Where were the elevators on the Vulcan B.1, given it had no horizontal stabiliser?

The Vulcan was a delta with no horizontal stabiliser. The only tail surface was a large vertical fin with a single rudder on its trailing edge. Pitch and roll control therefore had to come from the wing, which on a delta has a long trailing edge set well back from the centre of gravity, allowing it to act as if it were a tail.

On the Vulcan B.1, the wing's trailing edge carried four elevators on the inner section and four ailerons on the outer section, all power-assisted. The elevators controlled pitch and the ailerons controlled roll, as on any aircraft, even though they were mounted on the same edge of the wing. The aircraft also carried six electric air brakes with three settings: retracted, medium drag, and high drag.

The Vulcan B.2 simplified that arrangement: it replaced the four elevators and four ailerons with eight elevons, surfaces that combine both functions, moving together to pitch or in opposite directions to roll. This was one of the changes brought by the larger, thinner phase 2C wing, with which the second prototype VX777 flew in August 1957.

The B.1's elevators also played a safety role: an automatic Mach trimmer applied up-elevator when speed increased excessively, to counter the aircraft's tendency to pitch into a dive.

The aircraft originated from Air Ministry specification B.35/46.