Avro Vulcan: The United Kingdom's Nuclear Bomber!

Video from the channel War Machine about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 20:13. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary in Portuguese about the history of the Avro Vulcan, Britain's delta-wing strategic nuclear bomber. It runs from its conception after the Second World War to its retirement and later return to air displays.

In 1947 the British government launched both a programme for its own nuclear weapons and one for jet bombers to deliver them. Of the six proposals submitted, the RAF ordered two prototypes of Handley Page's HP 80 in November 1947 and two of the Avro 698 in January 1948. Vickers joined later with the Type 660. These produced the Victor, the Vulcan and the Valiant, the V bombers. To study the delta wing, Avro built the scaled-down 707 and 707A aircraft. Wind-tunnel data arrived late, so wing corrections had to be applied afterwards to aircraft already built. The first prototype flew on 30 August 1952 with four Rolls-Royce Avon engines. The production B1 flew in February 1955 and entered service in 1956.

Returning from a demonstration flight to Australia and New Zealand, a Vulcan crashed on approach to London. Only the two pilots survived, the only crew with ejection seats. The advance of Soviet surface-to-air missiles led to the B1A and the larger, reinforced B2, built for low-level flight and armed with the Blue Steel missile until 1970. From 1967 the Resolution-class submarines, carrying Polaris missiles, took over the main deterrent role. In 1982, during the Falklands War, the Vulcan attacked from Ascension Island in Operation Black Buck: of seven planned sorties, five carried out an attack and no aircraft was lost. Returning from Black Buck 6 on 3 June 1982, the refuelling probe broke and the aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Galeão (Rio de Janeiro), escorted by two Brazilian F-5s. It was retired in 1984. One restored example flew on the display circuit between 2008 and 2015.

The B1 was 29.6 m long with a 30.3 m wingspan and weighed 38 t empty and 77 t at take-off. The B2 reached 32.2 m in length, 33.8 m in wingspan and 93 t at take-off. The bomb bay held 21 conventional bombs or one nuclear bomb. In 1973 nine B2s were converted into B2 MRR maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and in 1982 six became K2 tankers. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the fleet was on maximum alert.