AVRO VULCAN: THE NUCLEAR BOMBER THAT SAVED THE WORLD WITHOUT FIRING

Video from the channel Batallas en los Cielos about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 46:30. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

The documentary presents the Avro Vulcan as a piece of Britain's nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. It covers its origins, the life of its crews on alert, the sound of its engines, its role in the Falklands War and the return to flight of the airframe XH558.

In the late 1940s Britain wanted its own bomber capable of carrying a nuclear weapon: the United States had the B-52 and the Soviet Union the Tu-95. In 1947 the Air Ministry issued specification OR 229, calling for a strategic bomber with high altitude, speed and range. Avro proposed an almost pure delta wing, designed to fly at close to 15,000 m. The first prototype, VX770, flew in August 1952. One of the early prototypes crashed during a public display, killing its entire crew. The aircraft entered service in the late 1950s as part of the V force, alongside the Valiant and the Victor. As Soviet surface-to-air missiles improved, crews switched to training for flights at 200 to 300 feet at around 800 km/h.

The crew numbered five: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, radar operator and systems officer. Squadrons trained to take off in under four minutes and were on maximum alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Its four Bristol Olympus engines produced over 80,000 pounds of thrust combined and a distinctive howl. In 1982, during the Falklands War, Operation Black Buck set out from Ascension Island with more than twenty aircraft, mostly Victor tankers. The first mission took off on 30 April 1982: Vulcan XM607 flew for more than 15 hours, dropped 21 bombs on the Port Stanley runway, one of which landed in the middle of the runway. Other missions used anti-radiation missiles. Restored by a group of engineers, veterans and enthusiasts, XH558 flew again in 2007 and made its last display tour in 2015.