156 De-icing air system
157 De-icing air intake
158 Rear spar spectacle frame
159 Intake duct construction
160 Wing attachment joint
161 Front spar spectacle frame
162 Intake lip construction
163 Intake duct divider
164 Port engine air intake
165 Intake guide vane
166 Nosewheel bay door
167 Twin nosewheels
168 Battery bay
Although every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and clear permission for the photographs in the book, the provenance of a number of them is uncertain. The author and publisher would welcome the opportunity to correct any mistakes.
First section
Cover of The Aeroplane: © Aeroplane Monthly; Victor prototype: © T R H Pictures; upside down Victor: © The Handley Page Association; Vulcan prototype: © The Flight Collection
Withers and crew: © BAE Systems; Nellis AFP: © Crown; Vulcan at Nellis: © Alastair Montgomery; Port Stanley: © Imperial War Museum FKD 2070; Argentine Air Force C-130 Hercules: © Imperial War Museum FKD 2181; armoured troop carriers: © Imperial War Museum FKD 2173
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Beetham: © Crown; RAF Waddington: © Alastair Montgomery; Wing Commander Simon Baldwin: © Simon Baldwin; work on the Victors: © Crown; RAF Marham: © Crown
Bombing Garvie Island sequence: © Crown; over Spadeadam: © John Huggon; in-flight refuelling: © Crown; no room for error: © Crown
Victor arrives at Ascension: © Barry Neal; Ascension from the air: © Crown; flight-crew tents: © Bob Tuxford
Second section
Fuel flows: © John Reeve; Victor with drag chute: © Crown; damaged fuselage: © Bob Tuxford
HMS Endurance: © Imperial War Museum FKD 1178; crashed Wessex: © Imperial War Museum FKD 53; Wessex over South Georgia: © Imperial War Museum FKD 4896; Argentine air defences x 2: © Imperial War Museum FKD 2916, FKD 2917
29 April 1982; arrival at Wideawake: © Mel James; backtracking down runway: © Mel James; BLACK BUCK planning: © Bob Tuxford; Reeve crew on Ascension: © John Reeve
Dash-10 pod: © Mel James; Vulcan’s bomb bay: © Mel James; dusk at Wideawake; flight planning: © John Reeve; map of alternative attack plans: © Alastair Montgomery; BLACK BUCK briefing: © John Reeve
Vulcan, pre-flighted at Wideawake: © John Reeve; minutes to go: © John Reeve
Third section
40 Degrees South: © Ronald Wong; Vulcan cockpit Rheinmetall shells: © Spiegel TV; Oerlikon; Roland surface-to-air missile; radar-guided Roland; Splash One: © Royal Australian Air Force
Radar screen: © John Reeve; reconnaissance picture of Port Stanley: © Ministry of Agriculture; bomb release: © Crown; Battle Damage Assessment: © Crown; cratered runway: © Imperial War Museum FKD 872; close-up view of crater: © Imperial War Museum FKD 297
Victor tanker: © John Reeve; rare refuelling shot: © Crown; final approach to Wideawake: © John Reeve; Tuxford crew: © Bob Tuxford; seconds from touchdown: © Alastair Montgomery; Vulcan 607 touches down: © Mel James; Martin Withers: © Mel James
‘Vulcan Victory’: © Sunday Mirror; the Avro Vulcan B2: © Dick Clements
This contemporary magazine cover gives a sense of how futuristic the Vulcan must have seemed when it first appeared in the skies above post-war Britain.
Sir Frederick Handley Page personally designed the striking black and silver livery for the prototype Victor, his equally groundbreaking rival to the Vulcan.
Upside down. An extremely rare shot of a Victor rolling out at the top of a loop. Although surprisingly agile, Victors stood up less well than Vulcans to the stress of flying at low level and were eventually converted into aerial tankers – a role in which they enjoyed great success.
‘If it looks right, it is right’ went the old engineering adage. The white-painted Vulcan prototype looked right from any angle.
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands – the world’s most southerly capital city. The Argentine Navy’s plans to invade ’Las Malvinas’ were passed to Galtieri’s ruling junta in February 1982.
2 April 1982. The invasion forces arrived by sea and air, over the beaches and aboard a stream of transport aircraft like this Argentine Air Force C-130 Hercules.
The islands’ tiny defence force was quickly overrun as Argentine AMTRAC armoured troop carriers rumbled into town.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Beetham. When Argentina invaded, Sir Michael, a decorated Second World War Lancaster pilot and air-refuelling pioneer, was quickly able to see the potential of his ageing fleet of V-bombers so far from home.
With just six months before the Vulcan was due to be retired, Martin Withers and his crew were beginning to look beyond the old bomber towards new postings. L to r: Flying Officer Pete Taylor, Flight Lieutenant Bob Wright, Flight Lieutenant Martin Withers, Flight Lieutenant Hugh Prior and Flight Lieutenant Gordon Graham.
Wing Commander Simon Baldwin. When RAF Waddington was ordered to prepare for war, Station Commander Group Captain John Laycock went straight to Baldwin, CO of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron. An experienced Navigator and veteran of successful bombing competition campaigns against the Americans, Baldwin had all the necessary experience.
Vulcans trained to drop conventional 1,000lb iron bombs for the first time in many years. In this sequence, a stick of seven slams into Garvie Island off the north-west coast of Scotland.
At low level over Spadeadam ranges, the crews tested the effectiveness of their bombers’ Electronic Countermeasures kit.
Much time and effort went into reinstating and practising with the Vulcan’s in-flight refuelling capability, unused since the early 1970s, but essential to success over the distances posed by the invasion of the Falklands.
No room for error. As the Vulcan crews got to grips with an unfamiliar role, the distances between them and the tankers could become heart-stoppingly small.
Victors arrive at Ascension. For a while the veteran tankers based there were the only aircraft in the RAF capable of even reaching the Falklands.
Ascension from the air. Thousands of miles from South America to the west and Africa to the east, this tiny island was crucial to any chance of British success. The airfield is clearly visible in the picture.
Victor flight crews and engineers all mucked in to put up the tents that would serve as their operations centre for the duration of the war.
BLACK BUCK planning. Captain of the Vulcan Ops crew, Squadron Leader Alastair Montgomery, seated on the left with a hat hanging off the back of the chair, joins the Victor planning cell on Ascension.
