You’ve got to love the Vulcan.

[Vladd67]

When Britain nuked the US

 

[Foxbat]

There’s a Vulcan at the Scottish Museum of Flight about six miles from where I live. This particular plane was used in the Falklands. It’s an awesome beast and even more impressive up close and personal.

P.S. for anybody visiting East Lothian, the museum is well worth a visit. Along with the Vulcan, it has (amongst many others) a Spitfire, Lightning, Harrier, Tornado, Jaguar, Buccaneer, MiG 15, Concorde, Dragon Rapide and even has a Me163.

 

[Vladd67]

A few years back I was driving past an airfield in Oxfordshire when I saw the last Vulcan take off for one of its last flights. To see a plane of that size take off ike it did was amazing, no wonder the Vulcan was called the bomber that thought it was a fighter.

 

[.matthew.]

Interestingly it was designed by the same man who did the Lancaster, despite him dying 9 years before it entered service.

 

[CupofJoe]

I don't think you can forget seeing, hearing, feeling a Vulcan if you have been near one. And you don't have to be that close!
One of my childhood memories and sensations is of being at an air show when a Vulcan took off. It rumbled down the runway, got the the end and pointed skywards... I can still feel the pounding my chest took as it took off.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I've stood under the bomb doors of this aircraft and it truly is a sight to behold. When you consider what kind of payload this aircraft was designed to deliver, it's truly frightening to think that such destruction could come from such a beautifully designed aircraft.

Luckily in the same museum (near London), among the many other aircraft they had on display were the Lancaster and US Flying Fortress, another two amazing aircraft. I've seen the Battle of Britain fly-by with a Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane, which was also something. But I think the most memorable aircraft that I've seen in flight was an Electric Lighting, and the way that the aircraft could ascend almost vertically like a space rocket. Unbelievable power and speed.

 

[Foxbat]

The English Electric Lightning did what was considered impossible at the time in 1962. It successfully intercepted a U2 during exercises. It’s ceiling was classified but turned out to be in excess of 65000 feet. What a plane!

I think my favourite designs from that period included (of course) the Vulcan, Lightning and Buccaneer. But the MiG 25 (codename Foxbat ) was my ultimate favourite. It looked like it had been designed by Gerry Anderson

 

[Vladd67]

Would loved to have seen the American pilot's face when the Lightning intercepted him.

 

[Dave]

The English Electric Lightning did what was considered impossible at the time in 1962. It successfully intercepted a U2 during exercises.

I have a memory of a number of science fiction stories about future space pilots visiting low tech societies and running rings around their aircraft. I can't think of the name of any of the stories now. On TV, the Star Trek episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" has the Enterprise go back in time and capture a 1960's pilot. I think Battlestar Galactica 1980 had Viper pilots intercepting Top Gun pilots too. I'm thinking now that all of these were probably inspired by that real incident with the U2?

 

[HareBrain]

Has anyone else read "Empire of the Clouds" by James Hamilton-Paterson? A very readable account of the technical brilliance and managerial/government incompetence of the postwar UK aircraft industry.

 

[Ursa major]

I can still feel the pounding my chest took as it took off.

It'll be those Olympus engines.

I've never been anywhere near a Vulcan, but I have been in a car on the M25 as a Concorde (using a much later version of the Olympus) took off directly above us. The car was shaking.

 

[Foxbat]

It'll be those Olympus engines.

I've never been anywhere near a Vulcan, but I have been in a car on the M25 as a Concorde (using a much later version of the Olympus) took off directly above us. The car was shaking.

I’m the opposite. I’ve been under and around a Vulcan and inside Concorde but I’ve never heard those mighty Olympus engines roar.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Has anyone else read "Empire of the Clouds" by James Hamilton-Paterson? A very readable account of the technical brilliance and managerial/government incompetence of the postwar UK aircraft industry.

It doesn't surprise me. There were loads of aircraft manufactures making loads of military; bigger, better, badder, faster. And with as much time spent on the aesthetics as the performance, and also with some great names (one of my favourites is the de Havilland Vampire). Now we pretty much have just 1 new aircraft every 10-15 years or so.

 

[Foxbat]

It doesn't surprise me. There were loads of aircraft manufactures making loads of military; bigger, better, badder, faster. And with as much time spent on the aesthetics as the performance, and also with some great names (one of my favourites is the de Havilland Vampire). Now we pretty much have just 1 new aircraft every 10-15 years or so.

A point that might interest you. The variant, Sea Vampire was the first jet ever to take off from an aircraft carrier. It was piloted by Eric ‘winkle’ Brown. He was a Scot who flew 487 types of aircraft (more than any other pilot in history). He was also responsible for delivering the Me 163 to the local museum. He was born in Edinburgh so I regard him as the Sean Connery of aviation
He had quite a life

Eric Brown (pilot) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

P.S. as far as aesthetics go, it’s hard to find a more beautiful plane than the de Havilland Dragon Rapide in my book.

de Havilland Dragon Rapide - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hitmouse]

A Vulcan flew low over my garden on one of the final flights. I agree: the sound was immense.

 

[BigBadBob141]

The De Havilland Dragon Rapide is one of my favorite all time aircraft!

 

[Ursa major]

This thread is missing something! It may be:

 

[HareBrain]

Do they have it in yellow?

BTW, IIRC, the camouflage paint-job came after the Vulcan was relegated to a low-altitude strike role after Soviet missiles improved.

 

[Ursa major]

One wonders if, far in the future, when someone comes along and finds a picture of the Vulcan, they will think: That cockpit is tiny! They must have had to use very small pilots to fly that fighter jet.

 

[BigBadBob141]

REF: Foxbat.
The dreaded Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, a fighter plane designed by a committee, just like a camel is a horse designed by one, it was a beautiful little plane but deadly to both it's foes and it's pilots.
Germany's very desperate answer to combat the American daylight bombers, the world's first rocket powered fighter, it worked but with most things at that time in the war for the Germans it was too little too late, thank goodness!
This thing would take off going like the clappers and it would very rapidly gain hight, it's fuel was quickly used up so it then became a very fast glider, it would then dive down on the bombers like a bat out of hell, it was armed with two 30mm cannon so it only needed just a few hits with its explosive shells to take down a B17 Flying Fortress or a B24 Liberator, then it would glide back to base.
Very dangerous plane, not sure how easy it was to fly, but probably had more pilots killed in accidents then died in combat as it was a very difficult target to shoot down, very fast and small compared to other fighters, but if the fuel tanks weren't completely empty on landing it had a tendency to blow up when it touched down.
The two liquids used, fuel and oxidizer, were so volatile the two different tankers that carried them were not allowed within a mile of each other.
Don't know if it's true but I heard a story a long time ago, in a take off accident a Comet ended up laying on its back, the cockpit was flooded with either fuel or oxidizer with the poor pilot still strapped in, by the time the rescue crew smashed their way in he was completely dissolved, what a way to go, it's like something out of a Hammer horror film!
The Japanese also had a rocket plane, but it was meant as a one way suicide bomber, the ultimate kamikaze with an explosive packed nose it was a flying bomb, launched from under a large bomber and aimed at battle ships or aircraft carriers, the pilot obviously had no parachute and anyway the canopy was bolted on from the outside, so no escape no matter what happened!
P.S. Of all the three V bomber the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant, the Vulcan is by far my favorite!