Avro vulcan : 1er bombardier à aile delta

Video from the channel Documentaire Aviation about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 56:16. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

French-language documentary about the Avro Vulcan, the first delta-wing bomber, from its conception to its retirement. It combines footage from Avro's development and test programmes with accounts from those who worked on it and a narration covering its entire operational life in the Royal Air Force.

After the Second World War, the United Kingdom decided to acquire its own nuclear weapons and needed an aircraft able to carry them higher, faster and farther. In January 1947 the specifications for a new bomber were sent to Avro. Engineers ruled out a conventional swept-wing aircraft because of wing weight and chose the triangular layout, which offered structural rigidity, internal space for engines, fuel and undercarriage, and low wing loading. Since little was known about the delta wing, two one-third-scale experimental aircraft were built: the 707B for low speed and the 707A for high speed. The Vulcan formed, together with the Victor and the Valiant, the V-force, the backbone of British nuclear deterrence during the Cold War until the arrival of Polaris missiles.

The first prototype flew on 30 August 1952 with Roly Falk at the controls, after four and a half years of work, and a few days later was displayed at the Farnborough air show. The documentary shows the test rigs for controls, undercarriage and hydraulics, the pressurised cabin tested submerged in water, the controlled shattering of the windscreens, the honeycomb panels and the bomb-loading system from the ground. The aircraft entered service in May 1956; it was followed by the B.2, with more powerful Olympus engines, which carried the Blue Steel missile and tested the American Skybolt: the first of eight inert missiles arrived from Douglas on 17 April 1961, and the first flight with two of them took place on 29 September. Faced with the advance of anti-aircraft defences, the fleet switched to low-level flight and camouflage. A Vulcan of No. 617 Squadron flew between Goose Bay and Scampton in 3 h 46 min, averaging 1,050 km/h. It also served as an engine test bed, with over 400 hours of testing the Concorde's Olympus 593. On 1 May 1982, from Ascension Island, a Vulcan dropped 21 1,000-pound bombs on the runway at Port Stanley in Operation Black Buck; on another mission, an aircraft with a broken refuelling probe had to divert to Rio de Janeiro. The last squadron, No. 50, disbanded in early 1984, and one example went on flying in air displays until 1992.