In the video you said hawker hurricane which is propeller driven and instead showed a picture of a jet hawker hunter. The Hunter didn't fly till 1951, but the hurricane was there for the battle of Britain as you were talking about....honestly not to be a dick.....for real, sorry
I'm surprised you didn't mention Operation Thunderball in 1965. Where British MI6 agents were tasked with recovering a hijacked Avero Vulcan and the two atomic warheads it carried. Thankfully the downed Vulcan was found in the waters of the Bahamas and the missing atomic weapons were recovered. Great video as always Simon! 👍
You forgot to mention the important role played by one agent from the agency's special section, James Bond (codenamed '007') who was sent to the Bahamas to carry out the investigation. He worked with the FBI and found out there was a hidden plot organized by a criminal organization called 'Spectre' to steal the bombs from the downed Vulcan and hold the world for ransom with the threat of detonating the bomb(s). Ian Fleming, a famous writer. wrote a book titled 'Thunderball' describing the whole episode. !tihsllub.
The Valiant was delivered on time because it didn't suffer scope creep as many other projects do. It had a spec to hit and the spec didn't change, so it hit it. The problem with other projects is they see how well it does X then they want it to also do Y and Z, which wasn't in the original design spec, so it's tacked on and takes longer to find a way to make it work with what they have without having to start over.
Yup. Happened with the F-111 with the B variant and again with the F-35. Meanwhile you have planes like the F-15 and F-16 which were designed for specific purposes and had enough excess performance potential that they evolved in to more roles over time. Heck, it happened with the F/A-18 which had its roots in the program that developed the F-16; just navalized and with a bit more focus on ground attack capability from the outset.
@@RaderizDorret Unlike the F-111B though, the F-35 didn't scope creep, it was just complex, extremely powerful and therefore expensive. The Valiant though, was simple. It wasn't cheap and on-time because it didn't creep, it was because it was a simple aircraft built with yesterday's tech (meaning 40s tech)
It was also much simpler than the others, they also didn't fare too well in the fatigue department - they had a pretty short service life as a result. Though much more complex, the Valiant and Victor were both arguably more successful. Though Valiant did drop our first A-Bomb, which is pretty cool in itself.
I have so many great memories of taking my daughter to airshows when she was younger than *10yrs* to see the XH558 prior to it's retirement. The noise at Waddington will stay with me forever.
This one time in Melbourne's Four Floors of Whores, "The Daily Planet", a working gal gave me a Vulcan Howl.... I didnt walk right for 3 weeks. Blaze on!! Australian coke is the worst!!!!
Simon. I would love to see a video on the Soviet's version of Cheyenne Mountain . I realise there might not be much open source material but maybe do one of all soviet command and control facilities to expand it. Just curious
We did look into doing this, but I think it ended up being a case of just basically nothing to go on as its all super secret, and it would just be a ton of speculation. It's a great suggestion though :)
@@megaprojects9649 I’ll do you one better, chinas 816 nuclear military plant. The largest artificial cave in the world. It’s a military mega project for an underground nuclear productions facility
Our family farm was under one of the low flight paths used by Vulcans during the 1970s. They were both loud and aerodynamically "messy" - when the plane could be seen disappearing over the horizon around 20 miles away you could still hear the rustling of the air as the wing-tip vortices trailed many miles behind it. As it was a hill farm occasionally we'd look across and down "into" the cockpit - they were a little loose with the minimum height regulations back then. Only ever had one Victor fly over.
I used to work in Farnborough and every other year when the international air show was taking place, we saw some amazing planes. Including a Vulcan bomber. Words cannot describe just how amazing it is to see one in the air, to listen to the screeching of its engines and knowing this was one thing that saved my own country (Germany) from nuclear annihilation. Thank you, United Kingdom, for being a vital part of european security.
Having seen XH558 both in her hangar at Doncaster, and years prior in flight, three things stuck with me. Firstly, the howl of the engines. Second, the dart like shape, as a silouhette is genuinely intimidating, and thirdly, the Vulcans are a lot bigger than you’d think.
The "Vulcan Howl" is a legend, a phenomenon that most avgeeks know even if they never saw an Avro Vulcan personally :) (Still it must be even more a wow-factor than on the recorded media.)
@@B2BWidethey could be really quiet,I remember seeing it at west malling In The 80's when it ghosted over the crowd then stood it on its tail and lit it up vertical, no howl, just an earth scattering roar , it made the tarmac on the runway bubble , if you don't like a Vulcan you don't like aircraft
I remember as a kid growing up in Yorkshire in the 1970's seeing Vulcans flying overhead fairly regularly. Always a beautiful sight watching them bank and climb from wherever they were based nearby (I assume, too long ago, cant remember exactly) but they are a gorgeous aircraft.
They are. I was fortunate enough to catch sight of this last one on its last tour back around 10 years ago(?) out near Pocklington, near York as I was passing Stamford Bridge. It was an awesome sight and lots of cars pulled up at the side of the road to witness it banking and circling several times. It was truly wonderful.
Born in the mid 70s, grew up in Newark (Nottinghamshire). I remember asking my father what they were doing when I saw them flying as a young child. His reply stayed with me all this time, "their keeping us safe son". Happy times.
Yay a video that's nearly an hour long! I am that freak on here that genuinely loves long-form videos. Means i can put something on and not worry about having to find a new video for long enough that i can actually get stuff done instead of scrolling through videos i have little interest in since youtube likes to keep the videos from channels im subbed to off the main screen.
I’ll just put together a playlist when I need duration without interruption. Plus Simon just dropped 12 hours of casual criminalist on us this morning :D
@@asb2106 i use the watch later playlist, but even that requires finding videos. The Casual Criminalist is one show i actually need breaks from lol real life violence and death bothers me
A Vulcan flew low over my house when I was a kid ( we lived in Lossiemouth ) . I could read the warnings on the fuel door , but all I can remember is the ear splitting, gut liquifying howl of the engines. It was terrifying!
Thank you for doing justice to the V story. I remember being an RAF trainee in 1990 at RAF Locking, a Vulcan did a very low flypast and then went nearly vertical just above us. I swear I felt the exhust heat! And still feel the ground shaking 30 years later!!!!!
This was great, really good you took the time to explain the history of each aircraft in detail rather than rushing a quick overview I grew up next to RAF Waddington and my late fathers old Royal Engineer unit shared a hanger with the Vulcan display flight. I got to sit in XH558 a fair few times, I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have, and saw her flying very regularly. She's a very special aircraft
Honestly the Valiant B.2 is a huge missed opportunity. Not long after the prototype was scrapped, low level intruder aircraft became a huge concern (think F-111, A6, B1B, etc)
The UK's low level strike bomber would have been the BAC TSR 2 if politics hadn't killed it. Instead we used the Blackburn Buccaneer which was still a very good strike aircraft.
I was asleep in the garden and a Vulcan bomber flew pretty low over my house which was one hell of a surprise i can tell you lol, thought i was in a earthquake for a second till i saw it fly over head i remember my two cats were freaking right out like the world was coming to an end, truly epic sound with that awesome howl too.
Through my subscription to the 1950s Eagle magazine, I had cutaway illustrations depicting all three of these aircraft types. I thumb tacked these to my bedroom wall at home. Now, all these many years latter, a wonderful surprise popped up on my notifications feed, that Britain's V Bombers were going to be featured on a program cheerfully narrated by the one and only, Simon Whistler who's commentary reveals all truths about Britain's heavy duty bomber force. While I was watching the show, I idly wondered if these military aircraft types would have been suitable in another role with a commercial application as a passenger airliner, and carrying freight for freight forwarding companies like say, UPS.
Epic video thank you. One of my favourite things to consider about this subject, look at the Lancaster, look at the Vulcan and look at the short number of years between them, yet they were designed by the same man, genius.
My great uncle Alan (who is sadly no longer with us) was an engineer on the Vulcan bombers. It's an absolutely amazing aircraft that deserves the legendary reputation it has.
I saw a Vulcan at Offutt AFB in Nebraska in 1974. It struck me as so futuristic looking and beautiful! I'd never seen one before and I thought it was some new top secret aircraft, lol.
The V-Bombers all take significant inspiration in design from the De Havilland Comet, the world's first Jet Airliner from 1951. I hightly recommend the video about the Comet on the "Mustard" UA-cam channel. Many fundamental lessons in civil aviation learned from the Comet. And lots of very well put together content on "Mustard" about the history of aviation, both civilian and military.
I once witnessed in the summer of 1979 an RAF Vulcan bomber do a fly-by in front of Chicago's lakefront (practicing for an upcoming airshow). Not only did it have a sinister look to it, but a sinister sound as well!
Nothing beats the sound of a Vulcan up close! I've had the pleasure to witness one 10+ times and it never got old. It's such a shame we wont get to experience it again.
I remember witnessing the Vulcan at an air show. With the sheer power of those magnificent Rolls Royce engines, it sounded like whole planets colliding! Space age design in a deeply analog age. Long shall they be missed!
I feel privileged that I managed to see the Vulcan at Cosford back in 2013. It was amazing. As was the Typhoon that went vertical above our car and the Apache. What a great day that was even though the road management was appalling.
I quite agree. A privilege above all privileges in the world of aerospace. I remember in my childhood seeing one fly at an airshow at RAF Manston back in the early 90s. It wasn't much later that they stopped flying and retired from such things. Jump forward to being at, of all places, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, in 2010 that I saw one again in the skies above my head. The sight, the thunder of it moving through the Sussex skies and the noise! Ooohh the noise. Anyone whose heard them won't ever forget that. Amazing planes.
Having grown up near the Farnborough air show as a kid. The noise of the Vulkan made our windows rumble, you truly f'd up to be on the receiving end of that noise.
I remember seeing the vulcan at Duxford when I was a kid, was in awe of the sheer size and power of this monster, got my into collecting the world aircraft files, for whatever I reason I fell in love with the F14 tomcat
I recall rather impressive plastic Vulcan bomber toys being found in Shredded Wheat packets. Fired by catapult: they did an excellent loop, before hitting the ground and breaking the nose off so you couldn't launch them again! :)
My grandfather was ex RAF and was the Ministry of Supply guy who checked that the Handley Page Victor was built to the required spec at their factory in Radlett. Years later, I worked in the same building when it was a warehouse.
The V bombers were beautiful machines. I'm especially fond of the Vulcan, I saw one fly at Farnborough in 2014 and the sound and sight of it was something else, truly intimidating yet beautiful.
A lot of that low level training that the Vulcan crews did occurred at my home town of Goose Bay. I have many childhood memories of seeing and hearing the mighty Vulcan taking off from the military base there... the RAF even donated one to my hometown and it currently sits on display just outside the local airport...
A great video, liking the longer length a lot. To this day it never ceases to amaze me that the first flight of the Avro Vulcan was just 11 years after the first flight of the Avro Lancaster!
It's amazing to me that all those technologic marvels as the V-bombers, U2, SR-71 and the A12, the experimental XB-70 Valkyrie, Concord, and even the F-117 have all had their "wings clipped" and are relegated to museum and gate guard duty unlike the BUFF (aka B-52), C-130, and UH-1 and AH-1 are all still operational and are slated to be for the next 20-40 years.
I've gotten to see the Vulcan in flight at very low altitudes at the Clacton air show a couple of times now and it is a beautiful sight. For such a large aircraft it spends a surprisingly small amount of time with throttles engaged, but when the throttle is pushed up you certainly know it.
I once watched a Vulcan perform in an air show at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, USA in 1975. It was amazing. I was sitting on a berm near one end of the runway. The Vulcan took off and made a couple of stately passes the length of the runway. Then the Vulcan climbed to around 20,000 ft (6,000 meters) then dived down to under 500 ft (150 meters) and went screaming (literally) over the runway at over 400 knots. As it reached the end of the runway it went into a vertical climb and proceeded to perform an Immelmann turn. I later asked a B-52 pilot I knew what would have happened if he tried something loke that in a BUFF. He advised me that the wingtips would have touched like the hands of someone doing.side straddle hops just before departing the aircraft. The USAF Thunderbirds performed that day but the real star was the Vulcan. Amazing aircraft!
The Avro Vulcan has been the star of the show at almost every airshow that I've ever been at (until it stopped flying). That characteristic howl, and all the car alarms going off is a sure sign of a Vulcan display...as well as it going into a turn, and blocking it's own sound with it's body, and suddenly going silent. Beautiful plane!
I remember watching the Vulcan and Victor taking off from RAF Tengah in Singapore in the early 60's. A Beautiful site and also the Javelin was based there too as my father was a pilot on the Javelin, yet another delta wing design!
A good book I read was called V Bombers by Tim Laming which gives the background on all three and goes into a bit more detail about the development of the aircraft around the Blue Danube missile. And the reasoning behind having three designs simultaneously. A good read.
What a fantastic long form video. I’d love to see more long videos like that, I like listening to you while I work at my computer. Can you do a deep dive into how the bomarc missile won out over the avro arrow? It’s a massive sore spot for us Canadians. - all the best from the great white north
@@megaprojects9649 Usually I watch your videos while "washing up" as you Brits put it. I made a point to set aside extra time to watch this one. Thank you making it.
i had the honour of sitting in the pilot seat of a Vulcan when i was about 10 years old, it was a very quiet day at the museum and they let me and my dad inside for a look around. if i got that opportunity now as an adult i'd be even more excited!
I’m surprised that y’all didn’t comment about the Vulcan being a movie star as well, for it’s appearance in James Bond Thunderball. Watching that with my dad as a child was my first time seeing one and I have always loved the howl they make with the intakes.
I remember in 1977 as a kid see 2 vulcans parked at the airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica while I was in an airplane getting ready to takeoff. They were beautiful aircrafts.
Once got to sit in the cockpit of a Vulcan at an airshow once, not a lot of space in the crew compartment despite the size of the plane. Amazing looking machine though, incredibly elegant, and despite its decades of age, it somehow still looked futuristic.
Me and my grandad went to see the Vulcan flying in its last year airborne. It was a fantastic day and the noise is something I will never forget. Duxford is somewhere I can wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who wants either a nice family day out or an educational enthusiasts outing. They’ve got tanks, artillery guns, planes and it’s basically a history nerds wet dream.
I had the pleasure of seeing a Canadian Vulcan back around 1980 at Offut air force base. It was an impressive sight to see as it came over the field quiet as a mouse then hit afterburners and was gone.
I don't think the Victor is the most aesthetically beautiful aircraft, but it is ... elegant. Much like the B-52, it's kinda function over form, and that in itself is a sort of beauty, innit? And it looks good in antiflash white.
It is ugly from some angles, yes...but also conveys awesome power. In plan form it reminds me of a humpback whale with flippers/tail outstretched. Unusual but high performance. The big secret people don't likje to admit is that in most respects it comfortably outperforms the AVRO Vulcan, whose fame is essentially based on its looks.
Brings back great memories of seeing the Vulcan fly directly over my house on its way to Southport Air Show the year before its retirement. 250ft up and then going into a full power, almost vertical climb with its engines howling. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰. The one day I didnt go to the show (and it was only a few miles away) but if I had gone, I would have missed one of the most breathtaking sights and sounds of my life.
I would like to point out that an Avro Vulcan exists outside of the UK, in Goose Bay, NL, Canada. The RAF used to practice at the airbase and when the Vulcans were retired, one was deemed to be requiring more effort to return to the UK, so they donated it to the town.
Yeah I just mentioned how they made an effort to say that they put up the wrong photo but by editing it it took the same amount of effort as just putting in the correct photo to begin with and it makes no sense to me
@Art Ellis His editors are sloppy, but his researchers vary greatly depending on the topic. They tend to fuck up anything about armored ground vehicles every single time. They do better with aircraft, though.
I saw the Vulcan flying in 2012 at the Eastbourne Air Show. If was flying up and down over the channel from Eastbourne to Newhaven. It was seriously impressive.
The British did have a way of naming things. The engines Merlin, Olympus, Sabre, and my favorite the Saphire U.S. had R1830 and GE F110. It seems the early jets were just beyond the capability of engineering metal fatigue had never been a problem before.
Rolls-Royce's convention for aero engines was that piston engines were named for birds of prey (Vulture, Griffon, Merlin) and jet turbines for British rivers (Avon, Dart, Trent) The Olympus was originally a Bristol Aero Engines product; the name was retained when the company was bought by Rolls-Royce.
11:15 is possibly the single most amazing statement in this video. I dont know if I've EVER heard of an aircraft being delivered early and under budget and still meeting requirements in any history video. Or anything in general, not just aircraft lmao.
Thanks again Simon. One aspect of ac design the Brits seemed to get right far beyond any other country, is the absolutely gorgeous and sexy designs their instruments of annihilation always displayed. I'm fortunate enough to have seen all 3 of the beautiful V-Bombers fly and although the impressively cool manta-ray shape of the mighty Vulcan always got the most praise, and the powerful looking Victor usually got the most smiles when static, I for one always loved the sleek elegance of the Valiant. Truly love all 3 though!
I'm a model builder and display finished projects online with modelers in the UK. They outnumber US plastic modelers by a wide margin, per capita. They are also extremely proud of RAF V-bombers. In a discussion one day, several of them bluntly asked how we managed to keep B-52s flying for decades after the V-bombers were retired. I explained how, approximately every 7 years or so, B-52s are sent to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, OK. There, each B-52 goes through a complete rebuild, coming out a practically brand new airplane. Every airplane in the USAF inventory goes through the same process. There once were 5 Air Force bases dedicated to the Air Logistics of the Air Force that were built to service military aircraft built by the thousands during WWII. In the 1990s, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission closed the Kelly AFB and McClellan AFB, leaving Tinker, Hill AFB in Ogden Utah and Robins AFB, which I retired from in 2020. The history of the USAF Air Logistics Centers might make a great Mega Projects video in the future.
Nice job on this particular vid. Other than a couple of very minor errors, it was very accurate and informative as well as entertaining. Keep up the good work. You and your staff are getting better with each program you make.
When I was a kid I always thought the V-Bomber fleet looked like they were from the future. Staggering to think that they were built just a few decades after powered flight was invented. Also, was it British policy to build one workhorse, one sexy and one out there plane? They did it with fighters and bombers in WW2 and then the V-fleet...
02:08 that is not a Hawker Hurricane, that is a Hawker Hunter. And did you mean the Hawker Typhoon, a fighter/ground attack aircraft, was the "bane of the panzer corps"?
A couple of years ago I was flying from Dublin to London City on an Avro RJ85 and I amused myself with the thought that it was nice that Avro were still flying four engined aeroplanes over Europe 😉😂 All joking aside though, I was very fortunate to witness the Vulcan XH558 at the RIAT airshow in 2014 (IIRC) and it absolutely blew me away. People will often comment about the distinctive and wonderful sound of the Rolls Royce Merlin engines especially when it's a Lancaster fly past and so, similarly, the Vulcan had the most incredible turbine whine that no hi-fi speakers on the planet could do it justice. It was, and will forever be, the first delta winged bomber and one of the greatest aeroplanes ever made and if it had to have a swansong then you couldn't hope for one better than Operation Black Buck.
@megaprojects the one big upgrade of the Vulcan from B1 to B2 was the change of the wing from a delta with a straight leading edge to a delta wing with a "cranked" leading edge.
The vulcan is my goto comment about British aviation along with Concorde. The world learned loads from our stuff. I lived in Farnborough and literally had all the stuff fly over.
Ah yeah, I've loved the Vulcan ever since I saw it in Thunderball and discovered it was a real plane. I stopped at Castle Air Force Base in Central California once in the mid-to-late '90s, and they had an open-air museum with a lot of neat planes just out in the open without ropes or supervision. I was the only one there! Yes, I touched ALL the planes! :D They had a Vulcan! It was gorgeous! Other highlights included a B-36 Peacemaker with bomb bay open, a bunch of WWII Bs, an F-111, and so many more I can't recall. I took lots of photos, the chemical kind, and have yet to scan any of them in.
The Victor that "accidentally" took off in 2009 was Teasin' Tina. It was at the Rolling Thunder event at Bruntingthorpe near Lutterworth Leicestershire. The same place where the jet engine was invented and where XH558 was restored to airworthiness. I was there.
So I live near the old AVRO factory, and went for the first time yesterday. It was really cool. I had a cockpit tour of the Vulcan and woooow it's cramped for the crew. Really crazy that this vid came up today.
I visited Kiritimati (Christmas) Island in 2003. The vulcans were used there for nuclear testing. Very interesting place with the boffins bunkers and some other items still there
When I was about 10 yrs old I was forced to play cricket, at which I was notably incompetant. So looking up & watching a flight of 4 or 5 Nuclear White Vulcan's flying overhead so high in the sky was much more insteresting :-) Great memory of a beautiful aircraft. Thanks Simon & Co
After the mention of the Tornado, I did a search for it on the megaprojects channel and found it conspicuously absent. Would love to see you cover this aircraft.
Ah the V-bombers, there to provide a stepping stone between WW2 bomber doctrine and what was to evolve in the coming later years. Thanks Simon, you did a great service to and for these mighty warriors, shame the metallurgy really wasn't sufficient to allow these platforms to last a little longer, but such is the march of time.
Just FYI, the Hawker *Hurricane*, as Simon says (lol "Simon says"), was the "Bane of the Panzers". The editor shows the Hawker *Hunter* when Simon mentions the Hurricane, which was wrong. The Hawker Hunter first flew on July 20, 1951, and didn't enter service until 1954. Nine years after the end of WW2, when the Panzer Divisions where a thing.
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One of the best aircraft videos you've made on this channel yet! Congrats, and thanks, to you, your writers, and your editors.
@@Swm9445 ¹¹
In the video you said hawker hurricane which is propeller driven and instead showed a picture of a jet hawker hunter. The Hunter didn't fly till 1951, but the hurricane was there for the battle of Britain as you were talking about....honestly not to be a dick.....for real, sorry
@@Swm9445 aaaa
I donated to Vulcan to the Skies, Its a shame it looks doubtfull it will fly again. Oh well, at least I own a small piece of history 😔😔
Anyone who's ever seen a Vulcan will never forget it. The thing is bloody huge, beautiful and has an amazing sound.
It’s literally a technological Rodan 🤌🏻
@@tokyosmash Hell yeah I love it. Never saw it till now but what a beaut.
Are they the ones that make that crazy howling sound?
Yeah had one fly over when i was at school nothing sounds like a Vulcan also while its loud it iconic noise that you would never forget
@@wolf99000 I'm a little jealous, those were some striking aircraft
36:25 "A suitably steel testicled crew" The most beautiful compliment I have ever heard 😂👌
I'm surprised you didn't mention Operation Thunderball in 1965. Where British MI6 agents were tasked with recovering a hijacked Avero Vulcan and the two atomic warheads it carried. Thankfully the downed Vulcan was found in the waters of the Bahamas and the missing atomic weapons were recovered.
Great video as always Simon! 👍
🤣
en21b I presume that you posted your comment with your tongue firmly in your cheek, and you're referring to the James Bond 007 novel and movie.
You forgot to mention the important role played by one agent from the agency's special section, James Bond (codenamed '007') who was sent to the Bahamas to carry out the investigation. He worked with the FBI and found out there was a hidden plot organized by a criminal organization called 'Spectre' to steal the bombs from the downed Vulcan and hold the world for ransom with the threat of detonating the bomb(s). Ian Fleming, a famous writer. wrote a book titled 'Thunderball' describing the whole episode. !tihsllub.
@@lordofdunvegan6924😎Actually he worked with the C.I.A….the F.B.I. Is limited to operating only on U.S. soil.
it was touch and go there for a while.
The Valiant was delivered on time because it didn't suffer scope creep as many other projects do. It had a spec to hit and the spec didn't change, so it hit it. The problem with other projects is they see how well it does X then they want it to also do Y and Z, which wasn't in the original design spec, so it's tacked on and takes longer to find a way to make it work with what they have without having to start over.
Yup. Happened with the F-111 with the B variant and again with the F-35. Meanwhile you have planes like the F-15 and F-16 which were designed for specific purposes and had enough excess performance potential that they evolved in to more roles over time. Heck, it happened with the F/A-18 which had its roots in the program that developed the F-16; just navalized and with a bit more focus on ground attack capability from the outset.
@@RaderizDorret
Unlike the F-111B though, the F-35 didn't scope creep, it was just complex, extremely powerful and therefore expensive.
The Valiant though, was simple.
It wasn't cheap and on-time because it didn't creep, it was because it was a simple aircraft built with yesterday's tech (meaning 40s tech)
@@MostlyPennyCat That and it was a generational push in multiple ways which caused development costs to simply soar.
Just like build me a big villa, but then make it contain several apartments and somehow fit in a convenience store
It was also much simpler than the others, they also didn't fare too well in the fatigue department - they had a pretty short service life as a result.
Though much more complex, the Valiant and Victor were both arguably more successful. Though Valiant did drop our first A-Bomb, which is pretty cool in itself.
I have so many great memories of taking my daughter to airshows when she was younger than *10yrs* to see the XH558 prior to it's retirement. The noise at Waddington will stay with me forever.
That is called tinnitus...
51 min to timecode ? OOOOOw
1:55 - Chapter 1 - Background
6:05 - Chapter 2 - Vickers valiant
17:35 - Mid roll ads
18:55 - Chapter 3 - Avro vulcan
33:35 - Chapter 4 - Handley page victor
44:50 - Chapter 5 - Decline of the V bombers
49:35 - Chapter 6 - Further reading
How could you do a video on the Vulcan, and not have a clip of the Vulcan Howl?! It's an incredible sound to hear!!!
Best i could do :)
ua-cam.com/video/H_ARSE8jEHQ/v-deo.html&t
This one time in Melbourne's Four Floors of Whores, "The Daily Planet", a working gal gave me a Vulcan Howl.... I didnt walk right for 3 weeks. Blaze on!! Australian coke is the worst!!!!
Copyright issues
@@wingerding
I don't believe that.
The sound of an aircraft can't be copyrighted
@@MostlyPennyCat just a joke my friend
Simon. I would love to see a video on the Soviet's version of Cheyenne Mountain . I realise there might not be much open source material but maybe do one of all soviet command and control facilities to expand it. Just curious
We did look into doing this, but I think it ended up being a case of just basically nothing to go on as its all super secret, and it would just be a ton of speculation. It's a great suggestion though :)
@@megaprojects9649 that's too bad, hopefully they declassify she me info soon
@@megaprojects9649 I’ll do you one better, chinas 816 nuclear military plant. The largest artificial cave in the world. It’s a military mega project for an underground nuclear productions facility
@@TheZachary86 but is it super secret?
I am pretty sure the Russians only ever used their stargate a few times. Then they sold it to the USAF for the plans for the X303 and later BG304. :)
Our family farm was under one of the low flight paths used by Vulcans during the 1970s. They were both loud and aerodynamically "messy" - when the plane could be seen disappearing over the horizon around 20 miles away you could still hear the rustling of the air as the wing-tip vortices trailed many miles behind it. As it was a hill farm occasionally we'd look across and down "into" the cockpit - they were a little loose with the minimum height regulations back then. Only ever had one Victor fly over.
I used to work in Farnborough and every other year when the international air show was taking place, we saw some amazing planes. Including a Vulcan bomber. Words cannot describe just how amazing it is to see one in the air, to listen to the screeching of its engines and knowing this was one thing that saved my own country (Germany) from nuclear annihilation.
Thank you, United Kingdom, for being a vital part of european security.
Having seen XH558 both in her hangar at Doncaster, and years prior in flight, three things stuck with me. Firstly, the howl of the engines. Second, the dart like shape, as a silouhette is genuinely intimidating, and thirdly, the Vulcans are a lot bigger than you’d think.
But not in the cockpit. Tiny in there, especially for the pilots.
The "Vulcan Howl" is a legend, a phenomenon that most avgeeks know even if they never saw an Avro Vulcan personally :) (Still it must be even more a wow-factor than on the recorded media.)
Had it go over me in Selby on it's last flight. Shadow then a howl of engines.." Tally ho, Moscow it is lads..." thank god it never happened.
It's not even in the hangar anymore, it's just sat out there, I see it going past the airport terminal, albeit not very well, just the top of it
@@B2BWidethey could be really quiet,I remember seeing it at west malling In The 80's when it ghosted over the crowd then stood it on its tail and lit it up vertical, no howl, just an earth scattering roar , it made the tarmac on the runway bubble , if you don't like a Vulcan you don't like aircraft
I remember as a kid growing up in Yorkshire in the 1970's seeing Vulcans flying overhead fairly regularly. Always a beautiful sight watching them bank and climb from wherever they were based nearby (I assume, too long ago, cant remember exactly) but they are a gorgeous aircraft.
They are. I was fortunate enough to catch sight of this last one on its last tour back around 10 years ago(?) out near Pocklington, near York as I was passing Stamford Bridge. It was an awesome sight and lots of cars pulled up at the side of the road to witness it banking and circling several times. It was truly wonderful.
Born in the mid 70s, grew up in Newark (Nottinghamshire).
I remember asking my father what they were doing when I saw them flying as a young child.
His reply stayed with me all this time, "their keeping us safe son".
Happy times.
Yay a video that's nearly an hour long! I am that freak on here that genuinely loves long-form videos. Means i can put something on and not worry about having to find a new video for long enough that i can actually get stuff done instead of scrolling through videos i have little interest in since youtube likes to keep the videos from channels im subbed to off the main screen.
I’ll just put together a playlist when I need duration without interruption. Plus Simon just dropped 12 hours of casual criminalist on us this morning :D
@@asb2106 i use the watch later playlist, but even that requires finding videos. The Casual Criminalist is one show i actually need breaks from lol real life violence and death bothers me
That's the thing with YT isn't it. It's goal is to increase watch time but for some reason their sophisticated algorithm is actually pretty bad at it.
A Vulcan flew low over my house when I was a kid ( we lived in Lossiemouth ) . I could read the warnings on the fuel door , but all I can remember is the ear splitting, gut liquifying howl of the engines. It was terrifying!
Thank you for doing justice to the V story. I remember being an RAF trainee in 1990 at RAF Locking, a Vulcan did a very low flypast and then went nearly vertical just above us. I swear I felt the exhust heat! And still feel the ground shaking 30 years later!!!!!
This was great, really good you took the time to explain the history of each aircraft in detail rather than rushing a quick overview
I grew up next to RAF Waddington and my late fathers old Royal Engineer unit shared a hanger with the Vulcan display flight. I got to sit in XH558 a fair few times, I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have, and saw her flying very regularly.
She's a very special aircraft
Honestly the Valiant B.2 is a huge missed opportunity. Not long after the prototype was scrapped, low level intruder aircraft became a huge concern (think F-111, A6, B1B, etc)
The UK's low level strike bomber would have been the BAC TSR 2 if politics hadn't killed it.
Instead we used the Blackburn Buccaneer which was still a very good strike aircraft.
@@fl_3682 which was also shortsightedly scrapped. But that is in another video. 😂
@Gareth Fairclough the B.2 variant was reinforced with low level flying in mind. You're thinking of the plane jane Valiant.
I was asleep in the garden and a Vulcan bomber flew pretty low over my house which was one hell of a surprise i can tell you lol, thought i was in a earthquake for a second till i saw it fly over head i remember my two cats were freaking right out like the world was coming to an end, truly epic sound with that awesome howl too.
I got to see the restoration fly. Seeing it come in was impressive, but then it did a low and slow sweep over the crowd... just... damn.
Why were you sleeping in your garden? Isn't it full of dirt?
The Hurricane at the beginning of looks remarkably Hunterlike! ……Derek Hutton
MORE LONG VIDEOS PLEASE! Keep up the great work! The team and Simon do a truly awesome job!
Lol no chance, he has to narrate for his 19 other channels
That was one of the best videos you have ever done. It felt like a proper documentary.
Through my subscription to the 1950s Eagle magazine, I had cutaway illustrations depicting all three of these aircraft types. I thumb tacked these to my bedroom wall at home. Now, all these many years latter, a wonderful surprise popped up on my notifications feed, that Britain's V Bombers were going to be featured on a program cheerfully narrated by the one and only, Simon Whistler who's commentary reveals all truths about Britain's heavy duty bomber force. While I was watching the show, I idly wondered if these military aircraft types would have been suitable in another role with a commercial application as a passenger airliner, and carrying freight for freight forwarding companies like say, UPS.
Epic video thank you. One of my favourite things to consider about this subject, look at the Lancaster, look at the Vulcan and look at the short number of years between them, yet they were designed by the same man, genius.
They're all so Buck Rogers looking. I think they're awesome and I hope they're preserved in perpetuity for future generations to admire.
Did they have a brand new car that looked like a Jaguar?
I hear one of the vulcans are in private collection being restored
I absolutely love the looks of all the V-Bombers, everytime I look at them, they look like something weird coming from a different timeline than ours.
My great uncle Alan (who is sadly no longer with us) was an engineer on the Vulcan bombers. It's an absolutely amazing aircraft that deserves the legendary reputation it has.
I saw a Vulcan at Offutt AFB in Nebraska in 1974. It struck me as so futuristic looking and beautiful! I'd never seen one before and I thought it was some new top secret aircraft, lol.
The V-Bombers all take significant inspiration in design from the De Havilland Comet, the world's first Jet Airliner from 1951. I hightly recommend the video about the Comet on the "Mustard" UA-cam channel. Many fundamental lessons in civil aviation learned from the Comet. And lots of very well put together content on "Mustard" about the history of aviation, both civilian and military.
I once witnessed in the summer of 1979 an RAF Vulcan bomber do a fly-by in front of Chicago's lakefront (practicing for an upcoming airshow). Not only did it have a sinister look to it, but a sinister sound as well!
Nothing beats the sound of a Vulcan up close! I've had the pleasure to witness one 10+ times and it never got old. It's such a shame we wont get to experience it again.
I remember seeing one at a air show at Duxford as a kid & still can hear sound even now!!!
I remember witnessing the Vulcan at an air show. With the sheer power of those magnificent Rolls Royce engines, it sounded like whole planets colliding! Space age design in a deeply analog age. Long shall they be missed!
I feel privileged that I managed to see the Vulcan at Cosford back in 2013. It was amazing. As was the Typhoon that went vertical above our car and the Apache.
What a great day that was even though the road management was appalling.
I quite agree. A privilege above all privileges in the world of aerospace.
I remember in my childhood seeing one fly at an airshow at RAF Manston back in the early 90s. It wasn't much later that they stopped flying and retired from such things. Jump forward to being at, of all places, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, in 2010 that I saw one again in the skies above my head. The sight, the thunder of it moving through the Sussex skies and the noise! Ooohh the noise. Anyone whose heard them won't ever forget that. Amazing planes.
Having grown up near the Farnborough air show as a kid. The noise of the Vulkan made our windows rumble, you truly f'd up to be on the receiving end of that noise.
I remember seeing the vulcan at Duxford when I was a kid, was in awe of the sheer size and power of this monster, got my into collecting the world aircraft files, for whatever I reason I fell in love with the F14 tomcat
Can we have a series of big project that delivered on time and on budget? That would be cool and wholesome at the same time!
I recall rather impressive plastic Vulcan bomber toys being found in Shredded Wheat packets. Fired by catapult: they did an excellent loop, before hitting the ground and breaking the nose off so you couldn't launch them again! :)
My grandfather was ex RAF and was the Ministry of Supply guy who checked that the Handley Page Victor was built to the required spec at their factory in Radlett. Years later, I worked in the same building when it was a warehouse.
The Vulcan was always a favourite at the Canadian National Exhibition Airshow in Toronto back in the old days. I saw it many times.
Excellent as always, I'd love to see similar for the Buccaneer, an awesome UK jet with a decent history.
I'm sooo happy that you did the v-bombers
The V bombers were beautiful machines. I'm especially fond of the Vulcan, I saw one fly at Farnborough in 2014 and the sound and sight of it was something else, truly intimidating yet beautiful.
A lot of that low level training that the Vulcan crews did occurred at my home town of Goose Bay. I have many childhood memories of seeing and hearing the mighty Vulcan taking off from the military base there... the RAF even donated one to my hometown and it currently sits on display just outside the local airport...
So good to hear someone covering the valiant in such detail. Thank you Simon
A great video, liking the longer length a lot. To this day it never ceases to amaze me that the first flight of the Avro Vulcan was just 11 years after the first flight of the Avro Lancaster!
It's amazing to me that all those technologic marvels as the V-bombers, U2, SR-71 and the A12, the experimental XB-70 Valkyrie, Concord, and even the F-117 have all had their "wings clipped" and are relegated to museum and gate guard duty unlike the BUFF (aka B-52), C-130, and UH-1 and AH-1 are all still operational and are slated to be for the next 20-40 years.
Workhorses.
How many people daily drive a Ferrari?
I've always loved these planes. I had little die cast models of all 3 of the "V bombers" as a little kid. The Vulcan has always been my favorite.
I saw a Vulcan when I was 7 at an air show. I have never forgotten the sight and sound of it. Such beauty.
I really enjoy when usually-short-form channels do longer videos. The research is so detailed and the the presentation is so informative.
I've gotten to see the Vulcan in flight at very low altitudes at the Clacton air show a couple of times now and it is a beautiful sight. For such a large aircraft it spends a surprisingly small amount of time with throttles engaged, but when the throttle is pushed up you certainly know it.
3:50 British Nuclear history
6:05 Vickers Valiant
18:50 Avri Vulcan
33:30 Handley Page Victor
44:45 Decline of the V-Bombers
Wing wear out is very common- it happened to the Bristol Britannia, B-57’s, B-47’s, B-52’s, and C-124’s. It’s not just limited to British designs.
My personal favorite of the V Bombers is the Vulcan, which I personally think is the most elegant looking bomber ever made 🇬🇧
The Victor though. It looks incredibly futuristic
I once watched a Vulcan perform in an air show at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, USA in 1975. It was amazing. I was sitting on a berm near one end of the runway. The Vulcan took off and made a couple of stately passes the length of the runway. Then the Vulcan climbed to around 20,000 ft (6,000 meters) then dived down to under 500 ft (150 meters) and went screaming (literally) over the runway at over 400 knots. As it reached the end of the runway it went into a vertical climb and proceeded to perform an Immelmann turn. I later asked a B-52 pilot I knew what would have happened if he tried something loke that in a BUFF. He advised me that the wingtips would have touched like the hands of someone doing.side straddle hops just before departing the aircraft. The USAF Thunderbirds performed that day but the real star was the Vulcan. Amazing aircraft!
Yeah, I saw a similar performance at Abbotsford International Airshow -without the Immelmann, though. It was the last time in Canada.
The Avro Vulcan has been the star of the show at almost every airshow that I've ever been at (until it stopped flying). That characteristic howl, and all the car alarms going off is a sure sign of a Vulcan display...as well as it going into a turn, and blocking it's own sound with it's body, and suddenly going silent. Beautiful plane!
Living near Lincoln in the late 70’s and early 80’s it was a regular sight having Vulcans flying low over your home doing circuits and bumps.
I remember watching the Vulcan and Victor taking off from RAF Tengah in Singapore in the early 60's. A Beautiful site and also the Javelin was based there too as my father was a pilot on the Javelin, yet another delta wing design!
A good book I read was called V Bombers by Tim Laming which gives the background on all three and goes into a bit more detail about the development of the aircraft around the Blue Danube missile. And the reasoning behind having three designs simultaneously. A good read.
The unearthly howl of the Vulcan is truly something that needs to be experienced in person to be truly understood how terrifying that sound is.
Love that your oration and rhythm are so clear and precise that I can easily enjoy even more at 1.5 speed.
The content of the video aside, I just watched this on a big screen, and the camera resolution is amazing. Clearer than most amazon movies. Good job.
What a fantastic long form video.
I’d love to see more long videos like that, I like listening to you while I work at my computer.
Can you do a deep dive into how the bomarc missile won out over the avro arrow? It’s a massive sore spot for us Canadians.
- all the best from the great white north
Thanks. I like doing the long videos as well. This one is an experiment and if it works out, there will be more longer ones :)
@@megaprojects9649 Usually I watch your videos while "washing up" as you Brits put it. I made a point to set aside extra time to watch this one. Thank you making it.
i had the honour of sitting in the pilot seat of a Vulcan when i was about 10 years old, it was a very quiet day at the museum and they let me and my dad inside for a look around. if i got that opportunity now as an adult i'd be even more excited!
I’m surprised that y’all didn’t comment about the Vulcan being a movie star as well, for it’s appearance in James Bond Thunderball. Watching that with my dad as a child was my first time seeing one and I have always loved the howl they make with the intakes.
I remember in 1977 as a kid see 2 vulcans parked at the airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica while I was in an airplane getting ready to takeoff. They were beautiful aircrafts.
Once got to sit in the cockpit of a Vulcan at an airshow once, not a lot of space in the crew compartment despite the size of the plane. Amazing looking machine though, incredibly elegant, and despite its decades of age, it somehow still looked futuristic.
Me and my grandad went to see the Vulcan flying in its last year airborne. It was a fantastic day and the noise is something I will never forget.
Duxford is somewhere I can wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who wants either a nice family day out or an educational enthusiasts outing. They’ve got tanks, artillery guns, planes and it’s basically a history nerds wet dream.
I had the pleasure of seeing a Canadian Vulcan back around 1980 at Offut air force base. It was an impressive sight to see as it came over the field quiet as a mouse then hit afterburners and was gone.
A Canadian Vulcan? The RCAF did not operate any v-bombers.
I don't think the Victor is the most aesthetically beautiful aircraft, but it is ... elegant. Much like the B-52, it's kinda function over form, and that in itself is a sort of beauty, innit? And it looks good in antiflash white.
It is ugly from some angles, yes...but also conveys awesome power. In plan form it reminds me of a humpback whale with flippers/tail outstretched. Unusual but high performance. The big secret people don't likje to admit is that in most respects it comfortably outperforms the AVRO Vulcan, whose fame is essentially based on its looks.
My personal favorite is the Vulcan. Absolutely the most beautiful militairy aircraft ever built.
Brings back great memories of seeing the Vulcan fly directly over my house on its way to Southport Air Show the year before its retirement. 250ft up and then going into a full power, almost vertical climb with its engines howling. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰. The one day I didnt go to the show (and it was only a few miles away) but if I had gone, I would have missed one of the most breathtaking sights and sounds of my life.
I would like to point out that an Avro Vulcan exists outside of the UK, in Goose Bay, NL, Canada. The RAF used to practice at the airbase and when the Vulcans were retired, one was deemed to be requiring more effort to return to the UK, so they donated it to the town.
For anyone on the US west coast, there is also a Vulcan at the museum of the former Castle AFB in Atwater CA.
*mentions hawker Hurrican, Shows Hawker Hunter.
Yeah I just mentioned how they made an effort to say that they put up the wrong photo but by editing it it took the same amount of effort as just putting in the correct photo to begin with and it makes no sense to me
Relax guys
Was this done intentionally to increase engagement? 😂😂
But I bet he can spell Hurricane 😂
@Art Ellis His editors are sloppy, but his researchers vary greatly depending on the topic. They tend to fuck up anything about armored ground vehicles every single time. They do better with aircraft, though.
I saw the Vulcan flying in 2012 at the Eastbourne Air Show. If was flying up and down over the channel from Eastbourne to Newhaven. It was seriously impressive.
7:30 CC on: "Nucleus Jiu-Jitsu Bomber"
Now that's definitely something.
The British did have a way of naming things. The engines Merlin, Olympus, Sabre, and my favorite the Saphire U.S. had R1830 and GE F110. It seems the early jets were just beyond the capability of engineering metal fatigue had never been a problem before.
Rolls-Royce's convention for aero engines was that piston engines were named for birds of prey (Vulture, Griffon, Merlin) and jet turbines for British rivers (Avon, Dart, Trent)
The Olympus was originally a Bristol Aero Engines product; the name was retained when the company was bought by Rolls-Royce.
11:15 is possibly the single most amazing statement in this video.
I dont know if I've EVER heard of an aircraft being delivered early and under budget and still meeting requirements in any history video.
Or anything in general, not just aircraft lmao.
Thanks again Simon. One aspect of ac design the Brits seemed to get right far beyond any other country, is the absolutely gorgeous and sexy designs their instruments of annihilation always displayed. I'm fortunate enough to have seen all 3 of the beautiful V-Bombers fly and although the impressively cool manta-ray shape of the mighty Vulcan always got the most praise, and the powerful looking Victor usually got the most smiles when static, I for one always loved the sleek elegance of the Valiant. Truly love all 3 though!
A video on the MiG-21 would be amazing. It's seen an insane amount of use worldwide.
I'm a model builder and display finished projects online with modelers in the UK. They outnumber US plastic modelers by a wide margin, per capita. They are also extremely proud of RAF V-bombers. In a discussion one day, several of them bluntly asked how we managed to keep B-52s flying for decades after the V-bombers were retired. I explained how, approximately every 7 years or so, B-52s are sent to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, OK. There, each B-52 goes through a complete rebuild, coming out a practically brand new airplane.
Every airplane in the USAF inventory goes through the same process. There once were 5 Air Force bases dedicated to the Air Logistics of the Air Force that were built to service military aircraft built by the thousands during WWII. In the 1990s, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission closed the Kelly AFB and McClellan AFB, leaving Tinker, Hill AFB in Ogden Utah and Robins AFB, which I retired from in 2020. The history of the USAF Air Logistics Centers might make a great Mega Projects video in the future.
Nice job on this particular vid. Other than a couple of very minor errors, it was very accurate and informative as well as entertaining. Keep up the good work. You and your staff are getting better with each program you make.
When I was a kid I always thought the V-Bomber fleet looked like they were from the future. Staggering to think that they were built just a few decades after powered flight was invented. Also, was it British policy to build one workhorse, one sexy and one out there plane? They did it with fighters and bombers in WW2 and then the V-fleet...
Pulling an all nighter, wrapping Xmas pressies and binging MegaProjects 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 On point as always! Thank you for your content guys!
We had a Vulcan visit Minot AFB back in the very early 80s, truly a beautiful aircraft.
02:08 that is not a Hawker Hurricane, that is a Hawker Hunter.
And did you mean the Hawker Typhoon, a fighter/ground attack aircraft, was the "bane of the panzer corps"?
That part of the video was sponsored by @RAFLuton
A couple of years ago I was flying from Dublin to London City on an Avro RJ85 and I amused myself with the thought that it was nice that Avro were still flying four engined aeroplanes over Europe
😉😂
All joking aside though, I was very fortunate to witness the Vulcan XH558 at the RIAT airshow in 2014 (IIRC) and it absolutely blew me away. People will often comment about the distinctive and wonderful sound of the Rolls Royce Merlin engines especially when it's a Lancaster fly past and so, similarly, the Vulcan had the most incredible turbine whine that no hi-fi speakers on the planet could do it justice. It was, and will forever be, the first delta winged bomber and one of the greatest aeroplanes ever made and if it had to have a swansong then you couldn't hope for one better than Operation Black Buck.
Bombers Of The West by Bill Gunston is another fine book that covers V-bomber development and careers up to the early 1970s.
Excellent video! Loved the longer documentary! Great work!
@megaprojects the one big upgrade of the Vulcan from B1 to B2 was the change of the wing from a delta with a straight leading edge to a delta wing with a "cranked" leading edge.
The vulcan is my goto comment about British aviation along with Concorde.
The world learned loads from our stuff.
I lived in Farnborough and literally had all the stuff fly over.
Ah yeah, I've loved the Vulcan ever since I saw it in Thunderball and discovered it was a real plane.
I stopped at Castle Air Force Base in Central California once in the mid-to-late '90s, and they had an open-air museum with a lot of neat planes just out in the open without ropes or supervision. I was the only one there! Yes, I touched ALL the planes! :D
They had a Vulcan! It was gorgeous! Other highlights included a B-36 Peacemaker with bomb bay open, a bunch of WWII Bs, an F-111, and so many more I can't recall. I took lots of photos, the chemical kind, and have yet to scan any of them in.
Saw the Vulcan few years back on its last Airshow tour at Southport before it was retired. Incredible aircraft!!
Absolutely great video. Had to watch it in two pieces, first "half" while drinking my morning coffee, second now after work. Loved it.
The Victor that "accidentally" took off in 2009 was Teasin' Tina. It was at the Rolling Thunder event at Bruntingthorpe near Lutterworth Leicestershire. The same place where the jet engine was invented and where XH558 was restored to airworthiness.
I was there.
So I live near the old AVRO factory, and went for the first time yesterday. It was really cool. I had a cockpit tour of the Vulcan and woooow it's cramped for the crew. Really crazy that this vid came up today.
LOVE that you did an extended vid on this topic!! 😉👍✌️
Simon! I know it may be a pain, but the 50 minute videos are way better! You go into so much detail love it!
A wonderful video; an historical document; an excellent and professional piece of narration. 5* out of 5.
I visited Kiritimati (Christmas) Island in 2003. The vulcans were used there for nuclear testing.
Very interesting place with the boffins bunkers and some other items still there
When I was about 10 yrs old I was forced to play cricket, at which I was notably incompetant. So looking up & watching a flight of 4 or 5 Nuclear White Vulcan's flying overhead so high in the sky was much more insteresting :-) Great memory of a beautiful aircraft. Thanks Simon & Co
Hmmm, simon, no one is watching
After the mention of the Tornado, I did a search for it on the megaprojects channel and found it conspicuously absent. Would love to see you cover this aircraft.
Ah the V-bombers, there to provide a stepping stone between WW2 bomber doctrine and what was to evolve in the coming later years. Thanks Simon, you did a great service to and for these mighty warriors, shame the metallurgy really wasn't sufficient to allow these platforms to last a little longer, but such is the march of time.
Just FYI, the Hawker *Hurricane*, as Simon says (lol "Simon says"), was the "Bane of the Panzers". The editor shows the Hawker *Hunter* when Simon mentions the Hurricane, which was wrong. The Hawker Hunter first flew on July 20, 1951, and didn't enter service until 1954. Nine years after the end of WW2, when the Panzer Divisions where a thing.
Was just about to post the same thing :-) Great video though.
The Vulcan howl was awesome, I was privileged to see its last flight over Bruntingthorpe.
Great! I particularly liked the recommended reading refs at the end, a new and welcome addition. More like this please!