Sorrry to all the Vulcan fans but you only like it best because you've never seen a Victor. Saw them often at Park Street as a child . Sir Frederick HP allowed my dad to have a corner of the Victor hangar to assemble his homebuilt Turbulent G-APWP. HP was the last of the pioneers who took great pride in his workforce and supported them in learning to fly and in my dads case building his own aeroplane.
My late husband's 24yr RAF career was spent mostly on servicing the electronics firstly on Victors and then on Vulcans at 1st and 2nd line. I remember the romantic names of 3 of the equipment boxes he worked on, but have no clue about what they were for. Who remembers "blue steel", "red steer" and "green satin"? I'd guess their purpose was anything but romantic! He started his career, aged 16, as a radio apprentice at RAF Locking and, for years after he retired, he would drag me to airshows around the country to watch his beloved Vulcans. All of them now gone; 'planes, people and RAF Locking.
Excellent! I grew up under the flight path of the Handley Page airfield at Radlett and recall being stunned by the beauty of this design, I kept wanting to draw pictures of it! One of the things that I noticed was the number of undercarriage wheels, as I was used to seeing the Handley Page Hastings going over with it's huge single wheel per side main undercarriage.
By far the most impressive looking aircraft up till now. One could just send a photograph of it as a warning to potential enemies. The appearance of a well to do bird of prey on the lookout!
Someday someone will have to explain why technical videos made in that era, no matter the topic, are significantly clearer and more informative than any "documentary" made this millenium.
I had the privilege of having Godfrey Lee work for my company some 35 years ago. A wonderful kindly man, and a towering figure in the aeronautical world. He designed a revolutionary cooling tower for power stations and a shopping trolley for Tesco! And he was an authority on mushrooms as well! ( oh yes. And on airships!!)
Economics. First, the Victor was designed to cruise at Mach 1.2, but it's cheaper to fly at Mach 0.85, so that's what modern airliners do. Also the wing thickness at the root isn't a consideration when using more modern and economical high-bypass turbofan engines slung under the wings, which current airliners use. Third, a high tail adds drag compared to a more conventional tail, and digital electronic flight control systems can do the "land by itself" thing without needing a high tail. That said, the aerodynamic sophistication of the Victor is really impressive considering the technology of the day, and that fact that the UK was nearly broke at the time.
Love the dig at the Tin Triangle Vulcan. Sadly politics of needing to win votes in the north meant that orders would be pushed to Avro and Shorts and then BAC and Hawker Siddley over and above superior designs of Handley Page who's company was effectively murdered because of its refusal to sell out for a pittance to Hawker Siddley. The final crime being the descision to delay the K2 conversion until Handley Page went into receivership and then giving the order to Avro who provided a much less efficient and flexible conversion at a much higher price.
+Graham Ariss Ah, politics! My father used to work directly under Sydney Camm and I think there were two reasons for Hawkers success. Camm was a networker and had very good relationships with the RAF and the Ministry of Aviation. Apparently he would tell them what the spec of their new aircraft should be! Of course it just happened to be along the lines of their current research work. Also Hawkers concentrated on small simple aircraft design and then went all out to make sure they worked. As a lad, I would get up to do my paper round after my Dad had left for work. He would not appear again until gone dusk . I think the demise of the UK's aircraft industry as much cock up as conspiracy. We just didn't have the money to develop the cutting edge aircraft we had in the 50s. However, on the conspiracy theory I think the Americans did their best to work against our aircraft industry to keep it to themselves. Which of course they succeeded at quite well!
What has happened to the glorious British Aerospace Industry? Where is the ingenuity that created the great planes like the V-Bombers, the Jet planes like the Lightning and the Harrier? Where are Bristol, Handley Page, English Electric, Westland, Hawker Siddeley, Avro, De Haviland? Of course we know what has happened (Is it all now BAE). But what happened to the Great Britain that favored all these aerospace companies to thrive separately and independently and compete against each other, creating all these formidable planes?
Easy. For the most part we designed and made them for us, not the world. There were of course best selling exceptions such as the Hunter and Canberra in the military and to a lesser extent, the Hawk. In the civil world the Viscount and the 1-11 sold well but that really was that. The underpowered Trident could have been a better success if Hawker-Siddley had ignored BEA's continuous vacillating change of specifications. The VC-10 was also a victim of being built to a single airline's specification for a single route. Both the Britannia and the Vanguard were turbo-prop powered when the world was turning to jets. The H.S. 146 proved to be a reasonable seller as it was designed for a world market.
Love the dig at the Tin Triangle Vulcan. Sadly politics of needing to win votes in the north meant that orders would be pushed to Avro and Shorts and then BAC and Hawker Siddley over and above superior designs of Handley Page who's company was effectively murdered because of its refusal to sell out for a pittance to Hawker Siddley. The final crime being the descision to delay the K2 conversion until Handley Page went into receivership and then giving the order to Avro who provided a much less efficient and flexible conversion at a much higher price.
Had the pleasure of working on these at Park Street through out the sixties. They were way ahead of the time. The best of the V bombers.
Sorrry to all the Vulcan fans but you only like it best because you've never seen a Victor.
Saw them often at Park Street as a child . Sir Frederick HP allowed my dad to have a corner of the Victor hangar to assemble his homebuilt Turbulent G-APWP. HP was the last of the pioneers who took great pride in his workforce and supported them in learning to fly and in my dads case building his own aeroplane.
My late husband's 24yr RAF career was spent mostly on servicing the electronics firstly on Victors and then on Vulcans at 1st and 2nd line. I remember the romantic names of 3 of the equipment boxes he worked on, but have no clue about what they were for. Who remembers "blue steel", "red steer" and "green satin"? I'd guess their purpose was anything but romantic! He started his career, aged 16, as a radio apprentice at RAF Locking and, for years after he retired, he would drag me to airshows around the country to watch his beloved Vulcans. All of them now gone; 'planes, people and RAF Locking.
Excellent! I grew up under the flight path of the Handley Page airfield at Radlett and recall being stunned by the beauty of this design, I kept wanting to draw pictures of it! One of the things that I noticed was the number of undercarriage wheels, as I was used to seeing the Handley Page Hastings going over with it's huge single wheel per side main undercarriage.
By far the most impressive looking aircraft up till now. One could just send a photograph of it as a warning to potential enemies. The appearance of a well to do bird of prey on the lookout!
My favourite aircraft of all time.
Fantastic Aeroplane still looks modern today
Beautiful machine indeed!
Someday someone will have to explain why technical videos made in that era, no matter the topic, are significantly clearer and more informative than any "documentary" made this millenium.
Most unique looking bomber ever made
A very radical looking aircraft even today they don't look much sleeker .
it looked like a space ship.. esp on the ground face on
I had the privilege of having Godfrey Lee work for my company some 35 years ago. A wonderful kindly man, and a towering figure in the aeronautical world. He designed a revolutionary cooling tower for power stations and a shopping trolley for Tesco! And he was an authority on mushrooms as well! ( oh yes. And on airships!!)
The Brits built beautiful birds post ww2 right up to Concord. Sadly those days are gone.
Didn't know about the airliner version - how far did that get?
Now I know how my Privat Jet should look.
If this was such a successful wing design why was this the only plane that had it?
Economics. First, the Victor was designed to cruise at Mach 1.2, but it's cheaper to fly at Mach 0.85, so that's what modern airliners do. Also the wing thickness at the root isn't a consideration when using more modern and economical high-bypass turbofan engines slung under the wings, which current airliners use. Third, a high tail adds drag compared to a more conventional tail, and digital electronic flight control systems can do the "land by itself" thing without needing a high tail. That said, the aerodynamic sophistication of the Victor is really impressive considering the technology of the day, and that fact that the UK was nearly broke at the time.
@@beardymart906 Huh, TIL the Vic was planned to be a supersonic bomber, I guess such designs were common before ICBMs could be perfected
It saddened me when I saw Sir Frederick at the end knowing how he was shat on.
Straight out of the Thunderbirds.
Love the dig at the Tin Triangle Vulcan. Sadly politics of needing to win votes in the north meant that orders would be pushed to Avro and Shorts and then BAC and Hawker Siddley over and above superior designs of Handley Page who's company was effectively murdered because of its refusal to sell out for a pittance to Hawker Siddley. The final crime being the descision to delay the K2 conversion until Handley Page went into receivership and then giving the order to Avro who provided a much less efficient and flexible conversion at a much higher price.
+Graham Ariss Ah, politics! My father used to work directly under Sydney Camm and I think there were two reasons for Hawkers success. Camm was a networker and had very good relationships with the RAF and the Ministry of Aviation. Apparently he would tell them what the spec of their new aircraft should be! Of course it just happened to be along the lines of their current research work.
Also Hawkers concentrated on small simple aircraft design and then went all out to make sure they worked. As a lad, I would get up to do my paper round after my Dad had left for work. He would not appear again until gone dusk .
I think the demise of the UK's aircraft industry as much cock up as conspiracy. We just didn't have the money to develop the cutting edge aircraft we had in the 50s.
However, on the conspiracy theory I think the Americans did their best to work against our aircraft industry to keep it to themselves. Which of course they succeeded at quite well!
You could turn this off the production line today, June 2022, and it would still look as if it was a band knew design
The man on the left at 2.25 looks like the punch and judy man off hi de hi
What has happened to the glorious British Aerospace Industry? Where is the ingenuity that created the great planes like the V-Bombers, the Jet planes like the Lightning and the Harrier? Where are Bristol, Handley Page, English Electric, Westland, Hawker Siddeley, Avro, De Haviland? Of course we know what has happened (Is it all now BAE). But what happened to the Great Britain that favored all these aerospace companies to thrive separately and independently and compete against each other, creating all these formidable planes?
Easy. For the most part we designed and made them for us, not the world. There were of course best selling exceptions such as the Hunter and Canberra in the military and to a lesser extent, the Hawk. In the civil world the Viscount and the 1-11 sold well but that really was that. The underpowered Trident could have been a better success if Hawker-Siddley had ignored BEA's continuous vacillating change of specifications. The VC-10 was also a victim of being built to a single airline's specification for a single route. Both the Britannia and the Vanguard were turbo-prop powered when the world was turning to jets. The H.S. 146 proved to be a reasonable seller as it was designed for a world market.
I thought this was a modern plane
Love the dig at the Tin Triangle Vulcan. Sadly politics of needing to win votes in the north meant that orders would be pushed to Avro and Shorts and then BAC and Hawker Siddley over and above superior designs of Handley Page who's company was effectively murdered because of its refusal to sell out for a pittance to Hawker Siddley. The final crime being the descision to delay the K2 conversion until Handley Page went into receivership and then giving the order to Avro who provided a much less efficient and flexible conversion at a much higher price.