Created specifically for war with Russia: the history of the British bomber Avro Vulcan

The US and the USSR were not the only countries that paid priority to the new advanced weapon during the Cold War. Being closer to the Soviet Union than the United States, the United Kingdom also increased its air arsenal. The United Kingdom presented its AVRO Vulcan bomber just a few days after the end of World War II. This reactive tailed aircraft with a deltai wing became a nuclear bomber of the United Kingdom during the Cold War.

In addition to the fact that Vulcan served as a means of containment of the Soviets, he later made the longest in history bombing flight during the 1982 Falkland War. The British Vulcan aircraft was developed within the framework of the nuclear weapons. In the mid-1940s, the authorities allowed the study and development of nuclear weapons, in particular, which could be used from a height of up to 15 km. As a result, to create a bomber capable of carrying such weapons, they chose AVRO.

Roy Chadvik's chief designer of the company presented an atypical design based on the concept of the delta. To obtain the necessary technical data for this radically new design, more than one Vulcan prototype was created. As a result, one of these "minivulkans" was selected, Type 698 VX770. This bomber made its first flight in 1952 on Avon engines, since the Bristol Olympus engines intended for him were not yet ready for operation.

In the same year, the prototype was placed in front of the audience of the air show, during which the bomber demonstrated an almost vertical roll. In 1953, the second Vulcan prototype rose to the sky. Soon the VX777 was finished with Olympus 101 engines and continued the test. However, the tendency of the bomber to uncontrolled dive in flight made it difficult to operate.

In order to eliminate this disadvantage, the wings had to be processed, and a balancing machine was installed in order to prevent uncontrolled dive by the number of M. . When Vulcan officially arrived in 1956, a crew of five people was required to operate it. At the time of the first flight, Vulcan had, perhaps, the lowest radar section, which meant that it was difficult to find hostile planes. Vulcan was ahead of its time in view of the weapons.

The inner compartment of the bomber could carry 21 bombs of 4. 5 tons each while working in normal combat mode. In addition, Vulcan was equipped with Radiolocating missiles SHRIKE, which were used during the folkland campaign.

As Avro Vulcan describes in detail, "from April 30 to June 11, the royal Air Force made five distant departments against folklands using" volcano The code name "Black Buck Operation" was the usual bombardment of the port lane of Port Stemley Airport (to deprive Argentine fighters the opportunity to use it), and two more-departures with start-up Shrike rockets against radar installations on the islands.

These raids became the longest bombardment in the history of the Air War (their record was later broken by the US Air Force Air Force during the 1990 Gulf of Persian), and each of them demanded powerful support from the Victor K2 Tankers Park. Each "Black Buck" was flying about 13,000 km in length and back up to 15 hours. "Although during the Cold War Vulcan was rarely used, the bomber certainly proved its value during the folkland campaign.