Historic bomber back in the air
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On Thursday October 18th 2007 the only airworthy Vulcan bomber in the world returned
to the skies over Leicestershire when Avro Vulcan XH558, having last flown 14 years ago
after a 33 year career in the Royal Air Force, took to the air from Bruntingthorpe airfield
for a 34-minute test flight.
Having helped to restore this historic aircraft by acting as a consulting company on
connector requirements providing data and drawings of connectors and contacts originally
used on the aircraft. We also supplied samples and production connectors at subsidised
prices to help the project.
This wonderful achievement, unique in the history of aviation, marks the end of a 10-year
effort by the Vulcan To The Sky Trust and for the past two years a team of 24 engineers
have spent £6 million making the jet airworthy.
It was hoped that the aircraft would become a regular sight at air shows and Farnborough Air Show 2008 proved just the place. What an amazing sight to see this historic bomber fly again. The noise and sheer beauty of this aircraft left alot of us in awe.
A little history on the bomber. Designed by A.V. Roe and Company, the Avro
Vulcan, a revolutionary delta-winged bomber, was used by the RAF from 1956 to 1984 during
which time it spearheaded British nuclear and conventional bombing capability and
achieved dramatic success in the 1982 Falkland conflict.
Fundraising still continues and if you would like to know more on this project
please visit http://www.tvoc.co.uk.
My name is John Ward , I am a retired RAF pilot and a friend of Sue Kurylowicz to whom I am known as “Uncle John” I joined the RAF in 1949 under the National Service Scheme and trained initially as a Flight Engineer graduating in 1950 as a Sergeant. I was posted to RAF Manby in Lincolnshire which was, in those days, the RAF Flying College equipped with Avro Lincoln and Handley Page Hastings aircraft. At the end of two years I applied for pilot training and since the Korean War was creating amodest expansion in the Armed Forces following the post World War 2 rundown I was accepted. I began pilot training at RAF Moreton in Marsh in 1953 and received my pilot wings the follwing year. After jet conversion on the Meteor and a Canberra course at Bassingbourn I was posted to No 18 Squadron at RAF Upwood equipped with the Canberra B2 bomber with a 3 man crew. In 1956 I took part in the Suez campaign flying operations from Cyprus where we stayed for 9 weeks . We returned to Upwood on Christmas Eve to a less than heroes welcome; in fact the only people to meet us were HM Customs and Excise!
By the middle of 1957 the run down of the Canberra force was under way and new Squadrons were being formed equipped with the trio of new “V” Bombers, the Vickers Valiant, the Avro Vulcan and the Handley Page Victor. I applied for and was accepted as a co pilot on the Vulcan after being personally interviewed by Air Marshal Augustus (Gus) Walker who was AOC No 1 Group. I completed the Vulcan course at RAF Waddington in September 1957 and was posted to No 101 Squadron in the process of being reformed at RAF Finningley, near Doncaster. In those early days the delivery of these new aircraft was slow and we got relatively little flying at first. With such an exciting and quite revolutionary Delta wing aircraft crews underwent a steep learning curve. Although there was a flight simulator at Waddington it was a fairly primitive affair and served only to practice emergency procedures rather than be a substitute for real flying.
I was crewed with a pilot called Mike Beavis, about more later, and we spent most of our flying time practicing bombing, navigation and landing procedures which, unusually, involved the use of a tail parachute which was deployed on landing to slow what was a heavy aircraft with a high landing speed.During this tour we visited the USA,
Malaysia, Bermuda, Canada and S Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and it was on return from a month long detachment to Malaysia that I learned I was to get my long awaited Captains course. Mike Beavis was posted to No 617 Squadron on promotion but I “inherited” two of his crew as part of my own.
In 1960 the Cold War was well underway and all the V Bomber squadrons maintained a number of aircraft and crews at immediate readiness with Nuclear weapons. Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) was an established part of life and involved 48 hour periods when you ate and slept alongside the aircraft ready to react to the regular practice alerts and hoping that the real thing never happened. Life was fairly routine and with some 800 hours on the aircraft I was confident without, hopefully, being complacent.
In 1961 I learned that Mike Beavis had flown a Vulcan non stop from Scampton to Sydney Australia being refuelled in the air by Valiant Tanker aircraft. I can remember thinking how exciting that must be and being rather envious. What I didnt know was that N0 617 Squadron was about to be re equipped with the new Mk 2 version of the Vulcan and 101 Squadron which still had the Mk 1 was to take over the in flight refuelling role.In January 1962 I was one of three Captains chosen to train in this role,. The first flights were undertaken under the guidance of experienced Valiant tanker captains but we were soon on our own building up skill and confidence. We soon learned that there were two potential hazards ; the probe on the receiver had to be driven into the drogue being trailed by the tanker at an overtaking speed no higher than 5 knots, any higher than this risked the hose kinking and whipping off the end of the receiver probe and any slower could mean a poor connection and a fuel leak once transfer took place. Because the probe on the Vulcan was on the nose and below the eye level of the pilot any fuel thus leaked would cover the windscreen and seriously reduce visibility; not a good idea when you are only feet away from another aircraft and doing over 250 mph.
In March 1962 HQ Bomber Command agreed to send a Vulcan to participate in the Annual Open Day at RAF Khormaksar,Aden and by employing in flight refuelling attempt to break the existing official point to point speed record from London to Aden. Aden would have been within the Vulcans 3000 mile range at normal cruising speed but by flying faster with increased fuel consumption an in flight refuel was essential. I was chosen to do this flight which took place on 30th April and we refuelled once near Malta and arrived at Aden after 6 hours and 13 minutes at an average speed of 590 miles per hour. On return to Waddington I was congratulated by the Squadron Commander who told me that the Royal Aero Club had confirmed the establishment of a new World Speed Record between London and Aden. In due course I received the Record Certificate but what was a much greater surprise was the news that I had been awarded the Geoffrey de Havilland Trophy for 1962. The Trophy had been created in memory of Geoffrey de Havilland Jnr who, as the de Havilland Companys Chief Test pilot had been killed in the experimental Swallow aircraft in 1946. Subsequently the Trophy had been awarded annualy to the British pilot setting the fastest time in any official race or record. I was flattered to have my name engraved on this Trophy alongside well known Test pilots Neville Duke and Peter Twiss.I and my crew were invited to an awards ceremony at the Royal Aero Club in London and I was given the Trophy by Lord Brabazon of Tara, President of the RAC.
After the Aden flight I was made the Squadrons Flight Refuelling instructor and set about training the rest of the Squadron crews including the CO, In March 1963 HQ Bomber Command decided to mount an ambitious exercise in which three Vulcans would fly non stop from UK to Australia. This had, of course, been accomplished earlier by Mike Beavis but to get three aircraft to Australia would take the whole of the Commands Valiant tanker fleet.The time scale for training was short and long range training flights had to be planned quickly culminating in a flight to and from Gan in the Maldives the return flight taking over 16 hours. On the evening of 8 th July I took off as No 2 to the Squadron Commander making our first refuel at night over Libya then three more the following day over Aden and Gan with a final top up East of Gan. This final refuel was made difficult by air turbulence but our luck held out and we landed at Perth in the dark after a flight of 18 hours and twenty minutes. Anyone who has endured very long flights in airline economy class will appreciate that 18 hours strapped to an ejector seat is no fun since you cannot even walk around or go to the toilet!
After a splendid welcome from Australian press and TV at Perth over the next week we made more leisurely flights across Australia to Sydney giving demos on the way. The flight back to UK was carried out in stages and we eventually arrived back at Waddington tired but elated. My reward for this effort was a Queens Commendation and a Permanent Commission which allowed me, eventually to retire after 34 years service. In 1964 my in flight refuelling expertise was used to convert three crews flying Vulcan Mk 2s at RAF Conningsby; one of the Captains was the then CO of No 35 Squadron. Wing Commander Craig, later to become Chief of the Defence Staff and now Lord Craig.