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Vulcan to fly again!

This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.

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Tawakalna

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:06 pm

Vulcan to fly again!

In one of the more pleasant news items that's cheered my week right up, the Avro Vulcan is to finally grace our island's skies once again. The last of the mighty V-Bomber force to see RAF service, XH558 has taken to the air for test flights and will again be dazzling the crowds at airshows with it's magnificent and awe-inspiring take-offs and incredible abilities in the air (for a plane so large, that is)

linkys..

story
site
video

and some pictures..

ah, wonderful! Those of you under 30 or cursed with living in uncivilised foreign countries no longer under the auspices of the mother country, will probably never have seen this superlative aircraft, which on it's own puts your silly stealth technology and carbon-fibre and fly-by-wire whatever to shame. When I was a kid, these things were still in front-line service and the sound of a flight or squadron of them taking off was incredible (and the smoke!) Amazingly, a Vulcan could rotate and then climb almost vertically. and you'd just see this huge triangular slab of metal going up with a stream of dirt coming out of it. Every year we'd go to Finningley for the RAF's top show and the Vulcan scramble was always the highlight (along with the Belfasts disgorging Daleks, which was a hoot)

Maybe if someone restored some Handley-Page Victors, and even a Vickers Valiant, and then get the English Electric Lightnings & Canberras back up in the air, and the Hawker Hunters and Blackburn Buccaneers*, we could see again what the RAF was like when we had a proper air force with proper British planes made by proper British companies and not just overpriced rubbish bought off the shelf from the flippin' Yanks, and cr*ppy European *consortium* YooroFartairs that we make the seatcushion stuffing for and the pilot's watch strap

The Vulcans only ever saw live action once, when they bombed Port Stanley airfield during the Falklands War. Needless to say the raid was a complete success and unlike certain other countries that can't fly warplanes very well, we didn't kill any civilians or hit the wrong target.

*Buccaneers were of course actually Fleet Air Arm planes that the RAF took over after the fleet carriers were retired, but who cares? They were still great planes produced by British companies, before everything got ruined by Duncan Sandys and then the amalgamation into BAe; personally I blame the Common Market and/or the Americans, but then I blame everything on the Common Market and/or the Americans. England Prevails!

Rankor

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:51 pm

I had the rare opportunity to actually see one of those Vulcans on the fly.
It was at an air show back in the 80's during my service with the Air Force.
What a plane! (and I'm one of those Yanks)
Still, I'd also like to see the DeHavaland Mosquito take flight.
Those were and still are two of my many favorite vintage aircraft.

mustang

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:42 pm

Never saw it fly but have seen one in the hanger at Duxford. Pretty cool beastie but still nothing like the Handley Page V1500, the worlds first true british long range bomber. I'm suprised these things used to get off the ground at all.

Striker-1

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:48 pm

For a minute there, I thought you were talking about Spock.... Bummer

flybyu

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:57 pm

Here is a Real Bomber


“SISU”
(Pronounced: siss-sue)
(Meaning)
Guts, Tenacity, Steadfastness, Courage, and an Indomitable will to Succeed, and Survive.

Cold_Void

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:48 pm

in just a few decades we will be talking about how we used to build our own warplanes too - i hope we'll still have a country to park it on by then.

P.S. that 'real bomber' you've got there could very well be the very same B-52 that 'accidentally' flew six nuclear warhead tipped cruise missiles across the united states several weeks ago, as we have not built one of these planes in at least(?) a decade.

the cold war was a ^$%@ reticulan scam, and it just goes to prove that humanity will destroy itself before it ever lifts a finger to change its nature. we could have sacrificed another 4-8 years liberating eastern Europe from the Soviets, and saved the world a lot of grief in the long run. but it was easier to retire from world-saving and engineer our own destruction, i guess, particularly when it enriched powerful M.I.C elites who were no longer barred from profiteering by war-time law and thrifty victory-minded congressmen. don't get me wrong i'm not blaming the "great" generation here(any more than i blame my own for what is happening right now... actually i can't blame anyone, which just makes me angrier), just saying they were far from perfect like us, as our current state of affairs plainly demonstrates. (e.g. we are still hostile to russia, china has not made buddy buddy with us as nixon hoped but instead is falling into lockstep with russia, we are still trying to expand nato even though we've already declared 'mission accomplished' on the cold-war, sticking missile shields under the iranian & russian ICBM flight paths, etc. basically, i mean the war to end all wars...... didn't end anything. it just went elsewhere, like banana republics where people were ground up like hamburger meat in the proxy teeth of capitalism and communism.)

Tawakalna

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:15 pm

those B-52s are almost as old as I am! the only reason they're still in service is because you can't build anything as good today.

freighter fighter

Post Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:25 pm

I heard when the b52 gets retired, the youngest plane would be 60 ish years old, does that mean then that whatever the oldest flying model is would be 100+ years old?

Rankor

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:00 am

No intentions to slight you on this Tawakalna.
If I remember correctly, the Vucan and B-52 are about the same age and were
considered equivalent type bombers.
Since you brought up the subject, and it brought back nostalgic memories
of some of my favorites..
here is another one of my favorites.
This ones life was short lived and to my knowledge, never saw action.
It could fly supersonic at tree-top level and below radar during that time.
Powered by 4 of the same engines that the F-4 Phantom used, it was a smoking
demon. However, it was scrapped when the B-52 was developed in favor of
high altitude bombers.

flybyu

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:05 am

I would like to see a model of that for Freelancer. Both the Vulcan and the B58 are sweet.

The B-52 has been in service since 1955. It's first design was in 1946. The final version was finished in 1952 and B-52 carries up to 70,000 pounds of weapons.

In January 2007, the B-52 became the first aircraft to mark 52 years of continuous service.

General characteristics

Crew: 5 pilot, copilot, radar navigator (bombardier), navigator, and Electronic Warfare Officer; gunners are no longer a part of the crew.
Length: 159 ft 4 in
Wingspan: 185 ft 0 in
Height: 40 ft 8 in
Wing area: 4,000 ft
Airfoil: NACA 63A219.3 mod root, NACA 65A209.5 tip
Empty weight: 185,000 lb
Loaded weight: 265,000 lb
Max takeoff weight: 488,000 lb
Fuel capacity: 47,975 US gal
Powerplant: 8× Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofans, 17,000 lbf (76 kN) each
* Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0119
Drag area: 47.60 ft²
Aspect ratio: 8.56

Performance

Maximum speed: 650 mph
Combat radius: 4,480 mi
Ferry range: 11,000 mi
Service ceiling: 50,000 ft
Rate of climb: 6,270 ft/min
Wing loading: 30 lb/ft
Thrust/weight: 0.51
Lift-to-drag ratio: 21.5

Armament

Guns: 1× 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon in a remote controlled tail turret, now removed from all operational aircraft.
Ordnance: up to 70,000 lb bombs, missiles, and mines, in various configurations


One of my favorite planes of WWII was the DH98 Mosquito bomber.



“SISU”
(Pronounced: siss-sue)
(Meaning)
Guts, Tenacity, Steadfastness, Courage, and an Indomitable will to Succeed, and Survive.

Edited by - FlyByU on 10/19/2007 7:13:15 AM

NukeIt

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:11 am

That's cool to hear- while not a Brit, I do fancy myself a fan of military aviation and I do indeed recognize the Vulcan. Truly a beautiful plane if ever there was one; awesome to hear that one of 'em is up and flying again. Maybe you folks over the pond could send her our way for a few shows, hmmm?

Indy11

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:02 am

And here I thought the Tea-Towelled one had lapsed into some kind of Star Trek mania drive.

Tawakalna

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:03 am

The Vulcan always gets nods of approval from everyone who sees it, even if they don't like 'planes that much. It's so distinctive and has so much character, besides you never forget the takeoffs, I'm sure that's contributed to my dreadful hearing.

funny thing about the B-52 being originally designed in 1946, because it was initially a fairly conventional straight wing piston-engine design, derived from the existing B-29 and not unlike the Convair B-36 (horrible plane) but Boeing's subsequent experience with the B-47 introduced the swept-wings and the jet engines. I really liked the B-47, i thought it was a lovely aircraft, beautifully streamlined; very dirty and noisy though, often used to take off with rockets! not quite sure about that first aircraft to do 52 years of "continuous" service though, flybyu; what about the Canberra, or the DC-3?

I adored the B-58, now there's a futuristic and menacing design, but still gorgeous. Aircraft of that area I think are more attractive than modern machines, there was still a human aesthetic element in the design process, after all they were still drawn at the planning stage, now it's all computerised and impersonal and the planes look like bricks. Delta Darts, Delta Daggers, Sabres, Starfighters, Lightnings, Hunters, Mysteres, they all looked so lovely glistening in the sunlight in their unpainted metal finishes. Now planes are that grungy camouflage colour with the markings all blacked-out.

Nice to see so many admirers of the "Wooden Wonder" - the superlative Mosquito., which could do just about anything. Always a beautiful sight, I thought that they looked especially lovely in B.O.A.C. livery (that's British Overseas Airways Corporation, when we had proper airlines with proper British planes) Ah, de Havilland....

Hmmm, a belated and rather ineffective attempt at humour from a bean-counting insurance man; I take it you're bored cos your abacus is broken and you can't add up your receipts?

flybyu

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:17 pm

I don't think the Canberra, or the DC-3 is still in operation or is it?

Tawakalna

Post Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:28 pm

the Canberra was finally retired from service in 2006, making it 57 years in continuous service, with the last being as a photographic reconnaissance platform (which it performed for years and years) So that's not just 57 years in service, but 57 years with the same Service that first flew it! (the RAF)

DC-3s are still in service with small operators and cargo flights in Africa, Asia, and S. America, and prob always will be - until the last one falls apart. In fact some companies take worn-out DC-3s and refurbish them to airworthiness with new engines, avionics and controls, and turn them around as virtually *new* aircraft.

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