A friend of mine,(Dave Webster),in the Triumph Sports Six Club was a 'Top-Gun'
RAF pilot flying amongst other things Avro Vulcan's, until they were taken out
of service in the late 1980's. He must have been a pretty special pilot, as he
was also in the Red Arrows display team,(Gnats,then Hawks),last I heard he was
training pilots.
He has a Signal Red Mk.2 Vitesse Convertible and a Signal Red GT6-2
(GT6+),both stunning.
I recall that he told me how the RAF Vulcan team always managed to beat the
USAF B-52 team in bombing competitions, usually held in the USA.
Anyhow, the recent mention of the Avro 698 Vulcan B.Mk.2 on this (Triumph)
list reminded me just what a fabulous machine it really was.
(You just had to be at RAF Biggin Hill and see the 'giant moth' powering
through seemingly impossible manoeuvres, like looping-the-loop, breathtaking!)
So I consulted a few books and have discovered that:
The Vulcan was first flown as long ago as 1955, just after the wonderful range
of TR sportscars began. The air-intake on the TR2 was apparently designed to
resemble that on the Comet Airliner, and IMHO it also resembles that on the
Vulcan somewhat.
It says here, that early Vulcan's were painted stunning pure white to reflect
nuclear 'flash' from the Blue Danube Hydrogen Bomb, or the Blue Steel nuclear
cruise missile fired at targets up to 220 miles away.
The four Bristol-Olympus (RR) Turbo-Jet engines produced as much power as 18
railway locomotives, ie: 2,000 pounds force, or 88.97 kilo Newtons of Thrust
each of the four engines! Vulcan pilots had ejector seats,but the other 3 crew
had to bail out through hatches! The pilot sat 45 feet up and had to use a
periscope to steer on the ground.
Even right at the end of it's career, the Vulcan could outmanoeuvre F-15's in
high-altitude (40,000 feet) mock dogfights!
In 1982, Vulcan's flew 8,000 miles to bomb the Falkland Islands with a nine-
ton payload of 1,000 lb bombs, at the time the longest straight-line combat
missions in history.
(Those Argentinian conscripts must have be scared witless to see those
monsters homing in on them!). The maximum speed was 650 mph at 20,000 feet,
with an operating ceiling of 65,600 feet, c/w the B-52's max of 635 mph, and
it's ceiling of 55,000 ft.
The Vulcan's (Delta) wing span was 111 feet, Length 100 feet, Height 27.2 feet
and Wing Area of 4,000 square feet. The Maximum take-off weight was 200,000 lb
thanks for bearing with me, just thought it was interesting.
Live Long and Prosper
Leon
|