Post by shred on May 19, 2013 18:45:20 GMT -5
In 1946 the British Government issued specification B35/46 calling for an advanced jet bomber capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.
Vickers design, the Valiant was initially rejected due to it's simpler design, however Vickers promised they could deliver their prototype by 1951 and production aircraft in service by 1953, they kept their promise and beat Short Brother's fallback option the Sperrin into the air.
Production Valiants entered active service with the RAF in 1955 and retired from RAF service in 1965 after metal fatigue problems were discovered in the wing spars. When in service they could do 567mph and climb to 30,000ft.
Due to the fatigue issues no Valiant will ever fly again.The only survivors are static museum exhibits.
Handley Page Victors were a much more advanced aircraft and out of the three the Victors looked the most fearsome, these first flew in 1952 entered service in 1958 and continued in service until 1993. Many were converted into tankers.
No Victors are currently registered as airworthy by the Civil Aviation Authority, but some still do fast taxis.
This one accidentally took off during a fast taxi:
The Victor could climb to 54,000ft. It's maximum speed was 647mph though on the 1st of June 1956 one of these aircraft accidentally broke the sound barrier when it's nose was allowed to drop slightly on a test flight, test pilot Johnny Allam noticed a cockpit airspeed indication of Mach 1.1 ground observers reported hearing a sonic boom.
A Victor could carry 35 1000lb bombs, a fleet of Victor Tankers were required for Operation Black Buck to refuel the lone Vulcan whose job was to attack Port Stanley airfield, some of these tankers had to refuel tankers to refuel the Vulcan on it's journey.
In comparison the Avro Vulcan could climb to a ceiling of 55,000ft and has a maximum speed of 645mph, the C.A.A. imposes a limit to the speed that G-VLCN (aka XH558) can do to. If memory serves, XH558 is not permitted to fly faster than 300mph.
Vickers design, the Valiant was initially rejected due to it's simpler design, however Vickers promised they could deliver their prototype by 1951 and production aircraft in service by 1953, they kept their promise and beat Short Brother's fallback option the Sperrin into the air.
Production Valiants entered active service with the RAF in 1955 and retired from RAF service in 1965 after metal fatigue problems were discovered in the wing spars. When in service they could do 567mph and climb to 30,000ft.
Due to the fatigue issues no Valiant will ever fly again.The only survivors are static museum exhibits.
Handley Page Victors were a much more advanced aircraft and out of the three the Victors looked the most fearsome, these first flew in 1952 entered service in 1958 and continued in service until 1993. Many were converted into tankers.
No Victors are currently registered as airworthy by the Civil Aviation Authority, but some still do fast taxis.
This one accidentally took off during a fast taxi:
The Victor could climb to 54,000ft. It's maximum speed was 647mph though on the 1st of June 1956 one of these aircraft accidentally broke the sound barrier when it's nose was allowed to drop slightly on a test flight, test pilot Johnny Allam noticed a cockpit airspeed indication of Mach 1.1 ground observers reported hearing a sonic boom.
A Victor could carry 35 1000lb bombs, a fleet of Victor Tankers were required for Operation Black Buck to refuel the lone Vulcan whose job was to attack Port Stanley airfield, some of these tankers had to refuel tankers to refuel the Vulcan on it's journey.
In comparison the Avro Vulcan could climb to a ceiling of 55,000ft and has a maximum speed of 645mph, the C.A.A. imposes a limit to the speed that G-VLCN (aka XH558) can do to. If memory serves, XH558 is not permitted to fly faster than 300mph.