The Vulcan Bomber: Cold War British Glass Maker
We give you probably the coolest British Cold War bomber we can think of, the Hawker Siddeley (Avro) Vulcan. First flown 30 August 1952, these hardy but lumbering Buddhas of the air served with honor until they were retired in 1982. Built to a 1947 requirement to fly one ‘10,000 lb (4,500 kg) bomb to a target 1,500 nautical miles away’ the Vulk had to be huge. I mean we are talking five tons of nuke here (they made them big back then). This led to a craft that had to be powered by four huge Rolls-Royce Olympus axial-flow turbojet engines. With a 97-foot length and 99-foot wingspan you needed those four huge turbojet engines to get skyward.
Over the years the Vulcan carried various Brit nukes including the Red Beard, Yellow Sun, Green Grass and Blue Danube types of gravity bombs. (On a side note, you have to love the swagger on those bomb names. We have the Mk82, the Brits will drop a “Red Beard” on you. That just goes to show who has been doing this warfare thing longer…).
This is what made the Vulk such a badass. Its the British Blue Danube Mk.1 Atom Bomb. It gave an estimated yield of 10-12 KT but suffered from unreliable lead-acid accumulators to supply power to its internals…plus it weighed as much as five VW Super Beetles.
Anyway, this group of nuke carriers was the UKs primary airborne strategic deterrent through most of the dark days of the Cold War. To keep them survivable, in a crisis it was intended to scatter four aircraft at short notice to each of 26 pre-prepared dispersal airfields around the United Kingdom.
Just 136 of these huge beasts were made, and all flown exclusively by the RAF. Australia wanted some of their own but went instead with the US F-111 and by chance remained the last operator of these swing-wing bombers. By funny coincidence, Argentina approached the UK with a proposal to buy a number of Vulcans in 1981. This was downright hilarious in 1982 when a force of Vulcans put the airfield at Port Stanley, then in Argentine-held East Falkland Island, out of commission with conventional ordnance in 1982.
It was the only combat service for these giants and the Argentinians are luckier for that.
To stand next to the runway and watch, hear and feel a Vulcan squadron scramble was an unforgettable experience. I saw the last RAF Vulcan stunting – yes, stunting – over the Biggin Hill Airshow. She was the Bat out of Hell. As manoeuvrable as a fighter at low altitude, apparently, but I hope they had a lot of power assistance to the controls. And what about the joint exercise where one or more Vulcans penetrated US Airspace undetected?.