The Victor was always my favourite at the time. The Vulcan is a real beauty and makes a fabulous air-display attraction. The Victor has to be one of the most malevolent looking aircraft ever built, quite rightly so considering its job.
Love how the Vulcan test pilot rocks up to work in his suit and climbs aboard. Almost as though he’d just stepped out of an office meeting. He probably took a flask of tea with him too. Thoroughly British.
What I always liked about British war birds is how unconventional and daring their designs can be. To this day, The Spitfire is the most elegant fighter design of the WWII era, followed by the Lightning. The Vulcan is the most wickedly badass bomber ever designed. It's straight out of a Bond movie. The death of the TSR-2 program was a crime.
The Soviets with their policy of Communist expansionism, caused the entire problem by placing missiles on Cuba. Without that there would have been no problems whatever!
@eddie money Well here you are again 'laughing' at the UK? Yank twat. Well go read the biography of one Nikita Kruschev and in that book you will see it was the RAF Vulcans that made him think twice. Just remember he knew how the RAF and the UK had helped Russia two weeks after his country was invaded, he remembered how we gave them 3,000 Hurricane fighters and 3,400 tanks starting 2 weeks after Barbarossa and he knew how good the RAF were having seen what they did to Germany. He was never impressed by the USAF. He was very disinclined to engage in hostilities with the UK and he knew the RAF would get through no matter what.
I'll second that. I have actually seen (and heard) all three V Bombers (Vulcan, Victor, Valiant) in Vee formation with the Vulcan in the lead, way back in the late fifties, when they flew at very low level over Southsea (UK) beach - right over the top of me and continued on over the Isle of Wight. It was AWESOME! I will never forget that sight and sound.
@@peterendall7935 I used to sell hot dogs at the air shows in the Summers, hearing and seeing the Vulcan run with fake bombing was unbelievable I used to shout out "last chance to eat a hot dog before you get wiped out" and I used to swap hot dogs for small plane rides with pilots - later lucky enough to fly as a private pilot... Marvellous British engineering I have a terrain following radar unit (pod) and some HS2 and an autopilot from early Vulcans in my collection
Both gorgeous aircraft, but the Vulcan was always my favourite. As a child I used to have them fly over my house during the Booker Airshow near High Wycombe, Bucks. Will never forget the sights and sounds as I stood on our garage roof to watch. In the 90's was privileged to be part a a small team asked to help tow a Victor tanker around the airfield at RAF Elvington during a military exercise, using one of our Leyland DAF DROPS vehicles
I have foggy 6 year old's memories of my mother stopping by a church in the middle of the day to pray. I had no idea why. Adults with children must have been petrified. Good thing Kennedy kept his cool.
I was fortunate to see two Vulcan bombers at an air show in Guam, circa 1978 or 79. One flew at the show. It and a SR71 flying at another air show remain the two most unique aircraft I’ve seen.
I remember the joint air exercises over Darwin in the late 60's early seventies. Vulcans, Canberras Mirages, and Phantoms, the defending fighters could not cope with the height the vulcans flew at Then One evening at sunset a strange whispering sound drew me outside in a rush, it was a Vulcan so low i felt i could almost touch it and so slow i was sure i could run down the street and almost keep pace - awsome!! A raaf tech who did some part time electronic work for me told me the story of a US b52 crew who came to Darwin from Guam for r n r . From the moment they landed they bragged about their aircraft and its amazing performance , whilst there a vulcan from Singapore on its way on a rescue mission to New Zealand landed to refuel, with a spare engine strapped in the open bomb bay doors, (for a stranded vulcan in NZ) The brits silently listened to the US boast, when they took of the next day at about 100 feet above runway, the vulcan opened up, climbed almost vertically whilst the sound thundered, and the ground shook. Ha HA the yanks shut up and two days later took off very gently and sedately.
Patrick Tuohy . Saved. That is a comment from a wannabe who knows very little about the military relationship between the US and Oz. The pacific campaign would have been hugely different without our commitment. The yanks finally got into the fight (both World Wars) late and still need help to this day. Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf, South China Sea.
I suspect that there are many other (former) small boys who remember these tales from the Waddington area. In the early 70's I lived in nearby RAF Digby and would listen to the Vulcans scrambling into the sky and roaring away for what seemed like ages. I'm an old-ish man now and the roar of an aircraft in the distance still sends me back to my boyhood and my thoughts of where those aeroplanes and men were going.
Elihu, tell us about the performance of the BAC Lightning compared to it's allied contemporaries. That'll probably wind the Americans up too, I imagine ;O)
@Patrick Tuohy hey friend like the young aussie software engineer who worked at weapons research in OZ helped reprogram the combat, software on the f18s we bought from US (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet_in_Australian_service) a resultthe US has v etoed any medlling with the f35 sotware asthe Oz versikon was better than yours Also our Jindalee OTHR www.baesystems.com/en-aus/feature/seeing-over-the-horizon Yanks told us they had tried it and it would not work! Tom Suttie the English Prof. was active in UK WW 11 aircraft detection of uboats on the surfacewas in Alice Springs at the Mt Everard receivers, a mile of antennas, you can get a bird eye view on Google earth about 12 miles along the Tanami highway off the Stuart Hwy nth of Alice Springs I believe it can detect the waves in the South China sea and show wich wayh the wind is blowing.
I wonder how the Vulcan would perform today with the more powerful engines available today, although the engine power it had when it was so ignominiously retired was still formidable. In my opinion the “V” bombers were the best designed and engineered bombers ever designed, but top of the list has to be the Vulcan, although I might be slightly biased as my father was groundcrew on the Vulcan and I grew up with them flying over my home almost daily, and when I joined the RAF I was hopeful of following in his footsteps, unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the Vulcan was retired shortly after I joined up. Still, I had 24 years serving and worked on some of the most fantastic aircraft the UK 🇬🇧 ever had in the arsenal. Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative film 🎥👍
jeffrey skoritowski, as with any aircraft careful use and monitoring of airframe hours and conditions could, theoretically keep an aircraft in service, the B-52 is a prime example of superb engineering, upgrades and modifications and a lot of TLC, unfortunately a lot of aircraft just become redundant when they are outperformed by newer more “snazzy “ types, a real shame that it happens, but inevitable.
@@jeffreyskoritowski4114... The big issue with airframe hours etc is simply that we never have enough aircraft to nurse them and give some a rest so everything gets run into the ground .... The Tornado was a classic example of that with Germany and Italy still operating theirs and our Typhoon today is going the same way
@@JonsTunes Britain would have been annihilated before they thought of attacking USSR and this was the fact not fiction or imagination that you saw in that so called documentary. Go and do your homework there are hundreds of literatures out there, USSR never backed down but the other way round. It was just a movie you saw probably made by help of liar BBC. And by the way your Volcan and Victor what ever actually stands for Vagina nothing more than that you American vessals
@@rafatlatif544 I'm going to go ahead and guess that you actually think that Iraq won the first Gulf War, that the Holocaust never happened, and that the Earth is flat, huh? The fact is that the UK had nuclear weapons AND the means to deliver them ... the USSR managed to get only ONE of those two things that was reliable, which was why they placed their unreliable, inaccurate crappy missiles so close the U.S soil .... Blue Steel, and later Polaris (both deployed by UK) were highly accurate, many orders of magnitude more reliable than Soviet missiles would be for more than a decade, and actually stood a chance of working, which is more than could be said for the R-12 (SS-4)
@@IanMadBrit I assume and guess that you are very proud of killing thousands of innocent Iraqi people for no reason. Lucky that at that time USSR broke and Russia was a vessal USA. Just remember you were nothing in comparison to USSR and you are no close to the might of todays Russia. Please do your homework
I was 18 at the time, old enough to know what was going on. What I didn't realise were the true consequences. I remember my parents being very worried and staying glued to the overseas radio. No TV. We were in Kenya. Thank God nothing happened.
A detachment of Vulcan's were stationed at Offutt AFB near Omaha in the early 1960's. I'd see them in the air and once got to see them on base. Very impressive aircraft.
A few times I experienced a very low airfield pass & full power climb out by a Vulcan. It is not just the sound thundering the eardrums but a physical assault from the pressure waves.
@@russcattell955i I was lucky enough to get to see one of her last Airshow appearances, the sound is just primal, like the sky is breaking. She set off every car Alarm for a good few hundred meters around the Air Field too!
I loved the fact that when I joined the RAF one of these beautiful Vulcans did the ceremonial flypast. Previous to that the only time I had seen one was the one from the Avro factory at Woodford in Cheshire and it was less than 1500ft over my home town and it was as thrilling as it sounds and being a very young boy I knew then that I wanted to join the RAF. I did and one of the things I did was to work on a Victor at Duxford air museum in winter getting them ready for the new season. Some technicians from 57sqn RAF Marham used to come and start her up and I would do anything to be in the area to hear that. To see these black and white films just trigger memories of actually seeing them for real and in colour.
When I was a young lad I went with my parents to an airshow at RAF Finingley near Doncaster. As part of it's air demonstration it used to come over the airfield low and slow and as it got halfway done the runway it would get full power on and go into a vertical climb and the noise and power used to make the ground and my chest vibrate and at that time it blew all the windows out of the houses and after that the RAF weren't allowed to it again!!!!!
In 1960 the USAF set up an exercise called SkyShield to 'prove they could defend the US mainland'. Sadly for them the RAF had other ideas. 2 Squadrons of Vulcan bombers were set to attack the USA - one from Bermuda and one from Scotland. Using their advanced Electronic Warfare capabilities the Bermuda aircraft flew in fast and low and the Sottish ones at 56,000 feet. Way above where US aircraft could fly. Suffice to say all bar one Vulcan 'attacked' the US Eastern Seaboard. And then to prove it was no fluke they did it again in 1961 when the Americans said 'It couldn't happen again'. In Kruschev's biography his son recalled it was not the US B-52s that worried him it was the RAF Vulcans sitting crewed, fuelled and tooled on the end of runways as he had no way of 'seeing' them at great height...
Gonna call BS as the success rate for the simulated Soviets in those exercises was at least 75%. The Vulcans with their advanced electronic jammers fared better at 88% although only eight participated. So it is doubtful that anyone involved on the defense side would boast "it couldn't happen again". And the Soviets could absolutely see and likely destroy Vulcans considering they shot down a U-2 in 1960 flying at over 70,000 feet - well above the service ceiling of the Vulcan. If Khrushchev was particularly worried about the Vulcan, it just shows how dumb he was considering the UK had less than 50 nuclear weapons in 1960 while the US had over 18,000 with thousands of bombers along with ICBMs which are far more difficult to intercept.
@@AhpgZfoc4s So let me get this right? You say the success was better than I suggested and therefore its bullshit? Not sure I follow the logic. As for the USAF saying it couldn't happen again well they did and to prove it ran the exercise again a year later when Vulcans delivered a similar result. Point made. And then you challenge Kruschev's own words as recorded by his own son in his biography? Not a lot I can say about that arrogance. The problem for Russia back then was the speed at which the Vulcans could get airborne and approach Russian territory. Or rather Warsaw Pact territory which started in East Germany! They could also fly high at speed or low at speed. Or both. And I suspect shooting down a slow lumbering powered glider with no defences is far easier than a tooled up fast bomber with advanced electronic defence arrays. And finally it doesn't matter if the USA had 2 Mn nukes in the USA it had no way of delivering them against Russia in any meaningful way to deter Kruschev in Cuba. He was on the USA's doorstep. Now I am sorry if this offends your patriotism but he historical fact remains the real meaningful threat, and therefore the deterrent, was squadrons of Vulcan bombers fuelled, tooled and crewed ready to go in under 2 minutes. The average time in practice runs was 1 minute 40 seconds.
@@1chish No, the overall idea that somehow the RAF was special in defeating the defenders at the SkyShield exercise is BS as is the idea that a defense system that failed to intercept most of the bombers, Vulcans and hundreds of regular ones alike, would have defenders suggesting it couldn't happen again. Do you have a source for the "couldn't happen again" claim? If Russia was scared of the speed at which Vulcans could get airborne and approach the USSR, imagine how much more worried (and confident considering they had their own) they were about ICBMs. ICBMs, already in service in the US and USSR in 1960 take about 30 minutes to reach across the globe. Before ICBMs, bombers and particularly the V bombers were very useful for delivering nuclear weapons but even the a fast bomber at 650mph takes far longer and is much easier to intercept than an ICBM travelling over 6,500mph. Don't forget the US had nukes stationed closer to Russia as well. The V-bombers were nevertheless a potent deterrent for the UK just so you don't misunderstand but their role in averting nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis is overstated in this documentary.
I was inside both a Vulcan and a Victor bomber at RAF Scampton during my schooldays in 1961. What I remember is the small space available inside for crew, quite claustrophobic really and full of all kinds of equipment.
Vulcan bomber at Norwich Airport museum. Many years ago it was flown in, purchased from the raf for £5k. Great thing to look around, especially sitting in the pilots seat.
This is a very good video and I have the DVD in my collection, my late father flew both Valiant's and Vulcans in the RAF, one can only speculate what would of happened if the RAF had adopted the Valiant BMk2 mor robust pathfinder version. They were all great achievements of British aerospace engineering, and the I hope that engineering excellence comes to the fore again in the GCAP.
The Victor was a deterrent just by its looks, the scariest looking bomber ever. The Vulcan on the other hand was all grace, and I had the joy of seeing it flying on a couple of displays.
The Victor still looks ultra modern and futuristic I think, poor Valiant though she gets forgotten a lot. Yeah, she had problems and was just a stop gap made in a rush and thus had a short life but it was only about 10 years from going from Lancasters to the Valiant, a high altitude and high speed jet bomber flying. So she deserves respect and admiration I think.
@@Tuberuser187 The valiant was a nice looking plane though more conventional it was still ultra modern plane at the time, it was used to test the first British H bomb, and it was used in the suzie's crises and proved its worth
Many years ago, when we had a local RAF airfield and they used to put on air shows in September, they used to feature Vulcans in a four aircraft scramble. Four Vulcans into the air in two minutes. The noise was incredible, everything was shaking, probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen.
The Wright Brothers were true geniuses of the kind that comes only one or two times a century, if humanity is lucky. They are always celebrated national hero's of whichever country they happened to be born in just as inventors like Westinghouse Bell, the Wright brothers. For some reason there was an explosion of these geniuses around this time. Don't forget the Wright's not only invented the aircraft but also Acer nautical engineering at the same time, with their invention of the wind tunnel and scientific approach to airplanes and flight. Actually I think that was their true genius and breakthrough, the wing and aircraft and aircraft stability and control then followed as a natural evolution. Seems like it to me anyway, that the wind tunnel was the tool and key that revealed all the secrets of flight hidden from view, and understanding, since that moment. Now that is some kind of productive play.
@@jamesm.taylor6928 - Have I written something that contradicts what you write ?. The first time I became interested in the two brothers was when I got my first loan card for the school library, in August 1970. So I think I have read most of what is known about the good boys.
In the long run it turned out to be a good thing that Britain developed their own nukes. Nice to have an ally that is powerful enough to tell us to stick it!
Saw a vulcan coming in low, hard and fast over St Athens military air strip when I was a kid in the early 80s.. Then up and away rolling left with full power.. Omg.. I will never forget that sound..
Nice to see Norwich on the map! The market doesn't look like that anymore that's for sure. A very good documentary as well, I wasn't around in 1962, I was still a glint in the milkman's eye. But, I remember my parents telling me just how scared they were at the prospect of nuclear war being possibly around the corner.
Only over the last decade has it been released or revealed by this doci and other print and TV studies that the RAF, V bombers were part of the SIOP an integrated RAF/USAF strategic targeting plan which would have included various USAF aircraft B47 and RAF Thor ICBM installed in the UK ( UK , PM MacMillan offered the removal of the 6O Thor ICBMs as a bargaining offer, JFK could trade with the Soviets). The RAF V bombers were somewhat less ready than planned, the Blue Steel so called standoff HP powered rocket missile was not operational on the Victors and Vulcans until the following year and we're still armed with British free fall Nuclear and Hydrogen bombs in 1962 and the Valiants possibly at the highest state of readiness for a probing RAF first warning strike ( the UK was much closer than the US to most sig Soviet targets) were probably ready to go and dispersed with USAF released standard 10 kiliton nuclear bombs quite possibly to attempt to take a wide range of oil and small city targets around the Baku and Caspian Sea in an attempt to eliminate much of the Soviet oil reserves as a UK warning shot. The British public were largely or entirely unaware of the UK involvement in the US/ NATO build up.Evacuation of the population was considered pointless in the nuclear age and with only 3 Lightning fighter squadrons for point defence the UK would have relied on USAF fighters at USAF based in the UK The only two implemented or planned moves during the Cuban missile crisis month were to move the paintings on the Tate to Wales and the London Zoo Tigers to Wales too.
l remember October 1962, as if it was yesterday. l woke up hearing my mother crying to my dad downstairs, l sneaked to the bottom of the stairs to listen to dad and mum, she said "l don't want to die what will to the children if we die" looking back how naïve my parents were. Not knowing how powerful a nuclear bomb is. l was 7 years old and soon approaching my 65th birthday. l grew up like my generation in the cold war the fear of being obliterated at anytime. During the Cold War we knew who our opponent's were, today l think in my humble opinion it is more frightening due to terrorism and countries wanting their own nuclear deterrent. l think it was Albert Einstein said WW3 will be fought with nuclear weapons WW4 will be fought with sticks and rocks.
Tony DD most of us knew about it but didn’t think about it too much because it was ‘out of our hands’ and our parents and grandparents had fought two world wars.
I also remember 'the Cuba crisis' like it was yesterday. My dad was in the RAF reserve after just retiring from over 40 years career bomber command (navigator, and later Group Captain), so he was called back up over that period, I remember my Mum being in tears, we honestly thought that the bomb was going to drop any minute.... a terrifying few days.
Better to grow up in the 50s with the fear of dying than in the 40s when thousands actually died. No civilian died in the UK as a result of enemy action in the 50s - compare that with the blitz in the 40s
I was an Royal Air Force Cadet in the 1970s,and wanted to be a fighter pilot;but looking back we were all mad,there is no such thing as a deterrant ,as any mistaken launch,will start an allout war,and the whole planet would be destroyed,so no one wins?
The Vulcan was one of the most impressive, graceful & lovely aircraft that we will not be able to see fly anymore! Why is the world still at war? Religion? Money? Power? As an intelligent race (humans), can we not get over all this? Who started the Vientnam war? I will miss lots of others but what happened to building 7 on the 11th September? I'm sure if some research is done you will know where i'm going!
@@robertfindlay2325 Labour in the 1970s failed to deal with communist unions, shoved up taxes and crashed the economy. Thatcher cut tax rates, sorted out the unions, allowing the economy to recover. She doubled the money taken in tax. The NHS is paid from tax so gets away with its poor efficiency but always does better when the economy is doing well.
One day during crisis I walked to high school wondering if there would be nuclear weapons dropped on Seattle less than 150 miles away and about any fallout. That was an interesting walk back home and to the radio.
My dad was sitting in his Vulcan at RAF Marham, waiting to go t the height of the Cuban crisis. Years later I found out he had told my mother to use his shotgun on me and my Sister if she saw the aircraft take off, I was only 5, Sister was 7. She said she would have done just that had seen the Sqn scramble.
i lived about a 1/2 mile from detriot metro airport back then. one side of the airport had an air national guard base. during the crisis SAC sent about a squadron of b47s on dispersal alert to the base. i remember riding home on the school bus watching them land,one after another with the long drogue chutes behind them. i was a big a/c fan even then and knew all SAC and its mission. but being 8 years old, i really didnt get the serious of it until i heard my mom and dad talking about it. my dad said it was a dispersal alert to prevent the bombers from being caught on the ground,like at pearl harbor and clark field. i asked if the russians would drop a bombs on detroit. he said yes, probably more than one. after that,i was plenty scared.
When I was a kid I built models of those aircraft. Beautiful and deadly looking, good for high and low fast and slow. Imagine an updated 21st century Vulcan and Victor. Funny thing about the Vulcan is they were stealthy if they were coming right at you. I don't think they were designed to be stealthy but they achieved it to some extent, especially from the front. Plus, they are wicked, bad ass looking aircraft, second to none. They look like they mean business.
I'm from Newark upon Trent. saw loads of the Vulcan . and yes couldn't really see them when they were coming straight at you we called them the invisible visible mirage but when they turned sideways. oh lordy...
One thing rarely mention is that by the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis the UK had run out of liquid oxygen as used in the Thor IRBM missiles based in the UK.
Now you're just being an insulting jerk. He linked to the part of the clip where the narrator clearly states " the Vulcan was the largest aircraft in the world to break the sound barrier".
flip inheck on 1/6/1956 production Victor XA917 on a pre-delivery test flight was recorded as doing Mach 1.1. The pilot Johnny Allam let the nose drop with the engine producing high thrust. The sonic boom was noted between Watford and Banbury. A post-war photo-reccon Spitfire manage 0.97 Mach in a diving, making it the fastest ever flight by a piston-engined aircraft.
flip inheck no it didn't it came out of the dive and returned to Kai Tak, Hong Kong. The Spitfire PR.19 was on a met flight when it when in to its dive, it didn't come out of the dive until below 5000' (the altimeter gave a much higher altitude for the recovery due to instrument lag). Flt Lt Edward Powles was flying PS852 on 5/2/52 in order to take air pressure readings over the sea near Hong Kong. At just over 51,000 ft he went into a dive and got to a speed of 0.96 Mach. No piston engined proppeller aircraft has ever been recorded as going faster.
I have seen both and I find both very impressive. I always found it sad that the RAF retied the Vulcan. The Vulcan is a very unique aircraft. The B-52 is unique because it is still flying. I appreciate both designs.
Had to add this separately: @ 43:12 it was not a SINGLE raid on Stanley there were 7 'Black Buck' raids in total. Some were bombing raids and some were radar and suppression raids using Shrike missiles mounted under the wings. The raids on Stanley were the longest bombing runs ever and are still the longest by supporting accompanying aircraft. For each Black Buck raid it took 11 Victor tankers to support two Vulcans one of which would continue to Stanley. The Yanks said it couldn't be done. Once again we proved them wrong 21 years after we proved them wrong in Skyshield '60 and '61
It was the longest bombing run at the time. USAF B-2 Spirits now hold that record with their bombing missions over Afghanistan during 2001. They were operating from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri. www.uso.org/stories/253-inside-the-longest-bombing-run-ever
@@Tomteeejay Well yes but the Black Bucks are still the longest raid using accompanied tankers from the same base. The B-2s were refuelled 'en route' by forward based tankers. The air logistics and navigation accuracy required was world leading at the time.
The fact remains the UK, CANADA and the USA is a triad force that really works well together. Sure we have our ups and downs but we always are there together. There are some other nations for sure but the 3 do have a special relationship. Amazing planes
Russian air force veteran said that they always suspected the Vulcan could do a lot more than the British were letting on. After the iron curtain, he found out it couldn't, but was still impressed by the psychological warfare effect of unusual designed planes. (A bit like the Americans worry over the huge but relatively useless Ekranoplan.)
I saw on another documentmentary a ex Russian officer in their airforce at that time said they didn't exactly know what the victor could do aswell as a ceiling height... as someone said in another comment, the RAF didn't let anyone know what the vulcan or the victor could do.....at a push in raf style ;-)
If only history, military documentaries were this well made today. I’d pay a subscription fee just to have access to every history, tlc, discovery, nat geo doc ever made before the year 2000. Disney+ nat geo content is garbage,
13:30 ... it had handling, and maneuverability, characteristics, which were quite impressive...for the day. Hey, it still has thise same characteristics today...
to this day it would fly circles around any fighter in the world at 40k feet+, you either nail it bvr (not easy with the very powerful ecm) or you boom and zoom it which again wouldnt be easy. the vulcan wouldve been a real handfull for an interceptor
Ive seen the Vulcun its massive and the noise is breath taking . To move like a fighter jet is simply unbelievable.The UK needs to start building future aviation projects because we do firsts!
Very interesting and balanced documentary. I remember the Cuban missile crisis well. Fortunately we did not know much detail at the time. Khrushchev was a simple man who over played his hand. Ousted soon afterwards. A few years ago I saw a Vulcan on its farewell flight around the U.K. perform an amazing loop the loop starting from near ground level at R.A.F. Boulmer, Northumberland. Staggering sight.
It was a victory for the USSR. He got what he wanted. For the USA to remove there intermediate range Nuke Missiles on the USSR border in Turkey and those in Italy.
If by "simple man" he meant that Chruschev was a trained locksmith, and until very late in his career would always carry his tools with him, for the event that he was recalled from his duty as a party official, and had to work on his job again, yes he was a simple man, and I admire him for that. If you mean that it isn't simple to understand him and his political reasonings, then you are right, of course @@readhistory2023
First flight of a huge jet powered, delta wing, nuclear armed death machine and the test pilot rocks up in a suit, tie, brown shoes and a flying helmet. People had style back then.
The Vulcan although one of my favourite planes among the usual suspects. Lancaster, Mosquito, Lightning and Buccaneer. The Victor is just scary, it's so menacing to look at. Go to Elvington, look at one head on and say you are not bricking it !!
11.29: "Oh sod it Atkins, just give me my mask... But Sir what about your flight suite. You can send my jacket to the cleaners afterwards, now wheres my pipe and slippers..." These are the guys who made Briton great, not some greasy little turd whose daddy was a peer in the foreign office.
Orange Herald was a British nuclear weapon, tested on 31 May 1957. At the time it was reported as a H-bomb, although in fact it was a large boosted fission weapon.
Vulcans need to come to DCS World like, yesterday. Such an awesome aircraft. Nothing but gas and engines in that huge wing. And by wing I mean plane. Because that all it is!
Actually grew up as an infant child under the flight path of the Vulcans, or V-bombers as we called them, in Derbyshire in the early 60's. Beautiful but terrible simultaneously.
our nuclear arsenal was never enough to wipe out life on earth. Decimate human civilization, sure, but the claims that we could sterilize the earth are ludicrous.
At their height, there were just over 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world. That's enough weapons to decimate the entire surface of the planet. Does that mean that some life somewhere might still survive? Maybe.
Not really when the destroying of civilization as we know it was about blowing so much dust into the atmosphere as to cause global cooling so strong it would cause most animals freeze or just starve to death when their food sources died and make agriculture as we know it simply impossible. A commonly used term for this was the so-called "nuclear winter".
@@BobSmith-zj6lk There are probably more microorganisms living deep in the crust of the earth than there are living on the surface. They have been found 12 miles deep.
"Orange man bad because I'm stupid!" He understands it well enough to actually restore our forces to prevent this from happening again, instead of giving billions to our sworn enemies and gutting our defenses, like his predecessor did.
@@104thDIVTimberwolf Hahaha You naive fool. You really think the increased budget has anything to do with the safety of the nation? It's business, mate. It's about money. It's about feeding his friends.
I was growing up, at the very end of the cold war. I was about 17 years old, during the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. I also happened to live near several military bases. Sounds like a bold statement? Several? How? Location. I lived on a 'live-aboard' sailboat, moored in the middle of Boca Chica bay, Key West Florida. So, key west naval base, boca chica naval air station, and probably couple others. I could literally see the tops of the mighty C5 Galaxy, parked along the runways at BCNAS(?) The training sorties would fly literally all the time, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Most of the training there, i believe was 'touch and go' landings, for aviators destined to fly and land on aircraft carriers. *It was truly AWESOME spectacle, every single time i would watch these amazing machines flying right above our sailboat!* I often pondered what an attack would seem like, and was later informed that typically by the time you could hear an enemy aircraft, the munitions would already be incoming. It was an intense time, the cold war. Yet, i would admonish younger people today, that there are even more frightening things happening in some places, right now. The world may indeed Not be more safe now, than it was 30 years ago. War is like a *human fire*, we should ALL do our part to prevent it ever becoming *firestorm. Like WW3.*
similar here, growing up in 1980s Europe where the Warsaw pact was far closer. City I grew up in was home to 3 army bases, 2 airbases, several reserve depots, and a major radar and control installation all within about 20km of where I lived. My house was pretty much ground zero for dozens of Soviet nuclear and chemical warheads and probably germ warfare as well. We just didn't think of it, as it'd drive you mad worrying. Gave me a lot of appreciation of the armed forces, both our own and the American and British holding the Red Menace at bay.
These crews (both air and ground) and I suspect their American counterparts were very much the cream of the nations crop! I have had the privilege of working with some of them in the later civilian sector and they often stand shoulders above the crowd. At the time we stood against a foe whose avowed intention was stated, rightly or wrongly, as world domination. I firmly believe that it was these people who gave us peace. God bless them all!
It is interesting in the light of the present nuclear deterrent being primarily missile based that the first person to recognise that nuclear warheads would be delivered by missile did so in 1945. In his report to the UK government on the Nagasaki bomb Leonard Cheshire VC made that observation. The report was dismissed and gathered dust until the USSR launched Sputnik 1 when the west then realised that the USSR had the capacity to hit anywhere in the world using a missile.
The Victor was always my favourite at the time. The Vulcan is a real beauty and makes a fabulous air-display attraction. The Victor has to be one of the most malevolent looking aircraft ever built, quite rightly so considering its job.
Its amazing when a British aircraft resembles my old ladies favorite sex toy! Lol
Well said 👏
It looks like something Gerry Anderson would come up with for his puppet show "Thunderbirds".
The Victor touched on being supersonic, but the pilots were discouraged from trying.
Love how the Vulcan test pilot rocks up to work in his suit and climbs aboard. Almost as though he’d just stepped out of an office meeting. He probably took a flask of tea with him too. Thoroughly British.
What I always liked about British war birds is how unconventional and daring their designs can be. To this day, The Spitfire is the most elegant fighter design of the WWII era, followed by the Lightning. The Vulcan is the most wickedly badass bomber ever designed. It's straight out of a Bond movie. The death of the TSR-2 program was a crime.
Actually there is Vulcan featured in a Bond movie : Thunderball
@Dmitri Kozlowsky : So how an aircraft LOOKS is all that's important ?
@@pasoundman form follows function and in aviation if it looks right is usually is right .
@@pauldavidson6321 : Not much hope for the F-35 then !
@@pauldavidson6321 TBH that's very simplistic statement.
The Brits had our back, and that made the Soviets flinch. People need to remember that. Thank you Great Britain!
The Russians didn't flinch - They where wiser than the Americans and stepped down.
The Soviets with their policy of Communist expansionism, caused the entire problem by placing missiles on Cuba. Without that there would have been no problems whatever!
@@stewartw.9151 I think the Russians viewed it as problem, that the Yanks stationed nukes in Turkey long before Cuba.
@eddie money Well here you are again 'laughing' at the UK? Yank twat. Well go read the biography of one Nikita Kruschev and in that book you will see it was the RAF Vulcans that made him think twice. Just remember he knew how the RAF and the UK had helped Russia two weeks after his country was invaded, he remembered how we gave them 3,000 Hurricane fighters and 3,400 tanks starting 2 weeks after Barbarossa and he knew how good the RAF were having seen what they did to Germany. He was never impressed by the USAF. He was very disinclined to engage in hostilities with the UK and he knew the RAF would get through no matter what.
@@A_Haunted_Pancake Kennedy's Bay of Pigs fiasco was the trigger. The USA's foreign policymakers always seem to be somewhat inept.
If you've never heard a Vulcan in real life, you missed out on something special, and so raw.
Chris B
I've been in the downstream wake of a Vulcan and Concord and the Vulcan shook me the most by far.
I remember when we used to have the air shows at Filton, and the Vulcan did a touch and go, the noise and pressure waves were like nothing else.
I'll second that. I have actually seen (and heard) all three V Bombers (Vulcan, Victor, Valiant) in Vee formation with the Vulcan in the lead, way back in the late fifties, when they flew at very low level over Southsea (UK) beach - right over the top of me and continued on over the Isle of Wight. It was AWESOME! I will never forget that sight and sound.
Amen to that. The vulcan howl was something that would shake the fillings out of your teeth...
@@peterendall7935 I used to sell hot dogs at the air shows in the Summers, hearing and seeing the Vulcan run with fake bombing was unbelievable I used to shout out "last chance to eat a hot dog before you get wiped out" and I used to swap hot dogs for small plane rides with pilots - later lucky enough to fly as a private pilot... Marvellous British engineering I have a terrain following radar unit (pod) and some HS2 and an autopilot from early Vulcans in my collection
Both gorgeous aircraft, but the Vulcan was always my favourite. As a child I used to have them fly over my house during the Booker Airshow near High Wycombe, Bucks. Will never forget the sights and sounds as I stood on our garage roof to watch. In the 90's was privileged to be part a a small team asked to help tow a Victor tanker around the airfield at RAF Elvington during a military exercise, using one of our Leyland DAF DROPS vehicles
That jet engine roar is amazing shivers up my spine the whole project is a great example of the U.K punching above its weight again.
great again....yeah...
I have foggy 6 year old's memories of my mother stopping by a church in the middle of the day to pray. I had no idea why. Adults with children must have been petrified. Good thing Kennedy kept his cool.
Good job Krushchev and a Russian submariner also kept their cool.
Because he didnt listen to the CIA
Seeing the grainy colour film at the beginning of this documentary, it looks like another world but this was the world I was born into
I was fortunate to see two Vulcan bombers at an air show in Guam, circa 1978 or 79. One flew at the show. It and a SR71 flying at another air show remain the two most unique aircraft I’ve seen.
Lucky fellow!
I remember the joint air exercises over Darwin in the late 60's early seventies. Vulcans, Canberras Mirages, and Phantoms, the defending fighters could not cope with the height the vulcans flew at
Then One evening at sunset a strange whispering sound drew me outside in a rush, it was a Vulcan so low i felt i could almost touch it and so slow i was sure i could run down the street and almost keep pace - awsome!! A raaf tech who did some part time electronic work for me told me the story of a US b52 crew who came to Darwin from Guam for r n r . From the moment they landed they bragged about their aircraft and its amazing performance , whilst there a vulcan from Singapore on its way on a rescue mission to New Zealand landed to refuel, with a spare engine strapped in the open bomb bay doors, (for a stranded vulcan in NZ) The brits silently listened to the US boast, when they took of the next day at about 100 feet above runway, the vulcan opened up, climbed almost vertically whilst the sound thundered, and the ground shook. Ha HA the yanks shut up and two days later took off very gently and sedately.
Patrick Tuohy . Saved. That is a comment from a wannabe who knows very little about the military relationship between the US and Oz. The pacific campaign would have been hugely different without our commitment. The yanks finally got into the fight (both World Wars) late and still need help to this day. Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf, South China Sea.
I suspect that there are many other (former) small boys who remember these tales from the Waddington area. In the early 70's I lived in nearby RAF Digby and would listen to the Vulcans scrambling into the sky and roaring away for what seemed like ages. I'm an old-ish man now and the roar of an aircraft in the distance still sends me back to my boyhood and my thoughts of where those aeroplanes and men were going.
Elihu, tell us about the performance of the BAC Lightning compared to it's allied contemporaries. That'll probably wind the Americans up too, I imagine ;O)
Elihu haha waw man brits are the reason the yanks got their firs jet turbine engine
@Patrick Tuohy hey friend like the young aussie software engineer who worked at weapons research in OZ helped reprogram the combat, software on the f18s we bought from US (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet_in_Australian_service) a resultthe US has v etoed any medlling with the f35 sotware asthe Oz versikon was better than yours
Also our Jindalee OTHR
www.baesystems.com/en-aus/feature/seeing-over-the-horizon
Yanks told us they had tried it and it would not work! Tom Suttie the English Prof. was active in UK WW 11 aircraft detection of uboats on the surfacewas in Alice Springs at the Mt Everard receivers, a mile of antennas, you can get a bird eye view on Google earth about 12 miles along the Tanami highway off the Stuart Hwy nth of Alice Springs I believe it can detect the waves in the South China sea and show wich wayh the wind is blowing.
Rest in peace to those brave men who died during test flight development of these magnificent aircraft.
I loved the sight of the test pilot for the first flight of the Vulcan heading out to the aircraft in his office suit.
Yes, the idiots in charge of budgets in the UK refused to retrofit the ejection seat design for the v bombers.
You have just got to love the test pilot getting in to the cockpit in a evening suit lol priceless !!
@11:24
I wonder how the Vulcan would perform today with the more powerful engines available today, although the engine power it had when it was so ignominiously retired was still formidable. In my opinion the “V” bombers were the best designed and engineered bombers ever designed, but top of the list has to be the Vulcan, although I might be slightly biased as my father was groundcrew on the Vulcan and I grew up with them flying over my home almost daily, and when I joined the RAF I was hopeful of following in his footsteps, unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the Vulcan was retired shortly after I joined up. Still, I had 24 years serving and worked on some of the most fantastic aircraft the UK 🇬🇧 ever had in the arsenal. Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative film 🎥👍
Careful monitoring of airframe hours and sensible upgrades could've kept the B2 force viable. The proposed B3 would've been better though.
jeffrey skoritowski, as with any aircraft careful use and monitoring of airframe hours and conditions could, theoretically keep an aircraft in service, the B-52 is a prime example of superb engineering, upgrades and modifications and a lot of TLC, unfortunately a lot of aircraft just become redundant when they are outperformed by newer more “snazzy “ types, a real shame that it happens, but inevitable.
@@jeffreyskoritowski4114... The big issue with airframe hours etc is simply that we never have enough aircraft to nurse them and give some a rest so everything gets run into the ground .... The Tornado was a classic example of that with Germany and Italy still operating theirs and our Typhoon today is going the same way
When the word documentary meant something...🤔
Exactly, no bullshit just massive amounts of factual information in a great format.
@Tim Webb oh. so they planted the missiles in Cuba. your nothing more than a communist sympathiser
@@JonsTunes Britain would have been annihilated before they thought of attacking USSR and this was the fact not fiction or imagination that you saw in that so called documentary. Go and do your homework there are hundreds of literatures out there, USSR never backed down but the other way round. It was just a movie you saw probably made by help of liar BBC. And by the way your Volcan and Victor what ever actually stands for Vagina nothing more than that you American vessals
@@rafatlatif544 I'm going to go ahead and guess that you actually think that Iraq won the first Gulf War, that the Holocaust never happened, and that the Earth is flat, huh?
The fact is that the UK had nuclear weapons AND the means to deliver them ... the USSR managed to get only ONE of those two things that was reliable, which was why they placed their unreliable, inaccurate crappy missiles so close the U.S soil .... Blue Steel, and later Polaris (both deployed by UK) were highly accurate, many orders of magnitude more reliable than Soviet missiles would be for more than a decade, and actually stood a chance of working, which is more than could be said for the R-12 (SS-4)
@@IanMadBrit I assume and guess that you are very proud of killing thousands of innocent Iraqi people for no reason. Lucky that at that time USSR broke and Russia was a vessal USA. Just remember you were nothing in comparison to USSR and you are no close to the might of todays Russia. Please do your homework
Thanks for posting. Possibly the best programme ever, about the Cold war and Cuban crisis; how the UK were involved.
I was 18 at the time, old enough to know what was going on. What I didn't realise were the true consequences. I remember my parents being very worried and staying glued to the overseas radio. No TV. We were in Kenya. Thank God nothing happened.
A detachment of Vulcan's were stationed at Offutt AFB near Omaha in the early 1960's. I'd see them in the air and once got to see them on base. Very impressive aircraft.
When I was on Victors we visited Offutt regularly - I managed to get on three trips there - great days
B-52=bomb semi truck. B-2 Vulcan= bomb muscle-car .
B-2 Vulcan bomber?
The Vulcan B.2 is the designation for the second mark of the design, more powerful engines, bigger wing, etc.
B52 = sluggish.... Vulcan = Maneuvers like a fighter :0l
A few times I experienced a very low airfield pass & full power climb out by a Vulcan. It is not just the sound thundering the eardrums but a physical assault from the pressure waves.
@@russcattell955i I was lucky enough to get to see one of her last Airshow appearances, the sound is just primal, like the sky is breaking. She set off every car Alarm for a good few hundred meters around the Air Field too!
Hats 🎩 off to the V force crews!
Jman👀
4
Kabul81
Cheers
Have to say,the Victor is a real beast (for the West),and the Tu-95 (for the East).
Both aircraft with form and definite function!
Started watching this thinking it was a fan made doc on Star Trek Vulcans visiting earth. Yeah, I need to go to bed.
I loved the fact that when I joined the RAF one of these beautiful Vulcans did the ceremonial flypast. Previous to that the only time I had seen one was the one from the Avro factory at Woodford in Cheshire and it was less than 1500ft over my home town and it was as thrilling as it sounds and being a very young boy I knew then that I wanted to join the RAF. I did and one of the things I did was to work on a Victor at Duxford air museum in winter getting them ready for the new season. Some technicians from 57sqn RAF Marham used to come and start her up and I would do anything to be in the area to hear that. To see these black and white films just trigger memories of actually seeing them for real and in colour.
When I was a young lad I went with my parents to an airshow at RAF Finingley near Doncaster. As part of it's air demonstration it used to come over the airfield low and slow and as it got halfway done the runway it would get full power on and go into a vertical climb and the noise and power used to make the ground and my chest vibrate and at that time it blew all the windows out of the houses and after that the RAF weren't allowed to it again!!!!!
In 1960 the USAF set up an exercise called SkyShield to 'prove they could defend the US mainland'. Sadly for them the RAF had other ideas. 2 Squadrons of Vulcan bombers were set to attack the USA - one from Bermuda and one from Scotland. Using their advanced Electronic Warfare capabilities the Bermuda aircraft flew in fast and low and the Sottish ones at 56,000 feet. Way above where US aircraft could fly.
Suffice to say all bar one Vulcan 'attacked' the US Eastern Seaboard. And then to prove it was no fluke they did it again in 1961 when the Americans said 'It couldn't happen again'.
In Kruschev's biography his son recalled it was not the US B-52s that worried him it was the RAF Vulcans sitting crewed, fuelled and tooled on the end of runways as he had no way of 'seeing' them at great height...
Gonna call BS as the success rate for the simulated Soviets in those exercises was at least 75%. The Vulcans with their advanced electronic jammers fared better at 88% although only eight participated. So it is doubtful that anyone involved on the defense side would boast "it couldn't happen again".
And the Soviets could absolutely see and likely destroy Vulcans considering they shot down a U-2 in 1960 flying at over 70,000 feet - well above the service ceiling of the Vulcan. If Khrushchev was particularly worried about the Vulcan, it just shows how dumb he was considering the UK had less than 50 nuclear weapons in 1960 while the US had over 18,000 with thousands of bombers along with ICBMs which are far more difficult to intercept.
@@AhpgZfoc4s So let me get this right? You say the success was better than I suggested and therefore its bullshit? Not sure I follow the logic. As for the USAF saying it couldn't happen again well they did and to prove it ran the exercise again a year later when Vulcans delivered a similar result. Point made.
And then you challenge Kruschev's own words as recorded by his own son in his biography? Not a lot I can say about that arrogance. The problem for Russia back then was the speed at which the Vulcans could get airborne and approach Russian territory. Or rather Warsaw Pact territory which started in East Germany! They could also fly high at speed or low at speed. Or both. And I suspect shooting down a slow lumbering powered glider with no defences is far easier than a tooled up fast bomber with advanced electronic defence arrays.
And finally it doesn't matter if the USA had 2 Mn nukes in the USA it had no way of delivering them against Russia in any meaningful way to deter Kruschev in Cuba. He was on the USA's doorstep. Now I am sorry if this offends your patriotism but he historical fact remains the real meaningful threat, and therefore the deterrent, was squadrons of Vulcan bombers fuelled, tooled and crewed ready to go in under 2 minutes. The average time in practice runs was 1 minute 40 seconds.
@@1chish No, the overall idea that somehow the RAF was special in defeating the defenders at the SkyShield exercise is BS as is the idea that a defense system that failed to intercept most of the bombers, Vulcans and hundreds of regular ones alike, would have defenders suggesting it couldn't happen again. Do you have a source for the "couldn't happen again" claim?
If Russia was scared of the speed at which Vulcans could get airborne and approach the USSR, imagine how much more worried (and confident considering they had their own) they were about ICBMs. ICBMs, already in service in the US and USSR in 1960 take about 30 minutes to reach across the globe. Before ICBMs, bombers and particularly the V bombers were very useful for delivering nuclear weapons but even the a fast bomber at 650mph takes far longer and is much easier to intercept than an ICBM travelling over 6,500mph. Don't forget the US had nukes stationed closer to Russia as well. The V-bombers were nevertheless a potent deterrent for the UK just so you don't misunderstand but their role in averting nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis is overstated in this documentary.
Thank God we were allies.
@@1chish do you have sources for this please? Thanks.
I still think the victor looks like something from alien or the Star Wars films even today
iron sights ... The Vulcan & Victor still look remarkably modern and not like something designed in the late 40s and early 50s
When I saw them in 1980 at first I thought they were bombers.
Agreed..that thing is out of this world even Russian weird aircraft designs couldn't match
There is something very Flash Gordon about the Victor.
I was inside both a Vulcan and a Victor bomber at RAF Scampton during my schooldays in 1961. What I remember is the small space available inside for crew, quite claustrophobic really and full of all kinds of equipment.
Vulcan bomber at Norwich Airport museum. Many years ago it was flown in, purchased from the raf for £5k. Great thing to look around, especially sitting in the pilots seat.
This is a very good video and I have the DVD in my collection, my late father flew both Valiant's and Vulcans in the RAF, one can only speculate what would of happened if the RAF had adopted the Valiant BMk2 mor robust pathfinder version. They were all great achievements of British aerospace engineering, and the I hope that engineering excellence comes to the fore again in the GCAP.
The Victor was a deterrent just by its looks, the scariest looking bomber ever.
The Vulcan on the other hand was all grace, and I had the joy of seeing it flying on a couple of displays.
The Victor still looks ultra modern and futuristic I think, poor Valiant though she gets forgotten a lot. Yeah, she had problems and was just a stop gap made in a rush and thus had a short life but it was only about 10 years from going from Lancasters to the Valiant, a high altitude and high speed jet bomber flying.
So she deserves respect and admiration I think.
@@Tuberuser187 The valiant was a nice looking plane though more conventional it was still ultra modern plane at the time, it was used to test the first British H bomb, and it was used in the suzie's crises and proved its worth
Many years ago, when we had a local RAF airfield and they used to put on air shows in September, they used to feature Vulcans in a four aircraft scramble. Four Vulcans into the air in two minutes. The noise was incredible, everything was shaking, probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen.
@@rogueriderhood1862 Wow! That would have been amazing to see and hear.
@John Cliff Yes, an amazing spectacle and one we'll never see again. The RAF is just a tactical air force these days.
The Victor looks like something from Flash Gordon.
Or Star Wars
The V-bombers are some of the finest aircraft produced since the Wright brothers "played" on the beach
The Wright Brothers were true geniuses of the kind that comes only one or two times a century, if humanity is lucky. They are always celebrated national hero's of whichever country they happened to be born in just as inventors like Westinghouse Bell, the Wright brothers. For some reason there was an explosion of these geniuses around this time.
Don't forget the Wright's not only invented the aircraft but also Acer nautical engineering at the same time, with their invention of the wind tunnel and scientific approach to airplanes and flight. Actually I think that was their true genius and breakthrough, the wing and aircraft and aircraft stability and control then followed as a natural evolution. Seems like it to me anyway, that the wind tunnel was the tool and key that revealed all the secrets of flight hidden from view, and understanding, since that moment.
Now that is some kind of productive play.
@@jamesm.taylor6928 - Have I written something that contradicts what you write ?. The first time I became interested in the two brothers was when I got my first loan card for the school library, in August 1970. So I think I have read most of what is known about the good boys.
Well if it helps you sleep at night.😎
In the long run it turned out to be a good thing that Britain developed their own nukes. Nice to have an ally that is powerful enough to tell us to stick it!
Saw a vulcan coming in low, hard and fast over St Athens military air strip when I was a kid in the early 80s.. Then up and away rolling left with full power.. Omg.. I will never forget that sound..
Loudest aircraft ever. Did she howl any?
@@yourdrummer2034
The Vulcans didn't howl -Tornados howl, Typhoons scream, Eagles roar, Vulcans *_BELLOWED._*
Britain used to be at the forefront of aeroplane design and manufacture. Shame we don't make anything these days.
The Vulcan is such a damn sexy looking bomber that its delta wing configuration gives me feels I cannot comprehend.
Nice to see Norwich on the map! The market doesn't look like that anymore that's for sure. A very good documentary as well, I wasn't around in 1962, I was still a glint in the milkman's eye. But, I remember my parents telling me just how scared they were at the prospect of nuclear war being possibly around the corner.
Who ever did the mixing on this needs an award.
Thanks for this Paul Swain! Super interesting, glad to be able to see this knowledge before it is forgotten
Outstanding documentary...!
Only over the last decade has it been released or revealed by this doci and other print and TV studies that the RAF, V bombers were part of the SIOP an integrated RAF/USAF strategic targeting plan which would have included various USAF aircraft B47 and RAF Thor ICBM installed in the UK ( UK , PM MacMillan offered the removal of the 6O Thor ICBMs as a bargaining offer, JFK could trade with the Soviets). The RAF V bombers were somewhat less ready than planned, the Blue Steel so called standoff HP powered rocket missile was not operational on the Victors and Vulcans until the following year and we're still armed with British free fall Nuclear and Hydrogen bombs in 1962 and the Valiants possibly at the highest state of readiness for a probing RAF first warning strike ( the UK was much closer than the US to most sig Soviet targets) were probably ready to go and dispersed with USAF released standard 10 kiliton nuclear bombs quite possibly to attempt to take a wide range of oil and small city targets around the Baku and Caspian Sea in an attempt to eliminate much of the Soviet oil reserves as a UK warning shot. The British public were largely or entirely unaware of the UK involvement in the US/ NATO build up.Evacuation of the population was considered pointless in the nuclear age and with only 3 Lightning fighter squadrons for point defence the UK would have relied on USAF fighters at USAF based in the UK
The only two implemented or planned moves during the Cuban missile crisis month were to move the paintings on the Tate to Wales and the London Zoo Tigers to Wales too.
A very interesting 'what if' scenario. And very scary too.
l remember October 1962, as if it was yesterday. l woke up hearing my mother crying to my dad downstairs, l sneaked to the bottom of the stairs to listen to dad and mum, she said "l don't want to die what will to the children if we die" looking back how naïve my parents were. Not knowing how powerful a nuclear bomb is. l was 7 years old and soon approaching my 65th birthday. l grew up like my generation in the cold war the fear of being obliterated at anytime. During the Cold War we knew who our opponent's were, today l think in my humble opinion it is more frightening due to terrorism and countries wanting their own nuclear deterrent. l think it was Albert Einstein said WW3 will be fought with nuclear weapons WW4 will be fought with sticks and rocks.
Tony DD most of us knew about it but didn’t think about it too much because it was ‘out of our hands’ and our parents and grandparents had fought two world wars.
I also remember 'the Cuba crisis' like it was yesterday. My dad was in the RAF reserve after just retiring from over 40 years career bomber command (navigator, and later Group Captain), so he was called back up over that period, I remember my Mum being in tears, we honestly thought that the bomb was going to drop any minute.... a terrifying few days.
Better to grow up in the 50s with the fear of dying than in the 40s when thousands actually died. No civilian died in the UK as a result of enemy action in the 50s - compare that with the blitz in the 40s
WHAT!? no snowflake safe spaces because some "war"???
Thank you for this video.
A pleasant and informative summary of the V-bombers and the times they lived in.
Great documentary, only thing that bothers me is the amount of Victor K2 footage used to represent bombers...
I was an Royal Air Force Cadet in the 1970s,and wanted to be a fighter pilot;but looking back we were all mad,there is no such thing as a deterrant ,as any mistaken launch,will start an allout war,and the whole planet would be destroyed,so no one wins?
Its disturbing to say the least to know that people agree to commit these atrocities ,even in less destructive cases
The Vulcan was one of the most impressive, graceful & lovely aircraft that we will not be able to see fly anymore! Why is the world still at war? Religion? Money? Power? As an intelligent race (humans), can we not get over all this? Who started the Vientnam war? I will miss lots of others but what happened to building 7 on the 11th September? I'm sure if some research is done you will know where i'm going!
When brits still had good engineering
And a world-beating National Health Service. Before Maggie Thatcher screwed the place.
@@robertfindlay2325 Maggie screwed the unions, someone had to. They were run from Moscow. Not all but most.
Great engineering, terrible teeth!!
@@robertfindlay2325 Labour in the 1970s failed to deal with communist unions, shoved up taxes and crashed the economy. Thatcher cut tax rates, sorted out the unions, allowing the economy to recover. She doubled the money taken in tax. The NHS is paid from tax so gets away with its poor efficiency but always does better when the economy is doing well.
Still do.
One day during crisis I walked to high school wondering if there would be nuclear weapons dropped on Seattle less than 150 miles away and about any fallout. That was an interesting walk back home and to the radio.
My dad was sitting in his Vulcan at RAF Marham, waiting to go t the height of the Cuban crisis. Years later I found out he had told my mother to use his shotgun on me and my Sister if she saw the aircraft take off, I was only 5, Sister was 7. She said she would have done just that had seen the Sqn scramble.
Phil Stinton they were scary times my friend, but hearing a story like that really puts the Cold War fears into perspective....
He was probably hoping it was an exercise and you all had life insurance :-)
i lived about a 1/2 mile from detriot metro airport back then. one side of the airport had an air national guard base. during the crisis SAC sent about a squadron of b47s on dispersal alert to the base. i remember riding home on the school bus watching them land,one after another with the long drogue chutes behind them. i was a big a/c fan even then and knew all SAC and its mission. but being 8 years old, i really didnt get the serious of it until i heard my mom and dad talking about it. my dad said it was a dispersal alert to prevent the bombers from being caught on the ground,like at pearl harbor and clark field. i asked if the russians would drop a bombs on detroit. he said yes, probably more than one. after that,i was plenty scared.
Phil Stinton Think it might have been a Victor.
Thanks for sharing. It brings home what was going on, and not just a history lesson.
When I was a kid I built models of those aircraft. Beautiful and deadly looking, good for high and low fast and slow. Imagine an updated 21st century Vulcan and Victor. Funny thing about the Vulcan is they were stealthy if they were coming right at you. I don't think they were designed to be stealthy but they achieved it to some extent, especially from the front. Plus, they are wicked, bad ass looking aircraft, second to none. They look like they mean business.
I'm from Newark upon Trent.
saw loads of the Vulcan .
and yes couldn't really see them when they were
coming straight at you
we called them the
invisible visible mirage
but when they turned sideways.
oh lordy...
Is that so huh Did you ever seen one actually
@@jonathanstrong4812 up close? No. Not yet.
I hope that England didn't scrap these for they will be needed again. Things are getting crazy once more. Those two look absolutely terrifying.
Craig Pennington all gone I’m afraid.
@@docw1819 That's a shame, a real shame.
My Fathers favourite plane. Quite fitting, as he went on to be a support engineer for Polaris and Trident from 1964 to 1999.
One thing rarely mention is that by the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis the UK had run out of liquid oxygen as used in the Thor IRBM missiles based in the UK.
how do you run out of lox?? not like its helium or something, just make more..
I have read that our ADF Interceptors NEVER stopped our Bombers in practise in the 50's/60's.
15:12 wow. 3 scarred out of their minds guys and just one hatch? That's a horror story right there
If i remember rightly there was only ever one Vulcan crash where the crew survived
We were ready !! We are Always Ready 🇬🇧🇬🇧
The 52s look like clumsy oafs next to the Vulcan and Victor beauties . Did the 52 ever break the sound barrier? Ha, ha, I think not.
flip inheck you're wrong the Victor did break the sound barrier.
flip inheck. Hello mate, at 17:28 it clearly states that the Victor was the largest aeroplane in the world to break the sound barrier, ☺
Now you're just being an insulting jerk. He linked to the part of the clip where the narrator clearly states " the Vulcan was the largest aircraft in the world to break the sound barrier".
flip inheck on 1/6/1956 production Victor XA917 on a pre-delivery test flight was recorded as doing Mach 1.1. The pilot Johnny Allam let the nose drop with the engine producing high thrust. The sonic boom was noted between Watford and Banbury. A post-war photo-reccon Spitfire manage 0.97 Mach in a diving, making it the fastest ever flight by a piston-engined aircraft.
flip inheck no it didn't it came out of the dive and returned to Kai Tak, Hong Kong. The Spitfire PR.19 was on a met flight when it when in to its dive, it didn't come out of the dive until below 5000' (the altimeter gave a much higher altitude for the recovery due to instrument lag). Flt Lt Edward Powles was flying PS852 on 5/2/52 in order to take air pressure readings over the sea near Hong Kong. At just over 51,000 ft he went into a dive and got to a speed of 0.96 Mach. No piston engined proppeller aircraft has ever been recorded as going faster.
How cool was it that both Vulcan and Victor were rolled on their debut at Farnborugh, and then the B52 lumbers into the sky, just saying.
B52 carry 70 000 pounds..., this Toy barely 35 000, not impressive at all.
You have obviously never seen a Vulcan.
I have seen a B52, that is STILL in USE, and FEARED.
I have seen both and I find both very impressive. I always found it sad that the RAF retied the Vulcan. The Vulcan is a very unique aircraft. The B-52 is unique because it is still flying. I appreciate both designs.
The last two on my bucket list are the B-58 and the TU-95. I doubt I will ever see a TU-95 in the flesh though.
Great planes, great people! Amazing that we're all still here!
Had to add this separately: @ 43:12 it was not a SINGLE raid on Stanley there were 7 'Black Buck' raids in total. Some were bombing raids and some were radar and suppression raids using Shrike missiles mounted under the wings. The raids on Stanley were the longest bombing runs ever and are still the longest by supporting accompanying aircraft. For each Black Buck raid it took 11 Victor tankers to support two Vulcans one of which would continue to Stanley.
The Yanks said it couldn't be done. Once again we proved them wrong 21 years after we proved them wrong in Skyshield '60 and '61
It was the longest bombing run at the time. USAF B-2 Spirits now hold that record with their bombing missions over Afghanistan during 2001. They were operating from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri.
www.uso.org/stories/253-inside-the-longest-bombing-run-ever
@@Tomteeejay Well yes but the Black Bucks are still the longest raid using accompanied tankers from the same base. The B-2s were refuelled 'en route' by forward based tankers.
The air logistics and navigation accuracy required was world leading at the time.
I never learned about these planes growing up, it's a shame, they are some cool planes!
Had to laugh a test pilot wearing a suit, collar and tie
Doug Borrett I think he was famous for always doing that.
I suppose he had his smoking pipe in his top pocket too !
Roly Beamont was always impeccably dressed.
he served himself tea during the flight
Oy mate, you think me suit is funny ey! Imma be wearing it for your foc**n tests.
Vulcans are beautiful aircraft. Truly, aviation eye candy.
The fact remains the UK, CANADA and the USA is a triad force that really works well together. Sure we have our ups and downs but we always are there together. There are some other nations for sure but the 3 do have a special relationship. Amazing planes
The 1/3 scale vulcans were a thing of beauty
So, when Kennedy "mobilized", he included the RCAF Golden Hawks??? (at 26:28 in the video)
Ground-breaking aerodynamics is one of those expressions that really makes you stop and think just a little.
Illuminating. It would be fascinating to hear the Russian view of this period?
We have invaded Russia three times in the past so u can imagine their thoghts.
Richard E. Miranda only do that if they pay
Russian air force veteran said that they always suspected the Vulcan could do a lot more than the British were letting on.
After the iron curtain, he found out it couldn't, but was still impressed by the psychological warfare effect of unusual designed planes.
(A bit like the Americans worry over the huge but relatively useless Ekranoplan.)
I saw on another documentmentary a ex Russian officer in their airforce at that time said they didn't exactly know what the victor could do aswell as a ceiling height... as someone said in another comment, the RAF didn't let anyone know what the vulcan or the victor could do.....at a push in raf style ;-)
The Victor looked as though it on Darth Vader's side! Interesting stats thank you very much!
If only history, military documentaries were this well made today. I’d pay a subscription fee just to have access to every history, tlc, discovery, nat geo doc ever made before the year 2000. Disney+ nat geo content is garbage,
You meant to say Disney+Boeing and NewsCorp ?
No, the Vulcans also flew SEAD missions during the Falklands campaign
13:30 ... it had handling, and maneuverability, characteristics, which were quite impressive...for the day. Hey, it still has thise same characteristics today...
to this day it would fly circles around any fighter in the world at 40k feet+, you either nail it bvr (not easy with the very powerful ecm) or you boom and zoom it which again wouldnt be easy. the vulcan wouldve been a real handfull for an interceptor
Are you out of your mind?
@@Scoobydcs definitely an exceptional aircraft. People like say a lot of ridiculous things, and don't know anything about the subject....
Ive seen the Vulcun its massive and the noise is breath taking . To move like a fighter jet is simply unbelievable.The UK needs to start building future aviation projects because we do firsts!
Beautiful machines for obscene purposes.
This video should have 1 Billion views!
why does this remind me of threads so much
A very dangerous time. A cracking video, lets hope that the present war in the Ukraine doesn’t lead to nuclear conflict.
Very interesting and balanced documentary. I remember the Cuban missile crisis well. Fortunately we did not know much detail at the time. Khrushchev was a simple man who over played his hand. Ousted soon afterwards. A few years ago I saw a Vulcan on its farewell flight around the U.K. perform an amazing loop the loop starting from near ground level at R.A.F. Boulmer, Northumberland. Staggering sight.
He was smart enough to survive Stalin when those around him were being executed and was in charge of the Stalingrad defense. Simple man? No.
Anton Deque what bomber uk have now
It was a victory for the USSR. He got what he wanted. For the USA to remove there intermediate range Nuke Missiles on the USSR border in Turkey and those in Italy.
If by "simple man" he meant that Chruschev was a trained locksmith, and until very late in his career would always carry his tools with him, for the event that he was recalled from his duty as a party official, and had to work on his job again, yes he was a simple man, and I admire him for that. If you mean that it isn't simple to understand him and his political reasonings, then you are right, of course
@@readhistory2023
Russia into Cuba is like Nato into Ukraine? Ahh! Now I get it!
Brilliant documentary, and also some brilliant reference footage for the airfix anti flash white b2 im building
avro...A.V.Roe....now i underpants.
Complete madness. Insanity. And we're still at risk of complete extinction even today.
Seems like humans never learn from their mistakes.
First flight of a huge jet powered, delta wing, nuclear armed death machine and the test pilot rocks up in a suit, tie, brown shoes and a flying helmet. People had style back then.
Music at 14:25 : Thunderbirds are go!
Nice little marches, both the Barry Gray theme and this one.
The Vulcan although one of my favourite planes among the usual suspects. Lancaster, Mosquito, Lightning and Buccaneer. The Victor is just scary, it's so menacing to look at. Go to Elvington, look at one head on and say you are not bricking it !!
11.29: "Oh sod it Atkins, just give me my mask... But Sir what about your flight suite. You can send my jacket to the cleaners afterwards, now wheres my pipe and slippers..." These are the guys who made Briton great, not some greasy little turd whose daddy was a peer in the foreign office.
Ah yes. The Victor pilot in his colorful flight suit/smoking jacket.
Hard to believe the Victor broke the sound barrier!
In a dive.
Learn to love the bomb
Orange Herald was a British nuclear weapon, tested on 31 May 1957. At the time it was reported as a H-bomb, although in fact it was a large boosted fission weapon.
Hats (with furry flaps) off to the Ruskies a bit as well:- thanks for not actually totally fucking obliterating us!
Vulcans need to come to DCS World like, yesterday. Such an awesome aircraft. Nothing but gas and engines in that huge wing. And by wing I mean plane. Because that all it is!
The World was saved by 1 Rusian Sub captain not agreeing to fire an Atomic missiles.
Actually grew up as an infant child under the flight path of the Vulcans, or V-bombers as we called them, in Derbyshire in the early 60's.
Beautiful but terrible simultaneously.
our nuclear arsenal was never enough to wipe out life on earth. Decimate human civilization, sure, but the claims that we could sterilize the earth are ludicrous.
life would find a way...lol.
At their height, there were just over 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world. That's enough weapons to decimate the entire surface of the planet. Does that mean that some life somewhere might still survive? Maybe.
Not really when the destroying of civilization as we know it was about blowing so much dust into the atmosphere as to cause global cooling so strong it would cause most animals freeze or just starve to death when their food sources died and make agriculture as we know it simply impossible. A commonly used term for this was the so-called "nuclear winter".
@@BobSmith-zj6lk There are probably more microorganisms living deep in the crust of the earth than there are living on the surface. They have been found 12 miles deep.
Forget nukes, only our CO-2 emissions could do that
V Bombers.... absolutely amazing. Love em 👍
Trump would not understand any of this
What a knob you are.
Uh-huh..
www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/donald-trumps-nuclear-uncle
ua-cam.com/video/UQpSdKxd5bg/v-deo.html
"Orange man bad because I'm stupid!"
He understands it well enough to actually restore our forces to prevent this from happening again, instead of giving billions to our sworn enemies and gutting our defenses, like his predecessor did.
@@104thDIVTimberwolf Hahaha You naive fool. You really think the increased budget has anything to do with the safety of the nation? It's business, mate. It's about money. It's about feeding his friends.
I was growing up, at the very end of the cold war. I was about 17 years old, during the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. I also happened to live near several military bases. Sounds like a bold statement? Several? How? Location. I lived on a 'live-aboard' sailboat, moored in the middle of Boca Chica bay, Key West Florida. So, key west naval base, boca chica naval air station, and probably couple others. I could literally see the tops of the mighty C5 Galaxy, parked along the runways at BCNAS(?) The training sorties would fly literally all the time, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Most of the training there, i believe was 'touch and go' landings, for aviators destined to fly and land on aircraft carriers.
*It was truly AWESOME spectacle, every single time i would watch these amazing machines flying right above our sailboat!*
I often pondered what an attack would seem like, and was later informed that typically by the time you could hear an enemy aircraft, the munitions would already be incoming.
It was an intense time, the cold war. Yet, i would admonish younger people today, that there are even more frightening things happening in some places, right now. The world may indeed Not be more safe now, than it was 30 years ago.
War is like a *human fire*, we should ALL do our part to prevent it ever becoming *firestorm. Like WW3.*
similar here, growing up in 1980s Europe where the Warsaw pact was far closer. City I grew up in was home to 3 army bases, 2 airbases, several reserve depots, and a major radar and control installation all within about 20km of where I lived. My house was pretty much ground zero for dozens of Soviet nuclear and chemical warheads and probably germ warfare as well.
We just didn't think of it, as it'd drive you mad worrying.
Gave me a lot of appreciation of the armed forces, both our own and the American and British holding the Red Menace at bay.
I like the other 2 but I really like the simplicity of the underdog Valiant the most.
These crews (both air and ground) and I suspect their American counterparts were very much the cream of the nations crop! I have had the privilege of working with some of them in the later civilian sector and they often stand shoulders above the crowd. At the time we stood against a foe whose avowed intention was stated, rightly or wrongly, as world domination. I firmly believe that it was these people who gave us peace. God bless them all!
If you get the chance, read the book by Tony Blackman ‘Vulcan Test Pilot’. It’s a very interesting story about how they got it to work.
It is interesting in the light of the present nuclear deterrent being primarily missile based that the first person to recognise that nuclear warheads would be delivered by missile did so in 1945. In his report to the UK government on the Nagasaki bomb Leonard Cheshire VC made that observation. The report was dismissed and gathered dust until the USSR launched Sputnik 1 when the west then realised that the USSR had the capacity to hit anywhere in the world using a missile.