the sophistication of what fell out of their bombays as with the jet age also came the nuclear age the story of the v bombers is intertwined and inseparable from that of the british nuclear weapons program after all delivering britain's nuclear weapons was initially their primary function so to truly understand the history of these fine aircraft we have to sidetrack just slightly and dip our toes into nuclear history specifically air staff operational requirement or1001 issued in august of 1946 this requirement began or rather resumed independent british nuclear technology research after the passing of the u.s atomic energy act of 1946 in which the usa with its post-war priorities realigned expelled the british from the nuclear program they themselves founded and attempted to monopolize nuclear technology for themselves or1001 aimed to sidestep this and give the united kingdom its own indigenously developed nuclear weapon it called for an atomic weapon no longer than 24 feet 2 inches no wider than 5 feet and no heavier than 10 000 pounds and to be able to be released from altitudes ranging from 20 thousand feet to 50 000 feet obviously the abro lincoln the then piston-powered pride of the raf with its service ceiling of 30 500 feet was not up to the task and well a new generation of aircraft was needed to carry this most formidable but theoretical armament this need for an advanced new strategic bomber resulted in the ministry of supply issuing specification b-35-46 on new year's day 1947. all british companies were welcomed to submit proposals but it had to meet a very strict series of specifications needing to be a four-engine swept-wing jet bomber with a cruising speed of 575 miles per hour a service ceiling at least 55 000 feet a range of 3400 miles and to be able to carry the aforementioned 10 000 pound nuclear weapon in keeping with the radical departure from wartime designs that this specification represented the aircraft would also carry no active defensive armaments as it was predicted that the speed and service sealing of the aircraft would be all the protection that it would need from soviet a.a guns and interceptor aircraft three designs would ultimately be chosen to fill this requirement which we already know to be the vicus valiant the avro vulcan and the handley page victor all of whom were in service by the close of the 1950s three different airframes may seem like an odd choice particularly for cash-strapped post-war britain but there was some method to the madness they were hedging bets in case any of the advanced new designs turned out to be a dud the figures valiant was the first of the v bombers introduced and in many ways it is the black sheep of the bee bomber family as it occupies a significantly smaller space in the popular legacy than both the avro vulcan and the hanley page victor it also served the shortest time out of the three and had the least glamorous and least exciting service life nonetheless as the first jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the uniting kingdom it was a critically important aircraft and is no less worthy of study the biggest valiant was always intended to be the back up aircraft of the v bomber family it was a simple design built from reliable and understood technologies the initial drafting work was completed quickly and vicar's proposal for specification b-35-46 referred to in-house as the vicar's 660 series was submitted in early 1948. initially this approach to aircraft design was met with skepticism from the ministry of supply and the air ministry the bulks of whoms bureaucrats favored advanced sexy designs that pushed the envelope on what was possible also good for a bit of patriotic chest thumping but lobbying from vickers made a good case for the obvious merits of a conservative approach to design there was much less chance of hiccups and delays in the design and testing phase of a more simple aircraft that was utilizing well-understood technologies so consequently they could get their proposal into the sky quicker than their competitors and thus britain would get the nucleus jiu-jitsu bomber it desperately needed quicker in a package that still satisfied specifications so confident was because in its simple proposal that chief designer said george edwards promised that the prototype would be in the air by the end of 1951 the subsequent production aircraft would be flown prior to the end of 1953 and that serial deliveries would commence during early 1955. what's more he promised that the aircraft would come in under budget and signed a waiver with the government that any cost overruns would be absorbed by vickers an ever increasing awareness of bomber commands fleets rapidly approaching obsolescence by the powers that be meant that vicar's pitch for a simple and dependable aircraft was successful and in february 1949 two prototypes of the vickers 660 series were ordered the first of which serial number wb210 flew on the 18th of may 1951 only 27 months since the contract had been issued the second prototype serial number wb215 followed shortly after and took its maiden flight on the 11th of april 1952. pleased with the progress of the prototypes the ministry of supply placed a production order for 25 aircraft in the same configuration as prototype wb215 in april of 1952 and at this point the vicar's 660 nomenclature was dropped and the aircraft finally received the name we'll know and love it by today the vicar's valiant b-1 the ministry of supply also commissioned a third prototype from vickers dubbed the type 673 the type 673 served as a test bed for a proposed new iteration of the valiant dubbed the b-2 the valiant b-2 was intended as a low-level pathfinder an aircraft to locate and mark targets with flares and thus increase the accuracy of a main bomber force rather than a high strategic level bomber like the valium b1 in preparation for this the type 673 was painted jet black given a much strengthened airframe carried a far greater fuel load and had a significantly higher speed than the valiant b1 at low altitudes the type 673 was delivered in september 1953 and following several years of trials it was eventually scrapped in 1958 after the air ministry concluded that pathfinding was a redundant role on the modern battlefield while the type 673 prototype proved to be unsuccessful the same could not be said of the valiant b-1 production aircraft which delivered exactly what it promised a reliable and dependable way of rapidly replacing the united kingdom's obsolete piston engine bomber fleet the figures valiant b1 had a number of interesting design features its wing used a so-called compound sweep configuration with a 37 degree sweep back for the inner third of the wing and 21 degrees for the remaining two thirds of the wing devised by vegas aerodynamicist elfin richards this configuration reduced the maximum speed of the aircraft but as a trade-off significantly increased its low speed handling power came from four rolls-royce avon engines each delivering 2 690 pound-feet of thrust as with all the v-bombers these engines were buried in the wings and this is possibly one of the single most important parts of the valiant's design as buried engines turn any plane into a bit of a work of art these engines could push the valiant up to a maximum speed of 567 miles per hour furthermore the valiant could reach a service ceiling of 54 000 feet and had a range of 4500 miles armaments consisted of either a 15 kiloton blue danube nuclear bomb a variable yield b-28 nuclear bomb a 1.1 megaton yellow sun thermonuclear bomb or 21 000 pounds of conventional bombs while not revolutionary these specifications were a more than adequate attempt at b-35-46 with a significantly longer range slightly higher top speed slightly shorter service ceiling and near-identical bomb load from that demanded by b-35-46 what is shocking though is how as per edwards's earlier promise all 107 valiants were delivered on time and under budget with the first valiant of the production line being delivered to the raf in february 1955. it's kind of amazing that a major military aircraft contract was completed without a 20-year delay and cost overruns equal to the gdp of a g8 country just let that sink in compared to what we have today as we have seen on many other megaprojects videos the valiant also proved to be a surprisingly versatile aircraft and a number of different variants were built for various different combat roles these included the three aforementioned prototypes wb210 wb 215 and type 673 37 valiant b-1 pure bombers 11 valiant b-p-r-1 modular bomber photo reconnaissance aircraft which could have had the bomb load replaced with a substantial photo reconnaissance suite 14 valiant bprk1 modular bomber photo reconnaissance tanker aircraft which were modular aircraft much like the bpr-1 variant except with the extra addition of in-flight refuelling capability 44 valley and bk-1s another modular design but just with bomber and tank capabilities on full consideration it's hard not to consider the valiant a successful aircraft as it did exactly what it was intended to do enormously upgrade the united kingdom's strategic bomber and nuclear capabilities in a conservative and affordable package its service was hardly dull either with the valiant being a vital part of britain's independent nuclear programme post-world war ii it was a valiant that had the honor of dropping the united kingdom's first free-falling nuclear weapon on the 11th of october 1956 when at 3 27 pm flying at 30 000 feet flight lieutenant eric stacy secreted in the bombardier's bayer valley and wz-366 pushed his big red button and released a blue danube atomic bomb over the marilinga test range in south australia the valiant would go on to drop the united kingdom's first hydrogen bomb on the 15th of may 1957 45 000 feet above the shore of mulden island when valiant xd818 as part of operation grapple dropped the experimental short granite bomb and continued to drop many more increasingly refined and sophisticated hydrogen bombs throughout the further course of the operation the valiant dropping of live ordnance was not just limited to atomic testing however as the aircraft was deployed to live conflict zones where it performed with reasonable success the first combat use of the valiant came during the 1956 suez crisis when an anglo-french and israeli coalition moved into egypt to maintain control of the critically vital suez canal in the wake of the canal's nationalization by then-egyptian president gamal abdel nasser valiants operating from malta dropped conventional bombs on egyptian airfields logistical centers and communication hubs in support of a joint airborne and amphibious attack on the suez canal dubbed operation musketeer the aircraft performed so so as while its high service ceiling placed it firmly out of reach of egyptian aa batteries and its primary interceptor ironically the british gloucester meteor the aircraft's accuracy during bombing runs was somewhat disappointing as valiant crews were only able to render three out of the seven target airfields inoperable despite multiple sorties being flown and many thousands of pounds of conventional ordnance being dropped despite being the mainstay of the early british nuclear program the valiant itself was largely replaced in the nuclear bomber roll by the avro vulcan and hanley page victor it was after all essentially an insurance option in case the aforementioned more advanced bombers proved unviable were delayed or they were otherwise cancelled for whatever reason and with both of its more advanced brothers entering service with relative ease it made little sense to allocate what was ultimately a more primitive aircraft to this vitally important strategic role the valiant did however continue to be used extensively as a high-altitude reconnaissance plane aerial tanker and tactical and low-level bomber roles for which there was still plenty of demand by the royal air force and a seemingly perfectly viable airframe in the valiant to fill them always not as rosy as it appeared however for the valiants as in the tactical and low-level bomber role it was severely lacking primarily due to the simple fact that its airframe was not built strong enough to withstand repeated and consistent low-level flying as early as 1960 the valiants were starting to show considerable wear and fatigue and sure enough the accidents began in earnest on the 12th of august 1960 valiant xd864 of seven squadrons nose will failed to retract during takeoff xd864 stalled failed to recover and slammed into the ground at raf spanhoe with the loss of all hands another valiant wx363 of 148 squadron was lost with all hands on the 6th of may 1964 when a stress crack completely failed the wing separated from the airframe and the valiant impact into the ground at market rating and of course in addition to all these hull loss accidents there were numerous non-lethal accidents as the fatigue cracks began to take their toll on the valiant fleet one notable example came in august 1964 when valiant wp-217 suffered a crack along its wing spa fortunately the wing stayed just about attached and the crew managed to nurse the valiant home with its wings sagging anywhere from 5 to 40 degrees depending on who you ask with accidents and incidents piling up the writing was on the wall for the biggest valiant it was decided in january 1965 that the valiant was not worth the cost of saving and hopefully was decommissioned and scrapped by the british government one biggest valiant b1 xd818 the same aircraft that dropped britain's first gravity nuclear bomb survives complete at the raf museum in cosford on fuller reflection it is fair to say that the vicar's valiant was a tremendous aircraft it did exactly the role it was designed for well and it gave the united kingdom a reliable and dependable modern strategic bomber during a very uncertain time is it really fair to hold the accidents and incidents later in the valiant service career against it accidents that occurred while performing roles that it was never designed for that vicus armstrong themselves warned that it was not suitable for if only there was another prototype version of the valiant one specifically strengthened and adapted for low-level flying they could have called it something fun like the type 673 maybe painted it all black yeah that would have been good there can't have been however because if there was that would mean white all bureaucrats totally failed to understand the evolving nature of warfare and would have sent britain's brave fighting men to war with inferior equipment that wasn't up to the task and got them unnecessarily killed and as anyone who has watched my past videos on this channel knows well that would never happen would it all right we'll get back to today's video in just a second but first quick word from today's sponsor squarespace this is the age of creation everyone's on the internet making stuff no longer we just go in there and watching youtube videos listening to podcasts writing blogs buying things from stores people are doing this themselves all over the place it's amazing and if you've got a website you want to start be that for a blog or a store or a companion to a youtube channel whatever the easiest way by far to do it is with squarespace you don't have to know anything about tech i mean you need to know how to use a computer but really you don't need to know anything about website building or much about technology to make a website with 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corporations the golden days of near bottomless funding and endless orders brought by the onset of world war ii or in the past and avro like all other manufacturers had to fight for survival by supplying limited and much less lucrative contracts to the now very stingy british government abroad's effort was led by legendary technical director roy chadwich designer of the avro manchester and avro lancaster heavy bombers chadwich's vision was to wow the ministry of supply where the hyper-advanced aircraft has incorporated many new cutting-edge technologies and systems after all he reasoned surely a government that is reducing its inventory of bombers from the thousands to maybe a few hundred if they were feeding extravagance would want nothing but the best and they'd want maximum bang for their buck chadwich's key vision was the use of a delta wing design which is to say a wing shaped in the form of a triangle although essentially untested on aircraft the concept had a long history going as far back as the 16th century when conrad haas an austrian military engineer made use of triangular fin stabilized rockets in more recent history juan john dunn had patented the wing design in 1909 but did not go on to practically test out the design so the idea of a high performance delta wing jet certainly had promised but understandably avraha was unwilling to jump in the deep end without solid proof and extensive testing so to that end they built the avro 707 the 707 was to all intents and purposes a one-third scale flying prototype of the vulcan but development was far from smooth the first 707 vx784 crashed on the 30th of september 1949 killing test pilot squadron leader samuel eric essler the 707 itself would go through three separate iterations dubbed a b and c in the process of ironing out all of its kinks eventually in june 1951 the 707c always decided to be the winning design and all that was left was the small task of taking what they'd learned and turning it into a working prototype for the vulcan the methodic and cautious approach to testing and design was a blessing and a curse on one hand the team at abro now had a solid vision for how their radical design was going to take shape but on the other hand their progress was significantly behind their rivals the first prototype of the vickers valiant made its maiden flight on the 18th of may 1951 and granted the valiant was a simpler aircraft by design but the handley page victor wasn't exactly far behind either as it would make its maiden flight on the 24th of december 1952. avro needed to pick up the pace and they needed to do it now because god forbid the government decide they didn't need avro sexy cutting-edge design after all and they have their contract cancelled fortunately however the benefits of a well thought out and sufficiently tested proof of concept model ended up vastly outweighing the negatives of a seemingly delayed development time as when the 707c design was finalized in june 1951 many of its kinks had been ironed out and it took only 15 months for the first full-size prototype of avro's design dubbed the type 698 to make its first public appearance at the 1952 farnborough air show flying flanked by two 707s the futuristic sleek lines and curves of the type 698 captured the imagination of both the public and the government and with headlines and popular chatter filled with nothing but ore and praise for the game change and design and subsequently all of abro's fears about being usurped by a simpler and more easily produced design were firmly put to bed the abro 698 prototypes continued to wow the public at air shows for several years as engineers behind the scenes toiled tirelessly to iron out the last few kinks in the design before it headed for serial production with its distinctive howl at over 90 throttle and acrobatic displays in which it was thrown around with the agility of a fighter it isn't hard to see why the public became so enamored and i'm sure right now we're showing some impressive footage of this very thing after his farnborough appearance the future name of the abro 698 was an intense subject of speculation avro had strongly recommended the name ottawa in honor of the company's connection with avro canada aviation periodical flight suggested albion after its audience rejected avenger apollo and asigai in polling the chief of the air staff said john baker preferred a v-class of bombers and the air council announced in october 1952 that the 698 would be called vulcan after the roman god of fire and destruction after all the raf was footing the bill for the beast so they got to choose the final name by 1956 development on the balkan was complete and finally the first production model of the vulcan the vulcan b-1 began to be delivered to number 230 operational conversion unit in july 1956. in this unit the vulcan and its crew were able to become acquainted with one another before finally entering frontline combat service one year later in july 1957 with number 83 squadron out of raf waddington and what a beast of a machine the boys number 83 squadron have been given powered by four bristol civil olympus turbo jet engines the same engine which would later go on to power the tsr-2 and concorde which took it up to a top speed of 644 miles per hour furthermore it had an operational range of 2600 miles and a service ceiling of 55 000 feet the full splendor of the avro vulcan's performance however lies in something which is much harder to quantify with facts and figures it's acrobatic handling we're going to be a bit controversial now make a bold claim that the avro vulcan was the single most agile strategic bomber ever built veteran pilots of the vulcan describe its near fighter-like agility being able to barrel roll and turn with shocking sharpness like all of the v-bombers the vulcan had no active defenses but made up for it with the fearsome array of munitions it could carry in its bombay up to 21 000 pounds of conventional explosives or one of many nuclear weapons included but not limited to a 15 kiloton blue danube nuclear gravity bomb a 25 kiloton red beard nuclear gravity bomb a 400 kilo ton violet club nuclear gravity bomb a variable yield mach 5 nuclear gravity bomb and a 1.1 megaton yellow sun nuclear gravity bomb much like the vickers valiant we reviewed earlier the vulcan strictly speaking didn't meet every requirement of the design specification as the vulcan met the service ceiling and the payload requirement perfectly it destroyed the speed requirement but it fell short rather considerably on the maximum range requirement the vulcan b1s were generally beloved by both the units that received them and the government that paid for them and they proved to be an excellent upgrade to the united kingdom's strategic bomber capability and a dependable nuclear delivery system the vulcan b-1 went on to become a vital component of nato's nuclear first strike capabilities if the cold war went hot these early vulcan b ones being able to be launched rapidly from their bases in the uk would have been responsible for carrying out debilitating nuclear strikes on key soviet infrastructure and military formations in europe slowing down any soviet military advance in europe and softening the soviet heartland for a devastating retaliatory attack by usb-52s in a second wave shockingly the nuclear capability of the vulcan was very nearly put to the test many times during service history leaf through any history of the cold war and on any page you'll probably find the flash point where it could have gone hot and on that page you'll probably find vulcans on standby ready to be in the air and on route to the soviet union with two minutes notice incredible though the vulcan's capabilities were it didn't take long until avro had devised significant upgrades to the plane and from july 1960 a new even more advanced model of vulcan was being delivered to the raf this new model dubbed the vulcan b2 had significant upgrades to its engines electronic warfare suite and offensive capabilities engine upgrades came from an improved version of the vulcan's original olympus engines the olympus 6 which produced 16 000 pound-feet of thrust each for a total of sixty four thousand pound feet of thrust for every vulcan b2 the new electronic warfare suite crammed into a now extended tail section included a red steer tail warning radar a red shrimp 2.5 to three gigahertz band jammer a blue diver 250 to 500 megahertz band jammer and a blue saga radar lock warning system the b2's improved offensive capabilities came from the blue steel nuclear standoff missile a very different weapon to traditional gravity bombs the blue steel missile was designed to be launched from up to 56 000 feet and 50 miles from its target keeping the launching vulcan well out of harm's way as the missile raced at mach 3 to its target carrying its 1.1 megaton nuclear warhead these improvements would ultimately prove largely fruitless however as while british bomber technology was advancing rapidly soviet anti-aircraft technology was advancing faster the u2 incident in which an american u2 spy plane piloted by gary powers was shot down by soviet air defenses on the 1st of may 1960 just two months before the delivery of the first vulcan b-2 made it clear to the world that the type of mission for which the b-bombers were designed flying high and out of reach to avoid enemy air defenses which is no longer viable consequently in 1963 after much debate and discussion between the uk and the u.s on the nature of future nuclear strategic bombing the decision was made to retrain all the bomber crews for low-level bombing missions which were seen as more viable with the valiant having already been committed to this role prior although not what it was designed for the vulcan proved quite adept at its new role with its quick turnaround and takeoff time extreme maneuverability and strong airframe all proving most useful in the post-1960s low-level attack doctrine that had already proved to be the undoing of the biggest valiant adept it may have proven itself in its new role but the vulcan was not without challengers and usurpers who were keen to see its replacement and scrapping the key threat came from the royal navy which with its adoption of resolution-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines from 1968 each of which carried 16 polaris intercontinental ballistic missiles was now without question the preeminent nuclear arm of the british military but it would take more than some new toys from the senior service to kill the vulcan however and the six squadrons of balkans that had been modified and retrained for low-level attacks would remain in that role until 1982 because while polaris undoubtedly represented an underpant browning prospect to soviet defense planners it was decided that vulcan still had merit in providing precise tactical bombing support to nato forces in the event of a war with the ussr all good things must come to an end however and with 1982 came the year that the vulcan was finally due to be scrapped it could evolve and adapt no further the airframes were showing their age and no amount of modernization or strategic restructuring could change the fact that the vulcan was simply an obsolete aircraft left behind by the rapidly evolving nature of modern warfare that was the case until the 2nd of april 1982 when argentina invaded the falkland islands and the vulcan was given the opportunity to literally and figuratively go out with a bang as the keystone of operation black buck operations black park 1 through black box 7 were a series of 7 extremely long range ground attack missions in which avro vulcans flying from raf ascension island conducted nearly 6 600 mile bombing runs to the occupied falkland islands this was at the time the longest bombing run in history now if you know your geography you'll probably know that the span of ocean between ascension island and the falkland islands isn't exactly an area sprawling with handy airfields that one could use for refueling and if you recall the vulcan was designed for slipping across europe and dropping a cheeky nuclear weapon on the red army so its 2 600 mile range was simply not up to this kind of extreme feat of endurance to the falklands so how did the raf do it the answer was tankers lots and lots of tankers 11 to be precise in short the operation saw tankers refueling tankers in order to further refuel tankers in order to refuel a vulcan a total of eight times across the entire length of the journey really the absurd logistics of operation black buck more than warrant a video of their own and guess what we've already got it so after this video why not check that one out but for today's video the key takeaway is that this successful and supposedly impossible bombing of the falkland islands by the british helped to contribute to a collapse of argentinian morale and a reigniting of british morale and pride that likes of which hadn't been seen since the days of the second world war 40 years prior and for its part the vulcan was lauded to near mythical status by many aviation enthusiasts then and ever since now you may think that the vulcan's moment of glory may have boughted extra time further upgrades so that this pride of the raf could go on serving well into the future but well no amount of public good was going to save the vulcan quite simply his time was up operation blackbuck didn't change the fact that the airframes were old and the role they were intended for simply didn't exist anymore what's more the airframes of the falklands war were to put it bluntly scrapyard specials pastily brought back to operational readiness through the cannibalization of older airframes and the jury rigging of more modern systems even if the political will to keep them in front-line service existed the parts and infrastructure needed to do so did not and so the vulcans freshly draped in glory from the falklands war of 1982 were removed from the front line that very same year a few airframes were hastily converted for tanker duty but the long march of progress still gave no quarter for the balkan and when the lockheed tri-star vickers bc-10 and hanley-page victor tankers became available in greater numbers in 1984 the vulcan was removed from service altogether heritage duties kept the vulcan on life support for a while longer with the raf display flight retaining a few examples until 1992. shockingly this was still not the end for the balkan and on the 18th of october 2008 a restored example xh-558 took to the skies once again after a herculean effort by volunteer engineers and a gargantuan funding drive from the vulcan's many fans in both the united kingdom and overseas all good things must eventually come to an end however and seven years later in 2015 with many parts nearing the total end of their operational lifespan and the cost to keep it flying reaching stratospheric heights xh-558 the last flying balkan landed at doncaster robin hood airport from where it never left and it remains to this day barking once and for all the final end of the avro vulcan for those interested xh-558 is far from the only vulcan to survive however and many examples are around the uk if you're viewing pleasure 19 in fact so well if you want to see one google's your friend [Music] and now we get to the final v bomber something many believe to be the most beautiful aircraft ever made the hanley page victor the victor's story as with all v-bombers starts with our old friend specification b3546 just like vickers and avro hanley page was keen to secure this highly lucrative contract for themselves they had every reason to be feeling confident in their prospects too as handley page was a company with a fine pedigree for producing venerable and quality bomber aircraft in the piston-propelled days of aviation the company's extensive bomber resume included the plucky hampton medium bomber veteran of the first ever thousand bomber raid and first ever british raid on berlin the halifax strategic bomber the right arm of the free air forces of occupied europe and the hayford the last biplane heavy bomber to be operated by the royal air force the aviation world was changing quickly however the piston-propelled glory days of world war ii were a thing of the past and hanley page an old-school veteran of the industry would have to move with the times and avoid resting on its laurels if it wanted to continue to survive in the jet age hadley page heard and understood this message loud and clear and like their rivals in avro went about creating a highly advanced and groundbreaking aircraft hadley page's effort was led by head designer reginald stafford and head android dynamicist dr gustav lachmann it was decided that hanley page's bid for b3546 would be dubbed hp 80. much like avro with their vulcan the team at anthony page decided to try and secure the bid with a dizzying display of advanced technologies that would make the united kingdom's humble strategic bomber fleet the envy of the world early development many ideas were thrown around by the design team the most interesting of these were tailless aircraft designs think northrop grumman b2 spirit or the horton 229 which would have used wingtip vertical control surfaces the tailless design eventually fell out of vogue with hanley page however because as much as they wanted to push the technological envelope it was decided that such a radical design had far to greater danger of cost overruns eventually the designers and the accountants reached an accord and the now familiar crescent wing with a high mounted full tail plane design was favored instead with shape finalized development began to erase ahead at a blistering speed development was advancing so quickly in fact that in the time it took to manufacture a prototype crescent wing test bed family page designers had completely changed the wing design rendering the test bed will be useless although not as revolutionary as a flying wing the crescent wing proved to be quite the radical concept nonetheless so let's now take a more in-depth look at that wing design which to this day remains exclusive to the hanley page victor it was predicted correctly that a crescent wing shape that is to say a swept wing which has a greater sweep angle on the inboard section than on the outboard would eliminate both handling and buffing problems at high speed though crescent wing's high speed performance was so good that a victor could happily break the sound barrier in flight when manned by a suitably steel testicle crew the crescent-shaped wing also had an unintended bonus in that it gave the aircraft a primitive form of self-landing capability when lined up with a runway the aircraft would naturally flare as the wing entered into ground effect while the tail continued to sink giving a cushioned banding without any command or intervention by the pilot despite all of these apparent positives to crescent wing design the hanley page victor was the only aircraft ever to use the shape and with fair reasons the shape suffers from significantly greater induced drag compared to more conventional wings making aircraft with inefficient and very thirsty beasts at low speeds the design also has ergonomic issues as its cozy dimensions don't leave much space for fuel tanks or landing gears none of these are disastrous downsides of course like in all choices for aircraft design it's simply a trade-off a crescent wing is great for a very specific situation that situation just happens to be a rather rare one by december 1952 two hp 80 prototypes wb771 and wb775 were completed and on christmas eve 1952 wb 771 hit by hanley page's chief test pilot hedley hazelton made his maiden flight the hp 80s performed very well during testing with plenty of power from their four armstrong siddeley sapphire turbojet engines each which produced 7500 pounds of thrust test pilot john allen describing the prototypes was particularly pleased with the test flights commenting immediately it was a super piece of equipment to fly it was comfortable and she felt at home with it straight away after both hanley page and the air ministry proved both more than happy with the early flight test hb-80 was finally unveiled to the public on the 15th of july 1953 and hb8 it was given its official name the much more catchy victor its futuristic appearance and surprisingly agile displays at air shows where it performed maneuvers such as loops and barrel rolls likewise made it an immediate hit with the british public it took a few more years for all of the kinks to be ironed out to the prototypes but eventually the victor finally entered service in 1958 with 10 squadron at raf cotsmall powered by four armstrong siddeley sapphire turbo jets each capable of producing 11 000 pounds of thrust the victor certainly wasn't lacking power these mighty engines gave the victor a maximum speed of 627 miles per hour a service ceiling of 56 000 feet and a range of 5217 naw-school miles safe to say this absolutely destroyed the specifications which lest we forget called for a cruising speed of 575 miles per hour a service ceiling of 55 000 feet and a range of 3400 nautical miles like all the v-bombers the victor ditched the dizzying array of active defenses that defined its forerunners and the only weapons it carried were the ones in its bombay it could carry a healthy complement of both conventional and nuclear ordnance in the form of capacity it could carry up to 35 1 000 bombs for a total bomb load of 35 000 pounds and in the latter capacity a single 15 kiloton blue danube nuclear bomb a single 25 kiloton red beard nuclear bomb a single variable yield u.s mark v nuclear bomb and on certain models a 1.1 megaton blue steel nuclear standoff missile the initial production victors dubbed the b-1s proved satisfactory upon introduction but a number of notable variants were introduced throughout the aircraft's service life the most notable variant the victor b2 entered service in february 1962 and represented a significant upgrade over its b14 runner the armstrong civilly sapphire engine was dropped in favor of the rolls royce conway engine which upped his power to twenty thousand six hundred powerful per engine and helped these powerful engines breathe the b2 also had enlarged air intakes to increase its service ceiling the wings were extended 18 inches at the root and three feet six inches at the tip for an overall stretch of 10 feet the wings were upgraded also with coochman carrots these were anti-shock bodies bulged fairings that reduced wave drag at transonic speeds finally the b2 was also fitted to carry the 1.1 megaton blue steel nuclear standoff missile having reviewed the most interesting and pertinent models of victor produced let us follow up with a quick overview of all variants the victor b1 the original and unaltered design which we've already discussed the b1 was a pure strategic bomber aircraft of which 50 were built the victor b1a an upgraded version of the original b1 the most significant alteration being a red-steered tail warning radar and a more comprehensive electronic warfare suite a total of 24 were converted from victor b1s the victor k-1 a dedicated three-point refuelling tanker a total of 11 of these were converted from victor b1s the victor k2p a hybrid strategic bomber and two-point refuelling tanker a total of six of these were converted from the originals the victor b-2 a new and significantly upgraded purely strategic bomber which we've already discussed it featured extended wings and enlarged air intakes for increased service ceiling a total of 34 of these were built the victor k2 a dedicated three-point refueling tanker a total of 21 of these were converted from b2s and finally the victor bsr2 a strategic reconnaissance aircraft a total of nine of these were converted from b2s the hanley page victor was certainly a most formidable aircraft but in a twist of irony it would go on to be both the longest lived of the three v-bombers but also the only one to never drop a bomb in anger in a story that may sound familiar at this point it turns out that when the british government moved away from the high-altitude bombing mission of the b bombers the victor's high-altitude-oriented airframe couldn't take the punishment of low-altitude missions and soon enough stress cracks began to be found unlike the vicus valiant however whose fatigue cracks were deemed severe enough to warrant the total withdrawal of the aircraft the victor was deemed salvageable if they were converted to tankers so after being removed from frontline service in 1968 a total of 38 victors were converted into aerial tankers as tankers the victor would see action twice the first of these came in 1982 with the falklands wall which we already hinted at in our avro vulcan chapter it was victor tanker's 11 per sortie to be precise which provided the fuel for the logistical miracle that was operation black buck the second came in 1990 when saddam hussein's forces invaded kuwait much like the vulcan in the falklands war the aging victor would get one last moment of glory before its retirement during operation granby the raf's designation for gulf war operations eight victors were deployed and they performed perfectly being allocated 299 refueling sorties and achieving a 100 availability rate a figure not matched by any other raf aircraft as a fun side note it's during operation granby's deployment that the victors picked up the rather saucy nose art seen on many surviving examples receiving names and illustrations to commemorate the wives of their crew such examples including maid marion lusty lindy and victor meldru aircraft participating in operation grand me received appropriate mission markings a small fuel pump for each successful sortie and one unusual kill mark on a victor k2 a small illustration of a ford escort to commemorate such a car which was accidentally run over during a fast taxi run sadly despite their excellent performance during operation granby like the balkan before it fresh young upstarts were emerging to dethrone the victor and send it to the scrapyard the airframes were old starting to show serious signs of wear and fatigue and given the astronomical cost of refitting and upgrading the airframes it simply made no economical sense to keep them flying when newer aircraft could be bought cheaper aircraft that had greater fuel capacity and a longer-ranged boot retirement finally came on the 15th of october 1993 when the victors were replaced in their tanker role by vickers vc-10s and lockheed tri-stars the victor wasn't done just yet however two victors were kept in taxiable condition and in may of 2009 during a fast taxi run one of them decided that they wanted to fly one last time and made an unexpected takeoff during an air show fast taxi display the break for freedom only lasted 150 feet before she was placed back down on the runway well within safe distance of the end of said runway with its safe return to concrete the flying life of the victor was well and truly over and the surviving airframes were relegated to live out their lives as gate guardians and museum pieces as previously mentioned two of them remain in taxable condition and are regularly shown at air shows non-operating examples are also held by the imperial war museum duxford and the royal air force museum cosford with the latter being the only example to survive in its original bomber configuration having now looked at the vicus valiant the avro vulcan and the hanley page victor in some depth this is where our three separate stories merge and come together because while the three v bombers individually may have had very separate and distinct fates and fortunes in actuality their stories are all largely the same they were highly advanced aircraft built to carry the uk's independent nuclear arsenal to war and propel the nation's strategic bomber fleet into the future only to then be cast aside and scrapped when the changing nature of warfare in the later 20th century left them by the wayside all three v-bombers were built to fly high and fly fast way out of the reach of soviet anti-air defenses and from their introduction in the 1950s this is exactly what they did their greatest winged adversary the mig-15 would all but burn out its turbines trying to intercept any of the aircrafts and with the soviet air defenses of the period still largely consisting of cannons they were all but untouchable this however was very short-lived old-school zu-23 and 52k cannons were being mothballed and replaced with advanced ballistic missiles such as the s-25 which was combat ready in 1956. primitive world war ii vintage radars were being replaced with advanced b-200 missile targeting radars and the mig-15 gave way to the significantly faster and altogether more scary mig-21 almost as quick as they could be introduced the role in which the v-bombers had been designed for was becoming redundant as discussed during our vulcan chapter all of this was proven with devastating effect in 1960 when gary powers's high alt due due to spy plane was shot down by a soviet maid s75 davina missile the british government was far from ignorant about this encroaching obsolescence however as shown by the publishing of a white paper in 1957 which prioritized ballistic missiles as the nation's primary nuclear delivery system prioritizing missiles was all well and good but what about the brand new cutting edge and above all else expensively to v-bombers how could further utility be rendered from them the boffins at whitehall gave it some thought and calculated a new flight pan for them rather than climbing high and fast now the bombers would climb to a high level across western europe dive to almost treetop level when crossing the eastern satellite states before climbing once again on approach to their targets and if you recall from when we discussed the aircraft individually every single one of these b-bombers was allocated to this low-level bombing roll you may also remember how this turned out for them turned out badly the problem with highly advanced and incredibly specialized military equipment is that it tends not to be particularly great at roles and tasks that fall beyond the original niche that it was designed for and sure enough the v-bombers were no exception as in this case the increased turbulence and air resistance of continual low-level flight put stress and fatigue on the airframes that they were not designed to withstand the biggest valiant suffered from early fatigue cracks and was completely withdrawn from service in 1965 the henry page victor also suffered from fatigue cracks and was withdrawn from combat in 1968. the avro vulcans through pure fluke of fate and good foresight of design did have an airframe that could take the stresses and fatigue of low-level flight and it was successfully retrained in the new low-level bomber role until 1982. eventually however even this bodged and jury-rigged low-level role was all but redundant new smaller more advanced and above all else cheaper aircrafted appeared as dedicated platforms to fill the niche the surviving vulcans had been crammed into the government was simply waiting for the parts to run out and to make sure that they got their money's worth their separate jaguar single-seat supersonic attack aircraft was first procured by the raf in 1974 this advanced and comparatively light aircraft was faster more maneuverable more versatile due to its range of cannons and rocket pods and thanks to a bomb load in the tens of thousands of pounds including laser-guided munitions and the capability to carry two 450 kiloton we-177 nuclear bombs was basically just as lethal as when a vulcan went bombing similarly the raf also first procured the panavia tornado in 1980 this multi-role strike aircraft could excel in the sort of low-level penetration missions the v-bombers were forced into as oil has performed dedicated close-air support and attack other aircraft like the jaguar its capabilities represented a significant upgrade compared to the v bombers it was capable of mach 2.2 could carry just under 20 000 pounds of conventional munitions four 450 kiloton we-177 nuclear bombs and like the jaguar it could use advanced new laser-guided munitions from this quick overview of the young upstarts of the raf it's quite apparent to see how the v bombers generally and the volcan bombers more specifically were starting to look rather archaic by the close of the 1970s more it evolved and there was simply no further place for the v bombers and so with the passing of the torch to these new aircraft the v-bomber story came to an end [Music] we really have only had a cursory look at the history of the v bombers today even though this has been a long video but to anyone in the audience hungry for more don't panic fortunately the history of v-bombers has been explored thoroughly and exhaustively and many great works both popular and scholarly are available for anyone wishing to set aside a few days and really explore every inch of these fine aircraft's histories in particular we'd recommend tony blackman's victor boys vulcan boys and valiant boys in this series blackman focuses on the human side of the story and looks at the experiences of the designers the pilots and the ground crews it's often overlooked but by no means an important part of the story that really helps round off a learning experience with a complement of human faces and personalities when it otherwise may devolve into an absolute avalanche of faceless and soul estates and figures and for anyone particularly enamored with the evolving role of the united kingdom's nuclear deterrent discussed in today's video robert patterson's britain's strategic nuclear deterrence from before the v bomber to beyond trident is essential reading it's pretty pricey but touches life with niche and small volume scholarly works scholarship though is top shelf it's worth a read and thanks for watching [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

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Length: 51min 2sec (3062 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Impossible-Mix-8882]

The Victor is a personal favorite. The Vulcan is okay, I suppose. The Valiant… is a thing that exists.

[u/BeardySi]

Hard to agree when one of its stablemates was the Vulcan. That said, it had a uniquely British charm 😉

[u/North_star98]

Yes

[u/KainHighwind57]

B-2 Spirit. I love flying wings, and it has that cool Hawk design. And unlike gen 1 stealth, it isn’t all plate like.

[u/InterstellarFlyer]

That bald guy is so fucking annoying. He gets everywhere.