Britain's most famous V bomber
1,351,788
Published 2021-04-28
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-- Video contents --
00:00 Intro
00:37 The birth of the Vulcan and the V bombers
02:07 In the cockpit
05:47 Hear from a pilot
06:18 Ejecting from a Vulcan
07:57 Engines, wing design and bomb capacity
11:38 History of Duxford's Vulcan and the Falklands Campaign, inc refueling
13:29 Conclusion
Credits:
Vulcan taking off at Duxford, cockpit footage © Vulcan to the Sky
Watch the full cockpit view take off at Duxford by Vulcan to the Sky: • Duxford Airshow 2014 Take Off
Horten Ho 229 flying image: "Aircraft - Vue en vol de l'avion expérimental Horten Ho-IX (Gotha Go 229, Ho 229 ou Ho 2-29)" by ww2gallery, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
All Comments (21)
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It’s hard to believe that there’s only 10 years between the first flight of the Lancaster and the Vulcan.
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The four most memorable aircraft events in my life: 1. 1st flight in anything ever, was as a cadet in the RAAF ATC, in an RAAF DC3. 2. Seeing an Avro Vulcan cook a tunnel in the clouds, as it flew in low over the airfield then just went straight up and out of sight. Un-be-bloody-lievable! 3. Low flyover of a Spitfire at an airshow in Norway 4. Harrier, doing it's stuff, then stopping and hovering perhaps 40ft above the ground, barely 50m away, facing me dead on, and tips his nose, taking a bow. That's all folks. I'm satisfied. 😀
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I first saw this plane in the James Bond movie, “Thunderball” in 1965 when I was a kid. Since that first viewing, I became fascinated with it to this day. A very cool and unique aircraft.
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My great grandfather was an air electrics officer in this plane. Sadly, he passed roughly a year before I was born. I am twelve now and the plane is so significant to me. My great grandfather was actually on TV for a meeting with the rest of his crew. I saw it recently and I really wish I could've met him. 😔
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The Vulcan was so effective. 1974, I’m walking down Whitburn High street and it’s dark. A V wing comes over us about 100 to 250 feet above the road, it’s engine roar is unmistakeable. It’s only light is it’s flashing anti collision light on the underside. Impressive. With its 360 radar, it was flying night low-level before Terrain Following radar was invented. That night ended up with a UFO Society wanting to send an investigator to our town. He was very disappointed when I told him it was, unmistakeably, a Vulcan bomber.
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In 1979, as a U.S. tourist, I was standing outside the St. Andrews clubhouse when a Vulcan bomber flew over at a fairly low altitude -- probably 500 feet or less. I was shocked at how large and extremely loud the aircraft was(he only made one pass and headed out to sea.) The green camouflage gave it a surreal appearance I'll never forget.
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Getting through America's stepped up, cold war, defenses, ... twice. It's a good system
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As a former American Airman (USAF) I truly appreciate and admire all that the RAF has done and the aircraft that they flew, especially the Avro Vulcan. What an amazing and beautiful aircraft is it!
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Took my wife and her sister to an airshow at the Airforce base (at the time) in Fort Worth, Texas. We took a picnic lunch and set up under a shade tree when one of these Vulcan bombers took off. Have to admit, quite a thundering sound as full throttles were fed in. Kinda shook the ground too, as I recall. My SIL made some comment about it causing “the big O”… took a second or two for that meaning to register with me. So yeah, you Brits had an impressive aircraft as far as my SIL was concerned! 😉😂
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The Vulcan had something very few aircrafts possess: charisma. Many planes are bigger. Many planes are faster. But very few have such an impact on you when you see them
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I remember my Dad taking me to an air show and the THUNDER through the ground from the Vulcan was really quite terrifying! Fabulous!
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Fifty years ago I was stationed at SAC Hq in Omaha. There was an RAF detachment assigned to the Underground Command Post. Vulcans flew into Offutt AFB on a regular basis. They sure looked a lot sexier than the RC-135s we had. Today, there is a Vulcan on display at the SAC Museum located just outside of Omaha.
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Whenever I am in the United Kingdom and have the time, I go to Duxford. It is such an amazing collection and military museum. I am delighted they are sharing so much material online.
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I remember walking my dog in the fields by my old house a few years back and spotting a bizarre outline on the horizon coming in low level directly at me and thinking to myself that can't be what I think it is surely... I didn't think at the time any were still airworthy but sure enough, a Vulcan flying low level screamed right over my head. It was an incredible sight, to think if I'd taken my dog out just 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later I would have missed it. Turns out it was the final flight tour, they must have been on their way to St Athens. Beautiful sight!
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A few Vulcans were stationed at Offutt AFB Omaha in the late 70s, impressive aircraft among the RC-135s, EC-135s, B-52s & AWACs stationed there at the time... I was an RC-135 airborne recon tech.... but the strongest memory retained is of a British airman who must've been part of this outpost assignment at Offutt, on one spring day, alone, in full Kilt playing the pipes on a distant taxiway at the southern end of the main runways. I wish I had gone up to him & introduced myself. Love the pipes.
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These aircraft documentaries are fabulous!! Archive footage, cockpit talk-through, history and anecdotes from crew. Brilliant. MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!
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Absolutely beautiful plane, and I’m proud to say my grandfather was an electronic engineer on them who helped develop the landing software
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I went to an airshow at Boscombe Down, must have been 1987 or thereabouts, and the thing I still remember from that was the Vulcan. The noise was not merely loud, it was physical - I could feel my ribs being shaken, and the (then fairly new) car alarms were going off all over. It might be nice to see one in a museum, but it's a poor substitute for witnessing one fly - I went to see the spitfires and lancaster fly, but, more than three decades later, the Vulcan is the thing that I remember the most clearly because it literally shook me to the core.
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I had the immense pleasure of seeing a Vulcan fly over at low altitude during an air show in Canada in the late 1970s. It was a cloudy, rainy day. It was the closest I'll ever get to a rocket launch, the power of the engines was so great.
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When my dad's regiment returned from BAOR to the UK in mid 70's, we flew VC10 to RAF Scampton, arriving late at night, and I remember well the silhouettes of Vulcans as we walked from our aircraft