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CROWOOD AVIATION SERIES
V-BOMBERS
Valiant, Vulcan and Victor.
Barry Jones
The threat of a nuclear war in the late 1940s and '50s prompted a massive leap in the capability of aircraft and defence systems. This, together with developments in jet propulsion and the technical lessons learned during the Second World War, led all the protaganists to produce some exciting and innovative designs. In Great Britain the established companies of Vickers Armstrongs, Avro and Handley Page were each to produce aircraft that captured the public imagination. With swept, delta and crescent wings, and with names beginning with 'V', it was inevitable that the trio would be known as the 'V-Force'.
The mildly swept-wing Vickers Valiant was first into service, followed by the impressive delta-wing Avro Vulcan and finally the elegant crescent-wing Handley Page Victor. Each made its mark at the public displays at Farnborough, as they were an enormous leap forward from the bombers that had gone before.
Their time as high-level nuclear bombers was shortened by the emergence of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and developments in anti-aircraft missiles that forced them to fly lower, beneath radar, in order to deliver their weapons. This spelled the end of the Valiant, whose structure was affected by fatigue from these punishing low-level flights.
The Vulcan and the Victor served on, both seeing active service in the Falklands War of 1982, the Vulcan as a bomber and the Victor as an in-flight refuelling tanker, where its long range and large payload made it ideal for the purpose, a task it was to repeat in the Gulf War of 1990-91.
The fact that the Valiant and Vulcan only ever dropped conventional bombs in anger, during the Suez crisis and the Falkland conflict respectively, is testament to the deterrent effect of the V-Force during the nuclear-threatening days of the Cold War.
Barry Jones tells the story of these aeroplanes, as well as the Short Sperrin that provided much valuable information for their development, in this well-researched and illustrated addition to the Crowood Aviation Series.
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