Britains Air Force Inventory

Now here's a thread about the RAF, Those Jolly Good Chaps!

























[edit on 30-6-2006 by Browno]

Originally posted by Browno

what the hell is that? is that even a real plane or is it cg?

justin

Yeah I agree. That is a crazy design for a plane. The intakes look....so futuristic.
Overall though good thread. Brits definitly have some good stuff to throw around if the situation called for it.

Originally posted by justin_barton3

Originally posted by Browno

what the hell is that? is that even a real plane or is it cg?

justin

Its the Handley-Page Victor c. 1950s

Originally posted by justin_barton3

Originally posted by Browno

what the hell is that? is that even a real plane or is it cg?

justin

Its a Victor, was once part of the UK's Nuclear Bomber fleet, then they converted them to tankers, then they retired them about 5 years ago.

Suprised that someone on an aviation forum didn't know that TBH

cheers people. neformore as u'll soon realise by reading my posts im not that knowledgeable especially if its not modern and american. if its old and/or obscure then i probably dont know it.

justin

p.s im not sure if slagging myself off to that extent was a good idea but hell.

Originally posted by justin_barton3
cheers people. neformore as u'll soon realise by reading my posts im not that knowledgeable especially if its not modern and american. if its old and/or obscure then i probably dont know it.

justin

p.s im not sure if slagging myself off to that extent was a good idea but hell.

Tell you what, you should have seen one of those bad boys take off

Theres a Vulcan in those images as well. Sadly theres none of those flying anymore either (although some people are trying to restore one.)

I have three overpowering memories of the Vulcan.

- The first is film footage showing a cold war scramble of a whole squadron of them
- The second is from when I was about 11 and one flew over my parents house en-route to an airshow. It was flying at about 500ft and it was silouetted against a clear blue sky coming out of the sun. The damn thing looked like something out of a sci-fi film.
- The last, and best one is from an airshow just before they retired the last flying one. The people running the show told us about half an hour before it took off to go and turn off all car alarms, and to take small children as far away from the flightline as possible. The reason was because they had arranged for it to take off at full military power as per a scramble. Oh boy.... everything shook, the noise was fantastic (gives me goosebumps thinking about it - if you've ever seen a B-1 takeoff, multiply the noise factor by about 5). To our amazement the pilot wasn't finished, he threw the thing round the sky like it was some kind of fighter and then did a very low level pass (about two hundred feet as I recall, maybe less) down the flightline at high speed. That pass took out the windows in a nearby hangar, made some women and kids scream and set off about 5,000 car alarms that people hadn't been bothered to turn off. I came away from the airshow numb. Never seen anything like it before or since.

i know what the vulcan is. im not that bad. sounds like some amazing memories especially the last one at the airshow. ive never been to an airshow although i would love to but being 16 and having parents who arent intrested it isnt going to happen for a while.

im going to do areonautical engineering thoughand the course im looking at teaches you how to fly so i could start spending a lot more time study planes and hanging around airfieds so eventually i guess ill maybe know as much as some of you lot.

justin

Theres a Vulcan in those images as well. Sadly theres none of those flying anymore either (although some people are trying to restore one.)

Sadly, this is not true. Restoration is not needed since a full flyable Vulcan has been wowing fans in the UK with it's fast taxi runs, which is the only thing that can be done after they were retired, since they can't fly them...
That's about to change.
An article in an aviation magazine stated the the CAA will be giving the green light for flying that Vulcan at air shows. The thunder will soon return.
Too bad only one Valiant exists, otherwise it would be great to see a fly-by of all three V-Bombers once more.

My dad grew up in the 1950’s not to far away from a World War 2 airfield the RAF built where a village once stood. Aston Down became a testing ground for some of the early RAF jets and he remembers fondly hearing the engines roaring up and over his head.

Most of the RAF fleet are Harrier’s (we invented them!) Tornado’s with the Eurofighter Typhoon god knows how late and god knows how much over budget. Doubt it would be able to match the F-22 tho

Even today you get things like the Hawker Hunter flying into Kemble airfield a little further away.

Originally posted by TSR2005

Theres a Vulcan in those images as well. Sadly theres none of those flying anymore either (although some people are trying to restore one.)

Sadly, this is not true. Restoration is not needed since a full flyable Vulcan has been wowing fans in the UK with it's fast taxi runs, which is the only thing that can be done after they were retired, since they can't fly them...
That's about to change.
An article in an aviation magazine stated the the CAA will be giving the green light for flying that Vulcan at air shows. The thunder will soon return.

Too bad only one Valiant exists, otherwise it would be great to see a fly-by of all three V-Bombers once more.

There are NO flyable Vulcans in the UK at this present moment.

XH558 is the best hope for a flyable Vulcan and, if the restoration process is completed and funding is available it will hopefully be rolled out at the end of August 2006.

There is, as I understand, a flyable Victor that does fast taxi runs, but it is not allowed to leave the ground as it does not have the required CAA clearance.