The Delta Legend That Defined the RAF: Avro Vulcan Howl That Shook Cold War

Video from the channel JE Documentary about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 27:56. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

English-language documentary about the Avro Vulcan that opens with the first Black Buck mission and covers the aircraft's development, its delta wing, the cockpit and systems, the engines, the armament and its operational life up to XH558's final flights.

On the night of 30 April 1982, Martin Withers' Vulcan XM607 took off from Ascension Island to attack Port Stanley airfield in Operation Black Buck. It covered 3,889 miles with seven in-flight refuellings, and one bomb hit the runway. Argentina surrendered on 14 June 1982.

The aircraft's origin lies in Specification B.35/46, which called for a medium bomber able to carry a 10,000-pound bomb 1,500 nautical miles, at 500 knots and between 35,000 and 50,000 feet. Roy Chadwick and Stuart Davies designed the Avro Type 698. Chadwick died in August 1947 in the crash of the prototype Tudor 2, and Davies took over leadership. Avro tested the delta wing with the one-third-scale 707s; the first flew on 4 September 1949. The prototype took off in August 1952 from Woodford, flown by Roly Falk, was displayed at Farnborough and received the name Vulcan that October. The first production B.1 flew on 4 February 1955.

The tailless delta wing responded to weight limits: it reduced drag in the transonic regime and housed fuel. Vibrations found on the early flights were resolved with an extended, drooped leading edge, the phase 2 wing, tested on the 707A. It flew with a crew of five: the pilots in Martin-Baker ejection seats and three specialists facing rearward, who had to escape through a hatch. The equipment included the H2S Mk 9 radar, a navigation and bombing computer, Gee, TACAN and the Green Satin Doppler, later replaced by the Decca Doppler 72. The first prototype flew with Avon RA.3 engines and later came the Olympus. Fuel was carried in 14 tanks. The characteristic howl was produced at the air intakes. In armament it carried the Blue Danube, 21 1,000-pound bombs and the Blue Steel missile.

In 1963 the V-force switched to low-level attack and changed its anti-flash white finish to green camouflage. Nine Vulcans were converted into maritime reconnaissance aircraft for No. 27 Squadron at Brize Norton between 1973 and 1982, and six into tankers after the Falklands War. No. 50 Squadron retired them on 31 March 1984 at Waddington. XH558 flew again on 18 October 2007, was the only airworthy Vulcan between 2008 and 2015, and made its final flight from Doncaster Sheffield on 28 October 2015.