Avro Vulcan Tour at Midland Air Museum

The Vulcan was built by Woodford-based manufacturer Avro and was developed in response to the British government’s requirement to build long-range jet aircraft that were capable of carrying nuclear weapons, as part of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent. This led to the famous V Bombers, the first of which was the Vickers Valiant which first flew in 1951. Next on the scene was the Avro Vulcan which first flew in 1952, followed by the Handley Page Victor which first flew 4 months later. Short Brothers and Harland of Belfast also built 2 prototypes to compete with the tender and built the Short Sperrin, which was a four engine jet powered bomber that first flew in 1951. If you get a chance, have a Google on the Sperrin as it’s quite an interesting-looking aircraft. Instead of the engines being incorporated into the wing like with the Vulcan or below the wing like a Boeing 737, its engines were mounted on top of each other, protruding both above and below the aircraft’s wing.

Given the large size of the Vulcan, the interior is actually quite small and there’s only a gap of 19cm that separates pilot from copilot. Given the need to protect the crew from a nuclear flash following the detonation of an atomic bomb, there aren’t very many windows inside and the ones that are there, are quite small.

The pilot and co-pilot were furnished with an ejection seat, however the crew in the back had to escape by parachute down the hatch you saw me climb-up. Apparently they could encounter difficulties bailing out if the landing gear was down, so they were told to try and grab one of the hatch struts on the way down, to try and prevent them from hitting the nose gear.

What I find fascinating about the Vulcan is how ahead of its time it was. Just consider, the Vulcan first flew just 10 years after the first flight of the Lancaster and just 36 years after the first flight of the World War One biplane bomber, the Handley Page Heyford. Just think – 36 years ago for us was when Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up and George Michael’s Faith were released. It really is a huge technological leap for such a short time-period!

The Vulcan was famous for taking part in the 1982 Operation Black Buck, which involved Vulcans attacking Argentinian positions on the Falklands Islands, during the Falklands Conflict. This involved flying the Vulcan for 6,000 nautical miles and 16 hours from the Ascension Islands in the Atlantic, which involved refuelling the aircraft several times mid-flight from escorting Handley Page Victor tankers.