Sgt. Mac's Blog

Family & General Military History

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Hawker Siddeley Vulcan B2

February 21st, 2012

Sgt. Mac

RAF Avro Vulcan Bomber

The Hawker Siddeley Vulcan B2 bomber was one of the strangest looking planes I had ever seen. Other than the silver colored B-47′s that I watched streak across the skies of Idaho as a youth, I had never seen a bomber of that size or shape. It was my first year in the Air Force, and as luck would have it, I ended up in jolly ol’ England instead of Vietnam.

I arrived in early May, but by summer, RAF Lakenheath decided to have an airshow. Good luck for a country boy in love with airplanes! (That day, I had to work in the WSA-Weapons Storage Area, but we still got a great look at the aircraft)

The show started off with the standard fair of WWII aircraft, such as the Hawker Hurricane, the Supermarine Spitfire and a variety of other never before seen aircraft. Relieved for lunch, a SAT-Security Alert Team truck took me towards the chow hall. We were able to get look at some of the static displays and meet some folks. While looking at the static displays, I couldn’t help notice the one aircraft that dominated the landscape and stood head and shoulders above all other airplanes. It was as I was told by the pilot, a VULCAN bomber.

An enclosed cockpit, sat perched atop and long nose, like the B-47′s I had seen at home. A large Red, White and Blue target, aka RAF insignia was pronounced on the side of the nose. The plane had a host of things that impressed me. Number one, was the size of the thing! It was nearly a 100 feet long and a 100 feet wide. The massive delta wings took up nearly 4,000 sq. ft.!

Gigantic air intakes were in the inside leading edges of the wings and the whole plane stood an unusual 27 feet off the ground. The thing reminded me of some giant alien craft!.

VULCAN VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/embed/MLNyQSg5NAcWe didn’t think the plane was going to fly in the airshow as it was parked with other static aircraft, but we were wrong. At some point the pilot boarded his ship and cranked up the four massive Bristol Siddeley Olympus 200-series engines. The roar was deafening. Each engine produced 20,000 pounds of thrust each! The combined 80,000 pounds of thrust, could propel, the massive bomber to a speed of nearly Mach 1. It had a service ceiling of about 55,000 feet and a range of nearly 5,000 miles.

The striking Astro Vulcan, taxied to the end of the runway where the pilot, completed his pre-flight. He then shoved the throttles forward and the massive bird took flight, like a rising Phoenix. I could hear the growl of the engines, as it came back over us in a low pass. A Brit standing next to me, mentioned that the noise, was called the Vulcan Howl. (I never did make it to lunch)!

Other Specifications

It had a crew of five men, and was used by the British as an airborne nuclear deterrent, during the cold war. Thus, it was designed to carry either 1 Blue Steel missile, (a rocket-powered, supersonic missile, capable of Mach 2.3, which carried a nuclear or thermonuclear warhead, with a range of 50 miles). It could also be fitted with one free-fall nuclear bomb, or 21 ea., 1,000 pound conventional bombs.

The aircraft was in service from 1957 until 1982. It saw combat action in the Falklands War. During that time, it was armed with Shrike anti-radiation missiles and 1000 pound conventional bombs.

Actual AVRO Vulcan Pictures from RAF Lakenheath, circa 1968
(Note lower left of RH image, our Husky Rescue Chopper on duty)