Vulcan 607

Product Information

Unfortunately this Aircraft can’t be seen at this time. I was passing to go a visit a few of the Vulcans while on a long weekend and attending a Car show at the British Motor Museum. How disappointing after near 300 miles from Glasgow on a Friday to pull up at the wave before heading to another small Air museum with another Vulcan to find it had moved and was in a hanger for restoration. If anyone that is in a position of responsibility for the Aircraft or base is reading please cut the hedges and put... read more » read more »

Brookes, Andrew (2009). Vulcan Units of the Cold War. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-818-1. OCLC 154800055.Argentine codes had been broken, and in March 1982 intelligence warnings about possible Argentine activity in the South Atlantic accumulated. [5] [6] The RAF began examining whether it was possible to carry out long-range operations with Avro Vulcan bombers using aerial refuelling. [1] [4] In 1961, a Vulcan had flown non-stop from the UK to RAAF Base Richmond near Sydney in Australia, a much greater distance, [7] but that was with pre-positioned aerial tankers along the route, which would not be possible flying from Ascension. All consideration at this point was about how it could be done; no targets were identified in the Falklands or Argentina. [8] Just over 20 years later, its last three squadrons were about to be disbanded, the aircraft sent to flight museums and scrapyards. But the Vulcan was to find one last role, one as unexpected as its appearance over the Big Apple more than two decades earlier. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and the United Kingdom found itself fighting a war on the other side of the world. The aircrews of the Vulcan and the last Victor heard the news of their success on the BBC World Service, limping towards a hoped-for rendezvous with airborne tankers somewhere off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The first five Victors deployed to Ascension on 18 April. They were followed by four more the following day. Another six more deployed by the end of the month, bringing the Victor tanker force to fourteen, since one had returned to Marham on 26 April. Each was refuelled by another Victor before leaving UK airspace. While the Victors deployed to Ascension, their normal refuelling mission in the air was undertaken by United States Air Force Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. The station commander at Marham, Group Captain J. S. B. Price, became the senior RAF officer at Ascension. Wing Commander D. W. Maurice-Jones assumed command of the Victor detachment at Ascension until 22 April, when he was relieved by Wing Commander A. W. Bowman, the commander of No. 57 Squadron. [14] As the commander of the Vulcan, it fell to Withers to decide how the operation should proceed. An extract from the bookVulcan 607, by Rowland White:After over 20 minutes of intensive flying through the storm, the jets had burned more fuel than planned. Martin and his Vulcan crew flew in formation with the tankers during the storm, but as air-to-air refuelling was carried out in radio silence they were unaware of the full detail of the Victors’ problems. When they received a little over half the fuel they expected and the Victor signalled they had given all they could spare, the Vulcan crew were surprised. They had much lower levels than needed to complete the mission and return to Ascension. In reality XL189 had given morethan they could spare. A simply beautiful, yet awesome, sinister looking plane. Those who have not done so must read Rowland White's "Vulcan 607", the amazing story behind the raid on the Stanley airfield at the beginning of the Falklands War. I have read it twice - and I am a former Royal Marine! Lebow, Richard Ned (August 2007). "Revisiting the Falklands Intelligence Failures". RUSI Journal. 152 (4): 68–73. doi: 10.1080/03071840701574755. ISSN 0307-1847. S2CID 219629077.