Author Topic: Live long and prosper (Vulcan) (Read 9814 times)

Martin · « **on:** 20 July, 2008, 11:04:13 pm »

taken on approach to landing at Farnborough today

TimO · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 July, 2008, 11:07:13 pm »

Oooh, so cool. I've got to make sure I get to see it, before something goes horribly and expensively wrong with it.

Good shot.

clarion · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 July, 2008, 11:07:35 pm »

That's a lot of sky missing

Martin · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 July, 2008, 11:20:26 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 20 July, 2008, 11:07:13 pm

Good shot.

the only decent one that came out (we were standing in the road just before the runway; they've got the place stitched up to make sure noooobody sees anything without paying megabucks

Give me Eastbourne
anyday; Up Close and Personal, and free

(edit; almost free; how did they get away with that this year? it's on the beach FFS $:-\$ )

Adrian · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 July, 2008, 07:04:03 am »

Quote from: Martin (aka Zoom) on 20 July, 2008, 11:20:26 pm

Give me Eastbourne
anyday; Up Close and Personal, and free

(edit; almost free; how did they get away with that this year? it's on the beach FFS $:-\$ )

How about cycle to Beachy Head and watch from there?

MSeries · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 July, 2008, 08:01:05 am »

Nice picture. My cow-orker Mal and I were talking about those last week. I remember seeing two together years ago when I was a mSeries <- that.'s a little MSeries. I can't remember where we were or if my Dad took us to that place especially to see them.

blackpuddinonnabike · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:47:25 am »

Going to the Leuchars Airshow this year specifically to see the Vulcan!

Jaded · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 July, 2008, 11:14:02 am »

I didn't go to not see it fly at Fairford.

Ian H · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 July, 2008, 11:33:25 am »

I knew a man who was involved in a Vulcan restoration project, presumably this one. A tall gangling knock-kneed fellow who would visit ostensibly to sell me paper and spend the time telling me about the Vulcan. I remember seeing them flying when they were still operational.

It is a rather beautiful plane, but it was a warplane, a bomber, an instrument of death.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 July, 2008, 11:36:23 am »

I can't remember if it ever killed anyone on the ground, although it did leave some holes in the Port Stanley runway.

David Martin · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 July, 2008, 02:07:03 pm »

Quote from: rogerzilla on 21 July, 2008, 11:36:23 am

I can't remember if it ever killed anyone on the ground, although it did leave some holes in the Port Stanley runway.

And until the Iraq war had the record for the longest bombing mission..

..d

pcolbeck · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:17:08 pm »

Yes some Buffs now have that record. They were probably nearly as old as the Vulcan (but upgraded a lot more)

TimO · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:20:26 pm »

I had some vague idea that the B2 held this record now instead of the Buffs?

Torslanda · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:29:59 pm »

According to 'Vulcan 607' there were several Argentine casualties after the first bombing raid and 21 hefty craters in Port Stanley's airfield, one of which was a socking crater in the runway. It put paid to fast jet flight out of the Falklands and virtually guaranteed air superiority for the British task force.
Beautiful to watch, saw a low level display at Barton in 1991. Pulled tighter turns than a Tornado!

J

ps that photo should be captioned 'Aluminium Overcast'

alan · « **Reply #14 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:50:23 pm »

Quote from: Ian H on 21 July, 2008, 11:33:25 am

It is a rather beautiful plane, but it was a warplane, a bomber, an instrument of death.

It was also an instrument for the defence of the realm

alan · « **Reply #15 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:52:16 pm »

Quote from: torslanda on 21 July, 2008, 06:29:59 pm

. Pulled tighter turns than a Tornado!

That's impressive

TimO · « **Reply #16 on:** 21 July, 2008, 06:56:14 pm »

Quote from: Ian H on 21 July, 2008, 11:33:25 am

...but it was a warplane, a bomber, an instrument of death.

757 and 767's have been used as instruments of death, and in fact have been involved in the deliberate killing of far more people, does that make them bad? The aircraft is a thing, it is neither evil nor good, it's the people who are responsible for the decisions that use these items, which are good or evil.

Martin · « **Reply #17 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:04:45 pm »

my cow-orker (a renowned bullshitter but also a plane buff) assures me that Vulcans were originally equipped with Spey engines and Olympus ones are unusual: anyone care to add some hard facts?

Quote from: Adrian on 21 July, 2008, 07:04:03 am

How about cycle to Beachy Head and watch (Eastbourne Airshow) from there?

a good idea and also a prime location; many people drive up there and they charge a premium rate to park in specially created car parks. Going to miss it this year as will be in France

clarion · « **Reply #18 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:13:12 pm »

Correct. Speys originally because the Olympus followed on.

IIRC*, the Olympus was only used in the Vulcan and (in the rather different 593 variant) in Concorde.

* I quite probably don't

TimO · « **Reply #19 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:39:10 pm »

Are you sure about that? Everything I can find says that the Vulcan (in its various B1 and B2 guises) used the Bristol Siddeley Olympus 101, 102, 104, 201, 202, 203, and 301 engines. Some Vulcan testbeds also flew other Olympus variants in the bomb bay to undertake inflight testing for the TSR2 and Concorde.

The Rolls-Royce Spey apparently entered service in 1968 according to Rolls-Royce's website which was 16 years after the Vulcan first flew in 1952, and 12 years after the aircraft officially entered service.

Because development of the original Olympus was behind schedule, Rolls-Royce Avons and later Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engines were also used in the Vulcan for testing, but both of these engines produce substantially lower thrust than the Olympus, so could never have been used in the production version of the Vulcan.

(Incidentally, Speys were used in Thrust SSC.

)

clarion · « **Reply #20 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:41:56 pm »

I'm wrong then. But it def used pre-RR engines originally...

A Vulcan powered by Avons would have been substantially less impressive...

Martin · « **Reply #21 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:44:20 pm »

yep; Mr Bullshitter again; Speys were used in 111s; not your average Mach 1 or even 2 plane

andrew w · « **Reply #22 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:51:46 pm »

Quote from: Martin (aka Zoom) on 21 July, 2008, 09:04:45 pm

my cow-orker (a renowned bullshitter but also a plane buff) assures me that Vulcans were originally equipped with Spey engines and Olympus ones are unusual: anyone care to add some hard facts?

Well, my "Observer's Book of Aircraft" (1959 edition) says that the Avro Vulcan B.2 was powered by four Bristol (sic) Olympus 200 (B.01.6) turbojet engines. It also says the following:

"The Vulcan B.2 is a progressive development of the B.1, which is currently operated by RAF Bomber Command. The Vulcan B.1 has been produced with Olympus 102 and Olympus 104 turbojets, and apart from the more powerful [Olympus 200] engines, the B.2 differs .............etc etc"

There is no mention of Spey engines in the Vulcan chapter of the book.

There is a Wikipedia article about Spey engines - Rolls-Royce Spey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - which makes no mention of Speys having been used in Vulcan bombers. They were used in Buccaneers, in F-4 Phantoms and in Nimrods, as well as in various civilian applications.

Andrew

rogerzilla · « **Reply #23 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:52:41 pm »

The Vulcan may be the best looking of the V-bombers, but the Victor was way scarier with its vaguely B-29 like nose. The Valiant looked like an Aeroflot cargo plane $:-\$

clarion · « **Reply #24 on:** 21 July, 2008, 09:53:50 pm »

My dad loved the Victor (he got to play in one).

Author Topic: Live long and prosper (Vulcan) (Read 9814 times)

Martin

Martin

blackpuddinonnabike

alan

alan

Martin

Martin