Avro Vulcan

Avro Vulcan

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Avro Vulcan

A Royal Air Force Vulcan B.2 in flight. Type Strategic bomber Manufacturer Avro Designed by Roy Chadwick Maiden flight 1952-08-31 Introduced 1956 Retired March 1984 Status 21 on display in museums Primary user Royal Air Force Produced 1956-1965 Number built 134

The Avro Vulcan was a British delta-wing subsonic bomber, operated by the Royal Air Force from 1953 until 1984. The Vulcan was part of the RAF's V bomber force, which fulfilled the role of nuclear deterrence against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Design and prototypes Design work began at A. V. Roe in 1947 under Roy Chadwick. The Ministry of Defence specification required a bomber with a top speed of 500 knots (930 km/h), an operating ceiling of 50,000 ft (15,000 m), a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5500 km) and a bomb load of 10,000 lb (4500 kg). Design work also began at Vickers and Handley Page, and all three designs were approved — the Valiant, the Victor, and the Vulcan. Avro began scale prototype testing in 1948 with the single-seater Type 707, and despite the crash of the first prototype on 30 September 1949 work continued. The first full-scale prototype aircraft, the Type 698, made its maiden flight (after its designer had died) on 31 August 1952. The Vulcan name was not chosen until 1953.

Operational aircraft In September 1956 the RAF received its first Vulcan B.1, XA897, which immediately went on a fly-theflag mission to New Zealand. On 1 October, while approaching London Airport to complete the tour, XA897 crashed short of the runway in bad weather conditions. The second Vulcan was not delivered until 1957, and the delivery rate picked up from then. The B.2 variant was first tested in 1957 and entered service in 1960. It had a larger wing and better performance than the B.1 and had a distinctive kink in its delta wing to reduce turbulence. In all 134 Vulcans were produced (45 B.1 and 89 B.2), the last being delivered to the RAF in January 1965. The last military-operational Vulcan squadron was disbanded in March 1984. On 14 October 1975 Vulcan B.2 XM645 of No.9 Squadron RAF Waddington lost its right undercarriage when it attempted to land at Luqa airport in Malta. The pilot decided to do a circuit to crash land on runway 24 after it was covered with fire prevention foam. As the aircraft was turning inbound for the landing, it broke up in mid-air over the village of Zabbar, killing 5 of its 7 crew members. Large pieces of the aircraft fell on the village, but with very low casualties — one woman (Vincenza Zammit, 48), who was shopping in a street was hit by an electric cable and was killed instantly, and some 20 others were injured slightly. Only the pilot and co-pilot escaped, using their ejector seats.[1]

Nuclear deterrent

Royal Air Force Avro 698 Vulcan B.1

As part of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent the Vulcan initially carried Britain's first nuclear weapon, the Blue Danube gravity bomb. Blue Danube was a low-kiloton yield fission bomb designed before the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb. The British then embarked on their own hydrogen bomb programme, and to bridge the gap until these were ready the V-bombers were equipped with an Interim Megaton Weapon based on the Blue Danube casing and Green Grass, a large purefission warhead of 400 kT yield. This bomb was known as Violet Club. Only five were deployed before a better weapon was introduced as Yellow Sun Mk.1. A later model, Yellow Sun Mk.2 was fitted with Red Snow, a British-built variant of the U.S. Mk-28 warhead, and Yellow Sun Mk.2 was the first British thermonuclear weapon to be deployed, on both the Vulcan and Victor. All three V-bombers also carried U.S. thermonuclear bombs assigned to NATO under the dual-key arrangements. Red Beard (a smaller, lighter low-kiloton yield) bomb was pre-positioned in Cyprus and Singapore for use by Vulcan and Victor bombers, and from 1962 26 Vulcan B.2As and the Victor bombers were armed with the Blue Steel missile, a rocket-powered stand-off bomb, which was also armed with the 1.1 megaton yield Red Snow warhead. When the Skybolt ALBM was cancelled and Blue Steel retired, the Vulcan bombers adopted a high-low-high mission profile using a rapidly introduced parachute-retarded laydown bomb, WE.177B. This weapon WE.177 extended the life of the Vulcan in a strategic role until the British Polaris submarines were operational. WE.177B continued in use on the Vulcan in a low-level tactical strike role in support of European NATO ground forces, and outlived the Vulcan bombers, being used also on Tornado and other low-level strike aircraft until retirement in 1998.

Conventional role

Avro Vulcan from Operation Black Buck at East Fortune, 2002, showing mission markings.

Although the primary weapon for the Vulcan was nuclear, Vulcans could carry up to 21 x 1000 lb (454 kg) bombs in a secondary role. The only combat missions involving the Vulcan took place in the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina, when a number of Vulcans flew the 3,380 nautical miles (6300 km) from Ascension Island to Stanley to bomb the occupied airfield there with conventional bombs in Operation Black Buck. By this date the number of Victor aircraft available for air-to-air refueling was extremely limited, so some Vulcan aircraft were adapted in 50 days to fulfil that role. Five Vulcans were selected for the operation: their bomb bays were modified, the fuel systems replaced and the electronics updated. The first bombing mission was on April 30–May 1, 1982 and there were five further bombing missions. At the time these missions held the record for the world's longest distance raids. While only one 1000 lb bomb hit Stanley's runway, the raid demonstrated the willingness and ability of the British to attack the Argentine defences.

Aerial refuelling role After the end of the Falklands War, the Vulcan was due to be withdrawn from RAF service. However, the disbandment of 57 Squadron and delays in the operational availability of the Tristar left a gap in the RAF's air to air refuelling capability. As an interim measure six Vulcan B.2s were converted into AAR tankers and commissioned into service with 50 Squadron from 1982 to 1984.

Restoration to flight A team of volunteers and specialists called the "Vulcan 558 Club" (Formally "Vulcan To The Sky Club") are working to return Vulcan XH558 to flight; they are hoping to have the plane ready for a test flight in early 2007. Though the website carried an announcement on 1 August 2006 that the project was in imminent danger of being abandoned due to lack of finance [2] , the target of raising the remaining £1.2m was achieved on 31 August, thanks to a high-profile publicity campaign. Time had almost run out for XH558 when Sir Jack Hayward, a British philanthropist, donated £500,000. It is now hoped that the aircraft will be ready in time for the 25th anniversary of the Falklands conflict in 2007. [3]

Trivia  

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The Vulcan was the first jet-powered bomber to use delta wings. Wing Commander Roly Falk demonstrated the aircraft's high performance in the second production Vulcan, XA890, by performing a barrel-roll immediately after takeoff at the 1955 Farnborough Air Show. A Vulcan was used as a test-bed for the Concorde engine, the RollsRoyce/Snecma Olympus and the Rolls-Royce Conway turbofan. Although the Vulcan had a crew of up to seven, only the pilot and co-pilot were provided with ejector seats. This feature of the Vulcan has been the basis of significant criticism; there were instances of the pilot and co-pilot ejecting in an emergency leaving their colleagues to face death. The navigator and electronics operator could only escape by tilting their seats and climbing out of the cockpit after the pilots had ejected. Their parachutes were opened automatically (by static line). This method of escape was practised regularly, and successfully put into action on more than one occasion, with all crew members surviving, but relied on the absence of g-forces which in other cases made it impossible. The wing tip of a Vulcan made contact with the runway during a New Zealand airshow. It landed safely, but with severe damage to one main undercarriage. There was a long delay while it was decided whether to scrap it, ship it back by sea, or repair it in situ. In the end,the aircraft was repaired by the RNZAF - who hopefully applied kiwi roundels. A display at the Ohakea branch of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum includes honeycombed skin from the damaged aircraft. Testing the brakes of the Vulcan included strapping the company photographer Paul Culerne to the front landing gear with the aircraft moving at full landing speed and photographing the brakes in operation. [4]

Specifications (Vulcan B.2)

Ventral view of Avro Vulcan B.2 (XH558)

General characteristics 

Crew: 5: Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator Plotter, Navigator Radar and Air Electronics Officer (two extra seats could be fitted for Crew Chiefs if required, for a total of 7 crew)

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Length: 99 ft 11 in (30.45 m) Wingspan: 111 ft 0 in (33.83 m) Height: 27 ft 2 in (8.28 m) Wing area: 3,965 ft² (368.4 m²) Empty weight: 80,000 lb (36 000 kg) Loaded weight: 199,585 lb (90 530 kg) Useful load: 21,000 lb (9550 kg) Max takeoff weight: 204,000 lb (92 500 kg) Powerplant: 4× Bristol-Siddeley Olympus 301 turbojets, 20,000 lbf (89 kN) each

Performance      

Maximum speed: 560 knots (645 mph, 1040 km/h) Cruise speed: 540 knots (625 mph, 1005 km/h) Range: 2,000 nm (2,300 mi, 3700 km) Service ceiling: 62,300 ft (19 000 m) Wing loading: 50 lb/ft² (246 kg/m²) Thrust/weight: 0.88

Armament 

Missiles:

1× Blue Steel stand-off missile armed with a thermonuclear warhead 2× AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles  Bombs: o o

o o

1× Yellow Sun Mk.2 nuclear bomb armed with a thermonuclear warhead or 21× 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs

In popular culture 

The Vulcan bomber was featured in the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball. Agents of SPECTRE hijacked a Vulcan bomber in order to use its two nuclear bombs for a ransom plot against the US and Britain.