Beautiful bomber! Almost sinister looking with that delta wing. The British post-war aircraft designs are some of the most original, unique, yet functional planes ever built. Thanks for posting!
I fell in love with the Vulcan at the Mildenhall airshow in 1986. It was against the backdrop of a leaden English sky, and those Olympus engines were crackling and spitting like a hellcat, as she pulled a max G turn, and that delta profile darkened the sky like a thunderhead. I could feel it in my chest and through my body. I was awestruck.
The sight and sound of that aircraft does it for me every time. But sadly no more. A long time ago, aged 16, I was near the top of a mountain in mid-Wales; RAF pilots hone their low level skills there. Looking up from my work I saw one of these, slightly below eye level, coming straight at me. I jumped up and down waving like a lunatic and, glory be, he waggled his wingtips at me as he crested the hill. They're gone forever but that memory will stay with me for the rest of my life.
A beautiful lady! I was so fortunate to have see them in Trenton Ontario when they were still in active service. They would come for the local air shows. Sometimes we'd shelter under her wing in a downpour. Or, they were billeted there for the Canadian National Execution. We'd gather at the end of the runway at the end of August and wait for this monster to fly over. God bless the pilot who would tell the stoker's to pour on the coal for the crowd. Positively earth shaking. Great memories.
I remember attending the Abbotsford Airshow as a teenager about 1966 when RAF showcased a Vulcan. They performed a power climb straight off the runway. The thunderous vibrations had small children bouncing off the ground. It was marvellous watching the Vulcan fly past the snow capped volcanic Mount Baker.
That howl is incredible and you have actually witness it close up! The video gives maybe 3% of how it actually sounds due to the audio clipping and self levelling of the built in mic audio. Plus it can't pick up the ground shaking and the sheer bass of the sound that you feel through your body as it passes overhead! I uses to live not far from woodford airfield where the Vulcan were built, refitted and maintained so regular fly pasts as they test flew them very close overhead were a regular occurrence, through the 1970s and 1980s 😎👍⚠️ As they flew toward you, there was hardly a sound until they were right overhead! Perfect attack bomber! Incredible these things were developed after the 2nd world war and were flying in the 1950s! Very much ahead of their time, still very capable in the 1980s and proved themselves in the Falklands conflict, no other aircraft could have made that bombing run. 👍😎
we live not far from raf waddington home to the vulcan, our house was underneath the flight path of these behemoths, truly a spectacular aircraft. the sound especially at night was something else, to see a vulcan scramble was an amazing sight. the howl from these beasts was something you'll never forget!
I was a young boy when my Dad was stationed in Malaya in the mid 60s. The Indonesians tried some soft probes against the coast with small boats. They were greeted by a Vulcan flyover which sent them packing back home. I can still remember being amazed at how you could hear the Vulcan well before you saw it and with no idea which direction it was coming from. I can imagine it scared the crap out of the young guys in the boats. I've been in love with the Vulcan ever since and was sad to see it retired.
Ah yes, the days of "Confrontasi"... I don't think it ever came to anything serious, but the Suharto coup which ended Sukarno's rule was a brutal massacre.
Great performance on that huge aircraft. And one of the coolest bombers in history. It's a shame that such great things have to retire. It was sleek, elegant, maneuverable, and fast. Plus could deliver one of the most deadliest pay loads known to mankind.
@RICHARD GORDON Never seen or heard a Hustler, but I did work on a lot of F-4 Kurnass Karpada in the early 90's. I once witnessed a pair of Phantoms returning low in close formation. I tell you the sound of 4 J-79s even at idle just oozed power.
Thank you so much for posting this, it is the best one I have seen of XH558. The landings in a strong crosswind were 'greasers', kudos to the crew! Excellent handling.
Beautiful lines on that Vulcan. The Delta wing chord integrated with the fuselage was way ahead of its time, having some low observable characteristics. That rear empennage is clean and sleek.
Yeah, you are right!! I used to live 10 miles from RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire. When they had a Vulcan Scramble, even at that distance as it was just countryside, you knew about it. It was still loud when the wind was in the right direction. They were as common to see in the air as a passenger airliner you see today, as well as the jet Provost which was always flown very low.
I felt the ground shake just watching the video. Can't imagine it in real life. The only time I saw a fighter jet was when a Mirage did a pretty low supersonic pass while I was in the Ardennes. The only other supersonic aircraft I have seen in flight was the Tu-160.
What a machine! I had the privilege of seeing all three VEE bombers in the air together. I was on the beach at Southsea (Portsmouth) Hampshire UK when I heard a god-awful roar in the sky. I looked up to see the Victor, Vulcan and Valiant - line abreast, coming right overhead, heading in the direction of the Isle of Wight. I don't know how high they were but it was very low - maybe 500 feet? Probably late 50's I think. What a sight and sound it was!
One of the early Vulcans actually _did_ roll at its very first Farnborough outing. That certainly made the world sit up and take notice, a heavy nuclear bomber that could _roll!_ Such a characterful aircraft the Vulcan, she's pretty, she howls, she whistles, she roars... and she can roll over!
+Foxtrot Oscar It's when she sneaks up in near-silence, then howls past 92% throttle, THEN the back end hits you, wallops you in the stomach and shakes the ground under your feet... it may not have the outright decibel output of the Eurofighter, but there's somehow a sheer massiveness of sound about the Vulcan. It's like the difference between a f*%#ing loud thrash metal band and a cathedral organ at full chat...
***** I can only imagine what it must have been like as an Argie, standing in Stanley, hearing that monstering its way over the hills... The only thing I've heard that comes even close to Vulcan in terms of noise is a B1 Lancer.
+Project Halo wars The skills are there, they just lack the money for parts. Plenty of people(technicians, machinists, pilots, general public) who would volunteer their time to keep it running, but not enough wallets. Machinists to make parts which break, technicians for repairs, pilots for flying...it's just a machine, it doesn't take a great deal of skill necessarily to keep it running. Rolls-Royce might "donate" some time/parts/manuals for maintaining(overhauling) the turbines, rest is simple gear
+wolfy9005 It is sad that lack of money spoils so many things. I used to work at Filton where we saw the Vulcan perform so well, testing the engine for Concorde.
Such a beautiful plane with those delta wings! Much missed. I was lucky enough to see it at the Goodwood Revival some years ago and then whilst Farnborough Air Show was on, two flew over our village in succession which was just incredible!
This aircraft is absolutely phenomenal, and that howl is the most amazing sound. Im lucky enough to have one of these majestic aircraft at the aircraft museam 10 mins away from my house. Unfortunately time and the british weather have not been kind to her. I remember sitting in the cockpit as a child many times as my uncle worked at the museum. Great memories.
Sad that we'll not see her back at the FIA, was the one thing I look forward to in those noisy 2 weeks! The sight and sound of that gorgeous plane never fails to send shivers down my spine and the first and only in my adult years to make me stop dead in the street to watch mesmerised. (As a child/teen Concorde had that effect as well)
My parents used to live under the flightpath of RAF Waddington in Lincoln. When the Vulcans were taking off we had to stop talking, couldnt hear each other, and wait while everything in the house shook and rattled, for them to depart.And when you went outside to look. What? That little dot is making all this noise?!! Noisiest aircraft ever. As an ex RAF engine fitter, my dad loved it. 'Let me at those beautiful engines!' My mother less so.
Holy mackeral, Batman! After landing, he did a pirouette and his left landing gear just missed the line (grass) by a few inches! That pilot has the skill of a Formula One driver! Impressive! Show-off!
Quite possibly the most beautiful manmade object ever to take to the skies, truly a sad day to see her days of flying come to an end, a bird like that was built to fly.
+Skullet A bird like that can be used for science. If I remember correctly, Vulcans can carry half a dozen Skybolts. Each point where a Skybolt (nuclear war missile) could fit, a sizable sounding rocket could be launched, giving the little guys a 50,000 foot near-vertical boost. They're still strong enough to chase a hurricane and drop silver iodide into the clouds. They are still useful, if the government would fix them up enough to be useful in the civilian educational sector. That may mean no more barrel rolls and hotdogging, but, hey, imagine what a university could do with a bomber or a former frigate!
The Vulcan's delta wing profile is a little too wide which makes it look 'slow'...in terms of sheer sculptured razor edged beauty in the sky...there is no comparison to Concorde!
Absolutely majestic !! (have a look at the vintage Farnborough footage of the prototype Vulcan being fully Barrel rolled upon take off by test pilot Roly Falk)
I've come to the conclusion that there are about 20 dedicated Argentinians who follow all the Vulcan videos on UA-cam and downvote them. Vulcan is so gorgeous, I wish I'd gotten to see her fly myself just once.
I was fresh out of training and sent to Scampton as a new raf policeman the greatest scariest loudest most bone shaking noise I ever heard was was a four Vulcan scramble from the Q the noise vibrated my very soul I was deaf for 30 minutes afterwards while wearing ear defenders incredible moment
I remember being at an airshow at RAF Gaydon in the UK late 60's 70's and there was a sramble of 4 Vulcans from the QRA in the display, 4 mins in took for all 4 of them to get airborne! the noise was incredible, but what a sight!
Best of the best! Loved the devils howl that vibrates through your body and the graceful big beast in the sky.Did not need weapons just that Vulcan screech tells you your time is up, loved it and not forgotten bring it back!
Despite lovingly coming along with me to airshows and fly-ins for many patient years, the first time my wife was impressed by an aircraft was when she first saw/heard/FELT! the awesomeness of the Vulcan at Greenham common in 1983/4
Many years ago I was stood on the RAF Mountbatten quayside during the Plymouth Airshow when the Vulcan flew over Plymouth Sound and went vertical with full afterburners - nobody could convey anything in words for several minutes afterwards - even then we had to yell over the ringing in our ears!
I was on crowd control at the 1970 RAF Wildenrath Flugshau when 14 Vulcans scrambled. It scared the Germans to death! And then we had Harrier. That made people jump too!
Vulcan had fighter-like performance (see roll immediately after wheels up at 0:55) - even more so when unladen! A B52, with similar power, could not dream of doing anything like it.
To be fair as a bomber it lacked range and payload , 10 refuels between uk and falklands to drop 4 tons of bombs , its a unique aircraft but not comparable to american bombers of the era
@@cnfuzz Lower range (4k km vs. 14k km) yes, but with re-fueling (proven) this is somewhat negated (Falklands). The refuels were between Ascension Island half-way down and the Falklands. But my point was not range, but flight performance, if it ever had to use it in time of war: this was demonstrated by the fast roll-turn here out of take-off- and the barrel rolls it could do (early days in proving, and half-barrels at air shows in it's last years, restricted by safety jobsworths from full barrel roll clearance). The B52 could not even conceive of anything like that manoeuvrability and power:weight ratio (even if not in the spec for a long-range bomber). That's the beauty we admired in Vulcan - grace with power.
@@cnfuzz : The Vulcan wasn't designed to be a long-range bomber, it was a product of the "cold war" and designed to attack the Soviet Union which is only a few hundred miles from the UK.
You may not know this, but Vulcan XH 558 is going to have to be dismantled. The loss of her berth at Robin Hood airport, plus the inability to get permission for a short ferry flight to a new home, means that she will have to taken to bits to be transported to a new home, wherever she may find one. She will be rebuilt, but will no longer be able to taxi or even start her engines. I heard them for the very last time as they were run for the last time at Robin Hood. What a sad end for this magnificent aircraft.
I'm old enough to remember watching live "Vulcan scramble" takeoffs, either 4 or 8 would blast off at 30 second intervals and just rocket straight up into the clouds, it shook the ground like a minor earthquake! Seeing them do an 8 ship stream landing was pretty impressive too!
I was a navigator on Vulcans for 10 years. We couldn't see out from the back but I was told by the captain that he often barrel-rolled the aircraft during fighter affiliation if that was the quickest way to recover from an evasive manoeuvre. I don't think wing design had anything to do with it as a barrel roll is a 1g manoeuvre throughout which is why we never knew when he was doing it.
Many years ago one of these flew over our school field and we thought it was trying to land as there was trailing smoke. It landed at Newcastle airport shortly after and it was reported on the news that there was mechanical problems.I think it was 1967.
I was at an airshow at Waddington and the Red Arrows used to go about the crowd standing boxes after their display and answer questions from the crowd. Then they said we;ve got to go now THE VULCAN IS ABOUT TO DISPLAY AND WE NEED TO WATCH,
Got to see the Vulcan at Airborne Eastbourne 2015 it did no howl but what a magnificent aircraft it flew quite slowly over the seafront and managed to plenty of good photos of what they said then was her last flight
I remember saying to a chap I used to know that the Vulcan had been inverted. No it wasn't he insisted, it was a wing -over. Well it looked pretty inverted to me..
tectorama, yes you are correct! I think one of the very first Vulcans built was being test flown out of Woodford, and the pilot ROLLED it! All the windows in the factory were broken! He was advised not to repeat that manouvere!
This is normal Vulcan flight footage, if you check out most 2014 Vulcan Airshow performances!! Kevin Rumens is the nutter pilot that does the most fantastic wing overs!!
We had Vulcan squadron stationed near us in the UK and they were ready to go and could be in the air and supersonic within 3 mins...these were our front line nuke carrying bombers and awesome
A magnificent heavy bomber which handled like a heavy fighter. How good was this? It sure impressed our American allies! In the early 1960s they held an excercise to test the USAs air defences. Won't go into too much detail but some high-altitude Vulcans got through. The following year, the excercise was repeated and a Vulcan got through again..... *& landed at a USAF airfield just outside NY.* Fortunately, we are allies & no nukes were involved! Dr Mark Felton's excellent YT channel has all the details - "How Britain Nuked America.... Twice".
The beautiful tin triangle, only ever used once in anger. It flew the longest ever bombing mission in history with the help of 11 Victor refuelling planes in the first strike of the Falklands war, a round trip of 8000 miles from Ascension island. It dropped 21 bombs on Stanley airport (the first bomb hit the runway) stopping the Argentinians using it for fast jets. Shortly after the Vulcans were scrapped.
Britain's most beautiful bird, next to the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Seriously, pilot needs to remember although the plane may be able to manoeuvre like a fighter, it's not designed for it and sooner or later, the big bird will buck back with tragic consequences. USAF had a senior B-52 pilot who thought his plane was an F-16 and bought it for himself and crew-and his bomber- at Fairchild AFB in the early 1990's.
Nice vid! It's actually performing a 'wing over'. Hope that puts to rest all the nonsense about barrel rolls, etc. Remember seeing it perform this maneuver many times during my time in the RAF.
+gary proffitt That's not saying a lot...how many heavy bombers are there left? Not a whole lot; two Soviet, two US, and one UK. Which doesn't really count since it's not actually in service, so it's not _really_ a "bomber" any more, but a show aircraft.
A pity so many world beating British designs were scrapped under pressure from the U/S.Just like when they promised to share their knowledge on jet engines. They took all the British know-how and refused to give any information back.Typical U/S always crapping themselves when someone builds better and more efficient equipment than they can. Concorde would have been a massive success and because they were unable to design anything to beat it, they banned it from flying supersonic in their airspace and some airports banned her completely. We had an aircraft called the TSR 2 back in the 70's. This aircraft could have been capable of doing much the role of the Tornado, even today. After spending billions of pounds building another world-beater this was also scrapped and all aircraft under construction and plans were destroyed under pressure from U/S politicians.
Amelia Merrick The Yanks will always look after themselves and sometimes pretty aggressively. In an odd way I respect that but our Governments of the '60s were in hoc to the Yanks for IMF loans and that was the price the Yanks demanded. TSR2, P1154 and the CVA-01 carrier. All gone and all that technology lost. Or rather stolen by the Yanks. At least 8 sisters of this beauty showed the Yanks just how good british aircraft were when they beat the whole US air defence systems in Sky Shield I (1960) and then repeated the feat in Sky Shield II (1961) flying directly from Scotland and Bermuda. They could have nuked the whole of the US Eastern Seaboard ... Oh and they flew higher than the B52s going over and lower than the interceptors when they got there.
Amelia Merrick ... the fuck? The British air industry being scrapped had absolutely nothing to do with the USA. It was scrapped because we were spending an absolutely ridiculous, unsustainable percentage of our GDP on the armed forces, to the point that the rest of the country suffered and we went into a massive recession. Britain after WW2 was severely strapped for cash, and the government had continued to throw everything we had left at military projects we could not afford. So yes, it is a huge shame that we lost the majority of our air industry, but trying to keep up that pace of development would have destroyed the country.
alphaprawns You are about 50% correct there Sir. Yes of course we were strapped after WWII but we had a world leading industry that was earning huge amounts of foreign capital and maintaining our global reputation. And yes projects cost too much and we mismanaged major items but when you look at how the USA went out of its way to scupper major UK projects to protect its own domestic industries then sorry I have to disagree with you in that part. I don't criticise the Yanks for it as such but to treat their so called closest ally and our so called 'special relationship' in such a cavalier way was just wrong.
+Amelia Merrick Military demands change quite rapidly, and despite the Vulcan flying its first and last combat mission 30 years after it first flew, it was a very old fashioned piece of kit. My brother worked on converting the aircraft from nuclear to conventional bombload at BAe Woodford so it could carry out that raid and was shocked when shown the bomb aiming equipment. It was only just out of WW2. Despite its nuclear roots, its future in that role would have been made obsolete as soon as Polaris became operational; if not obsolete, then certainly living on borrowed time. It was obviously never seriously updated. I couldn't see it joining the USAF B52s bombing Iraq somehow, could you? Perhaps we've rarely prioritised in this country. The US could well have scuppered TSR2, as has widely been rumoured, but then maybe they knew the amount of money it would have cost and may well have failed which wouldn't have helped our balance of payments.
As you all may think the Vulcan "almost rolled" it just did a wing over which is commonly done in this aircraft as is it how they used to take off during the Cold War
I’ve been flying for well over 45 years. There was no barrel roll. Maybe a wing over depending how you look at the video. But all said and done it’s a beautiful piece of technology
im gutted i never got to see her flying properly. my only experience was when she flew over my house unexpectedly while leaving Farnborough. the whole house shook and thunder filled the air, i thought to my self jesus christ what the fuck is that. and just saw the back of it as it flew away leaving smoke trails. glorious
I got to see a Vulcan in an airshow way back in the 70s in Sao Jose Dos Campos (Sao Paulo state), Brazil. This is surely the most beautiful delta wing airplane of all time IMO (Concorde beats it, but its wings are ogival, not delta). That same show introduced me to the Airbus A300 demonstrator, C-5 Galaxy, the incredible Harrier and a very powerful Lama helicopter doing mild aerobatics while carrying it's own weight in a sling-cargo configuration. Bob Hoover did some crazy stuff too, including all-engine-out aerobatics and a dead-stick landing in his Shrike Commander. Those were the days. As for the maneuver in the video, it's really hard to judge exactly what the airplane is doing when it's almost directly overhead, especially through the limited field of view of a camera's viewfinder or by looking at the finished video. Aircraft gyrations without the viewer's reference to the horizon plus the odd camera angles needed to keep it framed overhead might easily be construed as loops & rolls.
***** - Concorde's wing had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the various versions (original, phase II, etc) of the Vulcan wing, and certainly was not derived from it. Its wing was designed from scratch for the specific task of flying efficiently from subsonic to Mach 2, quite unlike the Vulcan's wing. The wings of these two airplanes share only a (very) vague resemblance, nothing more.
corisco tupi I know they have nothing in common structurally. Concorde's wing is much thinner. However, the shape was chosen principally because of experience gained through the Vulcan and particularly the B.2 - an awful lot of Concorde development work, including the Olympus 593 engine testing, was done on Vulcan mules.
***** Again - Nothing whatsoever on Concorde's wing was remotely inspired on the Vulcan wing design. Not structurally, not aerodynamically, or anything else. The Concorde wing was researched and designed from scratch independently from anything done in the Vulcan project. You are right though that the Vulcan was used as a testbed for the Olympus 593 engine.
corisco tupi The B.2 acted as proof of concept though, it was the first aeroplane to prove that the ogival delta worked, especially at quite extreme bank angles.
Sadly was a Pilot!! so know the difference!!! too old know but delivered a Vintage 1958 Vampire just 2 years ago!!!! My last proper flight!!! Age catched up!!!!
Beautiful video but don't you mean valediction flight rather than validation? I would have thought that the Vulcans had validated their existences long ago already :)
I saw the Vulcan Bomber fly at a air show at Edwards AFB , California around 1980. Awesome bomber. Thanks RAF.
Beautiful bomber!
Almost sinister looking with that delta wing. The British post-war aircraft designs are some of the most original, unique, yet functional planes ever built.
Thanks for posting!
I fell in love with the Vulcan at the Mildenhall airshow in 1986. It was against the backdrop of a leaden English sky, and those Olympus engines were crackling and spitting like a hellcat, as she pulled a max G turn, and that delta profile darkened the sky like a thunderhead. I could feel it in my chest and through my body. I was awestruck.
The sight and sound of that aircraft does it for me every time. But sadly no more.
A long time ago, aged 16, I was near the top of a mountain in mid-Wales; RAF pilots hone their low level skills there. Looking up from my work I saw one of these, slightly below eye level, coming straight at me. I jumped up and down waving like a lunatic and, glory be, he waggled his wingtips at me as he crested the hill.
They're gone forever but that memory will stay with me for the rest of my life.
A beautiful lady! I was so fortunate to have see them in Trenton Ontario when they were still in active service. They would come for the local air shows. Sometimes we'd shelter under her wing in a downpour. Or, they were billeted there for the Canadian National Execution. We'd gather at the end of the runway at the end of August and wait for this monster to fly over. God bless the pilot who would tell the stoker's to pour on the coal for the crowd. Positively earth shaking. Great memories.
I remember attending the Abbotsford Airshow as a teenager about 1966 when RAF showcased a Vulcan. They performed a power climb straight off the runway. The thunderous vibrations had small children bouncing off the ground. It was marvellous watching the Vulcan fly past the snow capped volcanic Mount Baker.
That howl is incredible and you have actually witness it close up!
The video gives maybe 3% of how it actually sounds due to the audio clipping and self levelling of the built in mic audio. Plus it can't pick up the ground shaking and the sheer bass of the sound that you feel through your body as it passes overhead!
I uses to live not far from woodford airfield where the Vulcan were built, refitted and maintained so regular fly pasts as they test flew them very close overhead were a regular occurrence, through the 1970s and 1980s 😎👍⚠️
As they flew toward you, there was hardly a sound until they were right overhead! Perfect attack bomber! Incredible these things were developed after the 2nd world war and were flying in the 1950s! Very much ahead of their time, still very capable in the 1980s and proved themselves in the Falklands conflict, no other aircraft could have made that bombing run. 👍😎
Thank you for watching
we live not far from raf waddington home to the vulcan, our house was underneath the flight path of these behemoths, truly a spectacular aircraft. the sound especially at night was something else, to see a vulcan scramble was an amazing sight. the howl from these beasts was something you'll never forget!
I imagine the Argies on the Falkand islands who survived the bombing run will never forget it either
I was a young boy when my Dad was stationed in Malaya in the mid 60s. The Indonesians tried some soft probes against the coast with small boats. They were greeted by a Vulcan flyover which sent them packing back home. I can still remember being amazed at how you could hear the Vulcan well before you saw it and with no idea which direction it was coming from. I can imagine it scared the crap out of the young guys in the boats. I've been in love with the Vulcan ever since and was sad to see it retired.
Ah yes, the days of "Confrontasi"... I don't think it ever came to anything serious, but the Suharto coup which ended Sukarno's rule was a brutal massacre.
Great performance on that huge aircraft. And one of the coolest bombers in history. It's a shame that such great things have to retire. It was sleek, elegant, maneuverable, and fast. Plus could deliver one of the most deadliest pay loads known to mankind.
the Convair B58 Hustler used to be my favorite bomber, but now I just discovered my new one. The Avro Vulcan.
@RICHARD GORDON Never seen or heard a Hustler, but I did work on a lot of F-4 Kurnass Karpada in the early 90's. I once witnessed a pair of Phantoms returning low in close formation. I tell you the sound of 4 J-79s even at idle just oozed power.
@@trespire You jest! The Hustler was a Delta winged bomber capable of 1500kts and was powered by .... 4 J79s
@@realMaverickBuckley My typo ! I've heard of a Hustler, but never seen one nor heard one.
The B58 would outrun the Vulcan by 1,000 mph. Just a SLIGHT difference.
Thank you so much for posting this, it is the best one I have seen of XH558. The landings in a strong crosswind were 'greasers', kudos to the crew! Excellent handling.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for visiting Colin
Beautiful lines on that Vulcan. The Delta wing chord integrated with the fuselage was way ahead of its time, having some low observable characteristics. That rear empennage is clean and sleek.
Was that the most beautiful bomber ever built.
No. DH Mosquito.
@@gazza2933 fighter bomber
@@ant2312
'Splitting hairs' a bit mate.
It looks like a moth
It is a tie between the B1B and the B-58 Hustler - both supersonic.
amazing and so proud ny old man flew that plane
there's a difference between a video and real life where it Shakes the ground and howls for miles
Yeah, you are right!! I used to live 10 miles from RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire. When they had a Vulcan Scramble, even at that distance as it was just countryside, you knew about it. It was still loud when the wind was in the right direction. They were as common to see in the air as a passenger airliner you see today, as well as the jet Provost which was always flown very low.
I felt the ground shake just watching the video. Can't imagine it in real life. The only time I saw a fighter jet was when a Mirage did a pretty low supersonic pass while I was in the Ardennes.
The only other supersonic aircraft I have seen in flight was the Tu-160.
Thats my sex life
What a machine!
I had the privilege of seeing all three VEE bombers in the air together.
I was on the beach at Southsea (Portsmouth) Hampshire UK when I heard a god-awful roar in the sky. I looked up to see the Victor, Vulcan and Valiant - line abreast, coming right overhead, heading in the direction of the Isle of Wight. I don't know how high they were but it was very low - maybe 500 feet? Probably late 50's I think. What a sight and sound it was!
One of the early Vulcans actually _did_ roll at its very first Farnborough outing. That certainly made the world sit up and take notice, a heavy nuclear bomber that could _roll!_
Such a characterful aircraft the Vulcan, she's pretty, she howls, she whistles, she roars... and she can roll over!
If i remember right it was roly falk when he was the test pilot on the vulcan and it was one of if not the first flights
+Foxtrot Oscar It's when she sneaks up in near-silence, then howls past 92% throttle, THEN the back end hits you, wallops you in the stomach and shakes the ground under your feet... it may not have the outright decibel output of the Eurofighter, but there's somehow a sheer massiveness of sound about the Vulcan. It's like the difference between a f*%#ing loud thrash metal band and a cathedral organ at full chat...
***** I can only imagine what it must have been like as an Argie, standing in Stanley, hearing that monstering its way over the hills...
The only thing I've heard that comes even close to Vulcan in terms of noise is a B1 Lancer.
Foxtrot Oscar I haven't heard the B1, but it looks quite cool - especially the Hawker Hunter-derived tail. But, nothing howls like the Vulcan...
***** No, the Vulcan is unique in that respect, although the Hunter has its 'blue note'. The B1 is just massive noise. Like a Typhoon squared.
The Vulcan will not be forgotten!
+ADMIRALSCORNER Why is she grounded now. Lack of money or is this bird stressed out?
+Krushpak 99 it's that no one has the skills to maintain it for flying
Project Halo wars
Thats really sad to hear. thx for answering.
+Project Halo wars The skills are there, they just lack the money for parts. Plenty of people(technicians, machinists, pilots, general public) who would volunteer their time to keep it running, but not enough wallets. Machinists to make parts which break, technicians for repairs, pilots for flying...it's just a machine, it doesn't take a great deal of skill necessarily to keep it running. Rolls-Royce might "donate" some time/parts/manuals for maintaining(overhauling) the turbines, rest is simple gear
+wolfy9005 It is sad that lack of money spoils so many things. I used to work at Filton where we saw the Vulcan perform so well, testing the engine for Concorde.
Such a beautiful plane with those delta wings! Much missed. I was lucky enough to see it at the Goodwood Revival some years ago and then whilst Farnborough Air Show was on, two flew over our village in succession which was just incredible!
two flew over? What year was this?
This aircraft is absolutely phenomenal, and that howl is the most amazing sound. Im lucky enough to have one of these majestic aircraft at the aircraft museam 10 mins away from my house. Unfortunately time and the british weather have not been kind to her. I remember sitting in the cockpit as a child many times as my uncle worked at the museum. Great memories.
Sad that we'll not see her back at the FIA, was the one thing I look forward to in those noisy 2 weeks! The sight and sound of that gorgeous plane never fails to send shivers down my spine and the first and only in my adult years to make me stop dead in the street to watch mesmerised. (As a child/teen Concorde had that effect as well)
My parents used to live under the flightpath of RAF Waddington in Lincoln. When the Vulcans were taking off we had to stop talking, couldnt hear each other, and wait while everything in the house shook and rattled, for them to depart.And when you went outside to look. What? That little dot is making all this noise?!! Noisiest aircraft ever. As an ex RAF engine fitter, my dad loved it. 'Let me at those beautiful engines!' My mother less so.
Just beautiful... Seen the Vulcan many times. Great memories.
Holy mackeral, Batman! After landing, he did a pirouette and his left landing gear just missed the line (grass) by a few inches! That pilot has the skill of a Formula One driver! Impressive! Show-off!
Great piece of footage. Love this plane, will really miss her after this year
Quite possibly the most beautiful manmade object ever to take to the skies, truly a sad day to see her days of flying come to an end, a bird like that was built to fly.
+TopFelya saw it about 10 minutes ago in Northampton.
+Skullet A bird like that can be used for science. If I remember correctly, Vulcans can carry half a dozen Skybolts. Each point where a Skybolt (nuclear war missile) could fit, a sizable sounding rocket could be launched, giving the little guys a 50,000 foot near-vertical boost. They're still strong enough to chase a hurricane and drop silver iodide into the clouds.
They are still useful, if the government would fix them up enough to be useful in the civilian educational sector. That may mean no more barrel rolls and hotdogging, but, hey, imagine what a university could do with a bomber or a former frigate!
Just have a look at the Tupolev 160 - white swan, you will change your mind.
I'm British. But, can we include the Valkyrie with this?
The Vulcan's delta wing profile is a little too wide which makes it look 'slow'...in terms of sheer sculptured razor edged beauty in the sky...there is no comparison to Concorde!
THIS FLEW OVER MY HOUSE IN THE UK 😍😍😍
THIS WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!
You know its grounded?
remember , these aircraft where designed and built using slide rules, brains and skilled Engineers.
Absolutely majestic !! (have a look at the vintage Farnborough footage of the prototype Vulcan being fully Barrel rolled upon take off by test pilot Roly Falk)
Those wing reflections are gorgeous.
Unforgettable Marvelous Memory by Spitfire,Avro Lancaster,Concorde,Sea Harrier,Vulcan Proud of British Aviation Industry！！！
I've come to the conclusion that there are about 20 dedicated Argentinians who follow all the Vulcan videos on UA-cam and downvote them.
Vulcan is so gorgeous, I wish I'd gotten to see her fly myself just once.
+katie_incredible I saw it flying over Scarborough a couple of years back during a British Armed Forces day. Very majestic aircraft.
Fantastic filming, great shots. I wish i had been there to see this. Amazing Beautiful aircraft. We are all gonna miss her when she stops flying.
The most amazing howl - i only ever heard it once, about 20 years ago - it made shudder then and it will probably make my underwaer wet now!!
I was fresh out of training and sent to Scampton as a new raf policeman the greatest scariest loudest most bone shaking noise I ever heard was was a four Vulcan scramble from the Q the noise vibrated my very soul I was deaf for 30 minutes afterwards while wearing ear defenders incredible moment
I remember being at an airshow at RAF Gaydon in the UK late 60's 70's and there was a sramble of 4 Vulcans from the QRA in the display, 4 mins in took for all 4 of them to get airborne! the noise was incredible, but what a sight!
It was a project worth contributing to. Glad to see 588 flying again.
Best of the best! Loved the devils howl that vibrates through your body and the graceful big beast in the sky.Did not need weapons just that Vulcan screech tells you your time is up, loved it and not forgotten bring it back!
Despite lovingly coming along with me to airshows and fly-ins for many patient years, the first time my wife was impressed by an aircraft was when she first saw/heard/FELT! the awesomeness of the Vulcan at Greenham common in 1983/4
If God made planes....this would be the result. It looks stunning, flies elegantly and the sound it makes cannot be conveyed in words...
then you have never heard the eurofighter typhoon after it hits the afterburner and launches vertical. Words cant describe how that sounds
Many years ago I was stood on the RAF Mountbatten quayside during the Plymouth Airshow when the Vulcan flew over Plymouth Sound and went vertical with full afterburners - nobody could convey anything in words for several minutes afterwards - even then we had to yell over the ringing in our ears!
It'll take one thing to exist for another to exist.
If Carlsberg made Aircraft...
I was on crowd control at the 1970 RAF Wildenrath Flugshau when 14 Vulcans scrambled. It scared the Germans to death! And then we had Harrier. That made people jump too!
The Beauty AND the Beast all in one magnificent machine!!!
Vulcan had fighter-like performance (see roll immediately after wheels up at 0:55) - even more so when unladen! A B52, with similar power, could not dream of doing anything like it.
To be fair as a bomber it lacked range and payload , 10 refuels between uk and falklands to drop 4 tons of bombs , its a unique aircraft but not comparable to american bombers of the era
@@cnfuzz Lower range (4k km vs. 14k km) yes, but with re-fueling (proven) this is somewhat negated (Falklands). The refuels were between Ascension Island half-way down and the Falklands. But my point was not range, but flight performance, if it ever had to use it in time of war: this was demonstrated by the fast roll-turn here out of take-off- and the barrel rolls it could do (early days in proving, and half-barrels at air shows in it's last years, restricted by safety jobsworths from full barrel roll clearance). The B52 could not even conceive of anything like that manoeuvrability and power:weight ratio (even if not in the spec for a long-range bomber). That's the beauty we admired in Vulcan - grace with power.
@@cnfuzz : The Vulcan wasn't designed to be a long-range bomber, it was a product of the "cold war" and designed to attack the Soviet Union which is only a few hundred miles from the UK.
You may not know this, but Vulcan XH 558 is going to have to be dismantled. The loss of her berth at Robin Hood airport, plus the inability to get permission for a short ferry flight to a new home, means that she will have to taken to bits to be transported to a new home, wherever she may find one. She will be rebuilt, but will no longer be able to taxi or even start her engines. I heard them for the very last time as they were run for the last time at Robin Hood.
What a sad end for this magnificent aircraft.
I'm old enough to remember watching live "Vulcan scramble" takeoffs, either 4 or 8 would blast off at 30 second intervals and just rocket straight up into the clouds, it shook the ground like a minor earthquake! Seeing them do an 8 ship stream landing was pretty impressive too!
Fun fact it can actually perform a barrel role because of the wing design.
Yes she can !
I was a navigator on Vulcans for 10 years. We couldn't see out from the back but I was told by the captain that he often barrel-rolled the aircraft during fighter affiliation if that was the quickest way to recover from an evasive manoeuvre. I don't think wing design had anything to do with it as a barrel roll is a 1g manoeuvre throughout which is why we never knew when he was doing it.
@@johnweller5491 How about an aileron roll?
Many years ago one of these flew over our school field and we thought it was trying to land as there was trailing smoke. It landed at Newcastle airport shortly after and it was reported on the news that there was mechanical problems.I think it was 1967.
I was at an airshow at Waddington and the Red Arrows used to go about the crowd standing boxes after their display and answer questions from the crowd. Then they said we;ve got to go now THE VULCAN IS ABOUT TO DISPLAY AND WE NEED TO WATCH,
A spectacular aircraft! That is some performance!
This one is going to my favorites list.
At 2:03-2:04, watch the undersides of the wings as she crosses the piano keys.The reflections look very much like WWII Invasion Stripes!.
Got to see the Vulcan at Airborne Eastbourne 2015 it did no howl but what a magnificent aircraft it flew quite slowly over the seafront and managed to plenty of good photos of what they said then was her last flight
1:00 the roar is great and the footage too.
I remember saying to a chap I used to know that the Vulcan had been inverted.
No it wasn't he insisted, it was a wing -over. Well it looked pretty inverted to me..
tectorama, yes you are correct! I think one of the very first Vulcans built was being test flown out of Woodford, and the pilot ROLLED it! All the windows in the factory were broken! He was advised not to repeat that manouvere!
Error - that was just a wing-over!
That wasnt a barrel roll, it was a wing over
+TopFelya Are they not in trouble for it?
Could you honestly call that footage credible being it was so jerky, It could easily be a doctored set of photos
+TopFelya FAKE , the cardboard cut out roll loked more lif like
+Graham Jones I`m pleased you said that about the wing-over. These numb skulls watch too many movies
Yup! + the camera angle made it look a LOT more incriminating than it really was!
This is normal Vulcan flight footage, if you check out most 2014 Vulcan Airshow performances!!
Kevin Rumens is the nutter pilot that does the most fantastic wing overs!!
Such an iconic beauty miss the sound.
We had Vulcan squadron stationed near us in the UK and they were ready to go and could be in the air and supersonic within 3 mins...these were our front line nuke carrying bombers and awesome
such an awesome aircraft, will be sad to see her grounded :(
Incredibly agile aircraft for its size, guess its the large delta wings that give it such maneuverability.
A magnificent heavy bomber which handled like a heavy fighter.
How good was this? It sure impressed our American allies! In the early 1960s they held an excercise to test the USAs air defences. Won't go into too much detail but some high-altitude Vulcans got through. The following year, the excercise was repeated and a Vulcan got through again..... *& landed at a USAF airfield just outside NY.* Fortunately, we are allies & no nukes were involved!
Dr Mark Felton's excellent YT channel has all the details - "How Britain Nuked America.... Twice".
The beautiful tin triangle, only ever used once in anger. It flew the longest ever bombing mission in history with the help of 11 Victor refuelling planes in the first strike of the Falklands war, a round trip of 8000 miles from Ascension island. It dropped 21 bombs on Stanley airport (the first bomb hit the runway) stopping the Argentinians using it for fast jets. Shortly after the Vulcans were scrapped.
Got through American air defences,
twice, and the Americans knew they
we're coming.
The very best of BRITISH. 🇬🇧
Britain's most beautiful bird, next to the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Seriously, pilot needs to remember although the plane may be able to manoeuvre like a fighter, it's not designed for it and sooner or later, the big bird will buck back with tragic consequences. USAF had a senior B-52 pilot who thought his plane was an F-16 and bought it for himself and crew-and his bomber- at Fairchild AFB in the early 1990's.
grew up in Newark upon Trent.
fantastic
That is one mighty looking aircraft..
What a beauty!!! So sad it will not see the skies again 😢
Nice vid!
It's actually performing a 'wing over'. Hope that puts to rest all the nonsense about barrel rolls, etc. Remember seeing it perform this maneuver many times during my time in the RAF.
Sheer beauty................
+Robert Parkes Still the most agile heavy bomber in the world
+gary proffitt That's not saying a lot...how many heavy bombers are there left? Not a whole lot; two Soviet, two US, and one UK. Which doesn't really count since it's not actually in service, so it's not _really_ a "bomber" any more, but a show aircraft.
A pity so many world beating British designs were scrapped under pressure from the U/S.Just like when they promised to share their knowledge on jet engines. They took all the British know-how and refused to give any information back.Typical U/S always crapping themselves when someone builds better and more efficient equipment than they can. Concorde would have been a massive success and because they were unable to design anything to beat it, they banned it from flying supersonic in their airspace and some airports banned her completely. We had an aircraft called the TSR 2 back in the 70's. This aircraft could have been capable of doing much the role of the Tornado, even today. After spending billions of pounds building another world-beater this was also scrapped and all aircraft under construction and plans were destroyed under pressure from U/S politicians.
Amelia Merrick
The Yanks will always look after themselves and sometimes pretty aggressively. In an odd way I respect that but our Governments of the '60s were in hoc to the Yanks for IMF loans and that was the price the Yanks demanded. TSR2, P1154 and the CVA-01 carrier. All gone and all that technology lost. Or rather stolen by the Yanks.
At least 8 sisters of this beauty showed the Yanks just how good british aircraft were when they beat the whole US air defence systems in Sky Shield I (1960) and then repeated the feat in Sky Shield II (1961) flying directly from Scotland and Bermuda. They could have nuked the whole of the US Eastern Seaboard ... Oh and they flew higher than the B52s going over and lower than the interceptors when they got there.
Amelia Merrick ... the fuck? The British air industry being scrapped had absolutely nothing to do with the USA. It was scrapped because we were spending an absolutely ridiculous, unsustainable percentage of our GDP on the armed forces, to the point that the rest of the country suffered and we went into a massive recession. Britain after WW2 was severely strapped for cash, and the government had continued to throw everything we had left at military projects we could not afford.
So yes, it is a huge shame that we lost the majority of our air industry, but trying to keep up that pace of development would have destroyed the country.
alphaprawns
You are about 50% correct there Sir. Yes of course we were strapped after WWII but we had a world leading industry that was earning huge amounts of foreign capital and maintaining our global reputation. And yes projects cost too much and we mismanaged major items but when you look at how the USA went out of its way to scupper major UK projects to protect its own domestic industries then sorry I have to disagree with you in that part. I don't criticise the Yanks for it as such but to treat their so called closest ally and our so called 'special relationship' in such a cavalier way was just wrong.
+Amelia Merrick Military demands change quite rapidly, and despite the Vulcan flying its first and last combat mission 30 years after it first flew, it was a very old fashioned piece of kit. My brother worked on converting the aircraft from nuclear to conventional bombload at BAe Woodford so it could carry out that raid and was shocked when shown the bomb aiming equipment. It was only just out of WW2. Despite its nuclear roots, its future in that role would have been made obsolete as soon as Polaris became operational; if not obsolete, then certainly living on borrowed time. It was obviously never seriously updated. I couldn't see it joining the USAF B52s bombing Iraq somehow, could you? Perhaps we've rarely prioritised in this country. The US could well have scuppered TSR2, as has widely been rumoured, but then maybe they knew the amount of money it would have cost and may well have failed which wouldn't have helped our balance of payments.
+Les Paul , USA saw the British aerospace industry as threat to the US industry and went to great lengths to ensure its demise.
called a wing over!!!!
in early days they looped and rolled them!!!
Those landinngs! like a crocodile slipping into the water, so smooth and with the grace of a balerina but the teeth of a T'Rex.
As you all may think the Vulcan "almost rolled" it just did a wing over which is commonly done in this aircraft as is it how they used to take off during the Cold War
I’ve been flying for well over 45 years.
There was no barrel roll.
Maybe a wing over depending how you look at the video.
But all said and done it’s a beautiful piece of technology
Yet another very misleading title to a UA-cam video. The Vulcan DID NOT "almost barrel roll". It did a wing over above the person filming.
Thank you for correction
im gutted i never got to see her flying properly.
my only experience was when she flew over my house unexpectedly while leaving Farnborough. the whole house shook and thunder filled the air, i thought to my self jesus christ what the fuck is that. and just saw the back of it as it flew away leaving smoke trails.
glorious
It just flew past my house 10 seconds ago!
well done Graham
The days when Britain could do anything, or thought it could, which amounts to the same thing really. Bill Gunston.
I remember the howl of the F-4 and F-104. They had the JE J79 engines.
Simply majestic.
Super video
I got to see a Vulcan in an airshow way back in the 70s in Sao Jose Dos Campos (Sao Paulo state), Brazil. This is surely the most beautiful delta wing airplane of all time IMO (Concorde beats it, but its wings are ogival, not delta). That same show introduced me to the Airbus A300 demonstrator, C-5 Galaxy, the incredible Harrier and a very powerful Lama helicopter doing mild aerobatics while carrying it's own weight in a sling-cargo configuration. Bob Hoover did some crazy stuff too, including all-engine-out aerobatics and a dead-stick landing in his Shrike Commander. Those were the days.
As for the maneuver in the video, it's really hard to judge exactly what the airplane is doing when it's almost directly overhead, especially through the limited field of view of a camera's viewfinder or by looking at the finished video. Aircraft gyrations without the viewer's reference to the horizon plus the odd camera angles needed to keep it framed overhead might easily be construed as loops & rolls.
+corisco tupi Concorde's ogival delta wing is derived from that of the Vulcan B.2 - only the B.1 was truly a delta.
***** - Concorde's wing had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the various versions (original, phase II, etc) of the Vulcan wing, and certainly was not derived from it. Its wing was designed from scratch for the specific task of flying efficiently from subsonic to Mach 2, quite unlike the Vulcan's wing. The wings of these two airplanes share only a (very) vague resemblance, nothing more.
corisco tupi I know they have nothing in common structurally. Concorde's wing is much thinner. However, the shape was chosen principally because of experience gained through the Vulcan and particularly the B.2 - an awful lot of Concorde development work, including the Olympus 593 engine testing, was done on Vulcan mules.
***** Again - Nothing whatsoever on Concorde's wing was remotely inspired on the Vulcan wing design. Not structurally, not aerodynamically, or anything else. The Concorde wing was researched and designed from scratch independently from anything done in the Vulcan project. You are right though that the Vulcan was used as a testbed for the Olympus 593 engine.
corisco tupi
The B.2 acted as proof of concept though, it was the first aeroplane to prove that the ogival delta worked, especially at quite extreme bank angles.
been away minus laptop so catching up and wow is this a great video !
The howl is some star wars level shit! What a beautiful craft, HUGE but elegant.
We've developed a new kind of fighter jet. It has 4 engines and a bomb bay . . .
saw it in person while stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base in the early 80s
spot on a wing over!!!! Magic for such a large aircraft
Sadly was a Pilot!! so know the difference!!!
too old know but delivered a Vintage 1958 Vampire just 2 years ago!!!! My last proper flight!!!
Age catched up!!!!
Beautiful video but don't you mean valediction flight rather than validation? I would have thought that the Vulcans had validated their existences long ago already :)
Awesome design!
saw this flying over south witham when it was based at wittering last year. moves so slowly and quietly, it looked like a giant kite.
Beautiful Excellence
Beautiful plane that! Sweet video as well!
Although I'm Irish i think the V is a beautiful thing
Bloody marvellous 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧
Beautiful olde girl, shame we don't keep them up
@TopFelya I heard that the pilot got a shouting at after he did this, he wasn't supposed to!
An old knight that achieved greatness before retirement.
Truely magnificant !