Vulcan Bomber - United Kingdom Nuclear Bomber

Video from the channel History Documentary about Avro Vulcan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 45:39. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

British documentary about the Avro Vulcan that alternates its operational history, told by former crew members and by writer and former RAF pilot Frederick Forsyth, with the restoration of XH558 at Bruntingthorpe to return it to flight.

Journalist Peter March recalls the Vulcan's debut at the Farnborough air show in September 1952. It was flown by Roly Falk, who even rolled it in public. The RAF had asked for a bomber able to operate from anywhere and strike targets 1,700 miles away. The first production version, the B.1, flew in early 1955, and the B.2 stood out for its greater wingspan. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the Vulcans were part of the nuclear response. Electronics officer Mike Pearson describes the alerts: four armed aircraft at the runway threshold, crews dressed in full kit for 24 hours and takeoffs in one minute and 40 seconds. After the shooting down of Gary Powers' U-2 in 1960, tactics shifted to low-level attack below 250 feet, and in the 1970s some aircraft carried out maritime reconnaissance with 27 Squadron. The fleet's rundown began with the disbandment of 230 OCU at Scampton on 31 August 1981. After the Argentine invasion of 2 April 1982, the withdrawal was suspended and crews trained in conventional bombing and air-to-air refuelling, with probes whose dried-out seals leaked fuel. The Black Buck missions flew out of Wideawake airfield on Ascension against Port Stanley's runway: some 8,000 miles round trip, with five refuellings from Victor tankers on the way out. The first strike was on 1 May 1982, and the seventh and last on 11 and 12 June. The damage was minor, but no Argentine fighter ever landed at Port Stanley.

David Walton, owner of Bruntingthorpe, bid £25,000 for XH558 and in 1993 bought all the available spares, manuals and documentation. In 1997 a team led by Robert Pleming proposed returning it to flight. The Vulcan Operating Company followed the RAF's maintenance programme with an extended inspection and modern non-destructive techniques, and fitted engines overhauled by Rolls-Royce in 1982 and purchased in 1995. The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed about £2.7 million and the support club's members around £2.8 million. In July 2006 a cash-flow crisis nearly closed the project down. In under four weeks £1.2 million was raised, £500,000 of it from Jack Hayward and £700,000 from members, in time for the roll-out on 31 August. The documentary ends with a visit from Baroness Thatcher, taxi trials and the clearance for XH558 to take off.