😱 16 Horas en el Aire: La Increíble Misión del Avro Vulcan ✈️

Video from the channel La Ciencia Oculta about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 25:59. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

The documentary traces the career of the Avro Vulcan, the British delta-wing bomber, from its conception as a Cold War nuclear delivery system to its role in the Falklands War and its later preservation. It explains how the aircraft had to adapt to increasingly effective air defences and devotes most of its runtime to Operation Black Buck.

After the Second World War, Britain sought a new generation of bombers able to carry nuclear weapons to high altitude and over long distances: the V force, made up of the Vickers Valiant, the Handley Page Victor and the Vulcan. The Vulcan prototype flew on 30 August 1952; flight testing forced changes to the wing's leading edge, and the B2 version received more powerful Bristol Olympus engines. In the early 1960s, adapted B2s carried the Blue Steel nuclear missile, launched from a distance from the target. The shooting down of a U-2 over the Soviet Union in 1960 showed that flying high no longer offered protection, and the V bombers switched to training for low-level penetration. In 1969 Britain's nuclear deterrent passed to submarines armed with Polaris missiles, and the Vulcan was left for conventional bombing.

The Falklands War broke out in April 1982. From Ascension Island, a chain of Victor tankers, which also refuelled each other, enabled a Vulcan to attack the airfield at Port Stanley. Black Buck 1 was flown on the night of 30 April to 1 May 1982: at least one bomb hit the runway, which was damaged but not put out of action. There were problems with a refuelling probe and fuel consumption higher than expected. Each mission lasted about 16 hours and covered roughly 6,000 nautical miles, over 11,000 km. Other sorties used Shrike anti-radiation missiles against radars. The Vulcan B2 had a wingspan of about 34 m, flew at around 1,000 km/h and carried five crew. It left service in 1984; the airframe XH558 flew again after restoration and made its last public display in 2015.