The Victor was always my favourite at the time. The Vulcan is a real beauty and makes a fabulous air-display attraction. The Victor has to be one of the most malevolent looking aircraft ever built, quite rightly so considering its job.
The Soviets with their policy of Communist expansionism, caused the entire problem by placing missiles on Cuba. Without that there would have been no problems whatever!
@eddie money Well here you are again 'laughing' at the UK? Yank twat. Well go read the biography of one Nikita Kruschev and in that book you will see it was the RAF Vulcans that made him think twice. Just remember he knew how the RAF and the UK had helped Russia two weeks after his country was invaded, he remembered how we gave them 3,000 Hurricane fighters and 3,400 tanks starting 2 weeks after Barbarossa and he knew how good the RAF were having seen what they did to Germany. He was never impressed by the USAF. He was very disinclined to engage in hostilities with the UK and he knew the RAF would get through no matter what.
Love how the Vulcan test pilot rocks up to work in his suit and climbs aboard. Almost as though he’d just stepped out of an office meeting. He probably took a flask of tea with him too. Thoroughly British.
What I always liked about British war birds is how unconventional and daring their designs can be. To this day, The Spitfire is the most elegant fighter design of the WWII era, followed by the Lightning. The Vulcan is the most wickedly badass bomber ever designed. It's straight out of a Bond movie. The death of the TSR-2 program was a crime.
I'll second that. I have actually seen (and heard) all three V Bombers (Vulcan, Victor, Valiant) in Vee formation with the Vulcan in the lead, way back in the late fifties, when they flew at very low level over Southsea (UK) beach - right over the top of me and continued on over the Isle of Wight. It was AWESOME! I will never forget that sight and sound.
@@peterendall7935 I used to sell hot dogs at the air shows in the Summers, hearing and seeing the Vulcan run with fake bombing was unbelievable I used to shout out "last chance to eat a hot dog before you get wiped out" and I used to swap hot dogs for small plane rides with pilots - later lucky enough to fly as a private pilot... Marvellous British engineering I have a terrain following radar unit (pod) and some HS2 and an autopilot from early Vulcans in my collection
Both gorgeous aircraft, but the Vulcan was always my favourite. As a child I used to have them fly over my house during the Booker Airshow near High Wycombe, Bucks. Will never forget the sights and sounds as I stood on our garage roof to watch. In the 90's was privileged to be part a a small team asked to help tow a Victor tanker around the airfield at RAF Elvington during a military exercise, using one of our Leyland DAF DROPS vehicles
I was fortunate to see two Vulcan bombers at an air show in Guam, circa 1978 or 79. One flew at the show. It and a SR71 flying at another air show remain the two most unique aircraft I’ve seen.
I have foggy 6 year old's memories of my mother stopping by a church in the middle of the day to pray. I had no idea why. Adults with children must have been petrified. Good thing Kennedy kept his cool.
A detachment of Vulcan's were stationed at Offutt AFB near Omaha in the early 1960's. I'd see them in the air and once got to see them on base. Very impressive aircraft.
I remember the joint air exercises over Darwin in the late 60's early seventies. Vulcans, Canberras Mirages, and Phantoms, the defending fighters could not cope with the height the vulcans flew at Then One evening at sunset a strange whispering sound drew me outside in a rush, it was a Vulcan so low i felt i could almost touch it and so slow i was sure i could run down the street and almost keep pace - awsome!! A raaf tech who did some part time electronic work for me told me the story of a US b52 crew who came to Darwin from Guam for r n r . From the moment they landed they bragged about their aircraft and its amazing performance , whilst there a vulcan from Singapore on its way on a rescue mission to New Zealand landed to refuel, with a spare engine strapped in the open bomb bay doors, (for a stranded vulcan in NZ) The brits silently listened to the US boast, when they took of the next day at about 100 feet above runway, the vulcan opened up, climbed almost vertically whilst the sound thundered, and the ground shook. Ha HA the yanks shut up and two days later took off very gently and sedately.
Patrick Tuohy . Saved. That is a comment from a wannabe who knows very little about the military relationship between the US and Oz. The pacific campaign would have been hugely different without our commitment. The yanks finally got into the fight (both World Wars) late and still need help to this day. Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf, South China Sea.
I suspect that there are many other (former) small boys who remember these tales from the Waddington area. In the early 70's I lived in nearby RAF Digby and would listen to the Vulcans scrambling into the sky and roaring away for what seemed like ages. I'm an old-ish man now and the roar of an aircraft in the distance still sends me back to my boyhood and my thoughts of where those aeroplanes and men were going.
Elihu, tell us about the performance of the BAC Lightning compared to it's allied contemporaries. That'll probably wind the Americans up too, I imagine ;O)
@Patrick Tuohy hey friend like the young aussie software engineer who worked at weapons research in OZ helped reprogram the combat, software on the f18s we bought from US (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet_in_Australian_service) a resultthe US has v etoed any medlling with the f35 sotware asthe Oz versikon was better than yours Also our Jindalee OTHR www.baesystems.com/en-aus/feature/seeing-over-the-horizon Yanks told us they had tried it and it would not work! Tom Suttie the English Prof. was active in UK WW 11 aircraft detection of uboats on the surfacewas in Alice Springs at the Mt Everard receivers, a mile of antennas, you can get a bird eye view on Google earth about 12 miles along the Tanami highway off the Stuart Hwy nth of Alice Springs I believe it can detect the waves in the South China sea and show wich wayh the wind is blowing.
I wonder how the Vulcan would perform today with the more powerful engines available today, although the engine power it had when it was so ignominiously retired was still formidable. In my opinion the “V” bombers were the best designed and engineered bombers ever designed, but top of the list has to be the Vulcan, although I might be slightly biased as my father was groundcrew on the Vulcan and I grew up with them flying over my home almost daily, and when I joined the RAF I was hopeful of following in his footsteps, unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the Vulcan was retired shortly after I joined up. Still, I had 24 years serving and worked on some of the most fantastic aircraft the UK 🇬🇧 ever had in the arsenal. Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative film 🎥👍
jeffrey skoritowski, as with any aircraft careful use and monitoring of airframe hours and conditions could, theoretically keep an aircraft in service, the B-52 is a prime example of superb engineering, upgrades and modifications and a lot of TLC, unfortunately a lot of aircraft just become redundant when they are outperformed by newer more “snazzy “ types, a real shame that it happens, but inevitable.
Nice to see Norwich on the map! The market doesn't look like that anymore that's for sure. A very good documentary as well, I wasn't around in 1962, I was still a glint in the milkman's eye. But, I remember my parents telling me just how scared they were at the prospect of nuclear war being possibly around the corner.
I was inside both a Vulcan and a Victor bomber at RAF Scampton during my schooldays in 1961. What I remember is the small space available inside for crew, quite claustrophobic really and full of all kinds of equipment.
Vulcan bomber at Norwich Airport museum. Many years ago it was flown in, purchased from the raf for £5k. Great thing to look around, especially sitting in the pilots seat.
I was 18 at the time, old enough to know what was going on. What I didn't realise were the true consequences. I remember my parents being very worried and staying glued to the overseas radio. No TV. We were in Kenya. Thank God nothing happened.
The Victor was a deterrent just by its looks, the scariest looking bomber ever. The Vulcan on the other hand was all grace, and I had the joy of seeing it flying on a couple of displays.
The Victor still looks ultra modern and futuristic I think, poor Valiant though she gets forgotten a lot. Yeah, she had problems and was just a stop gap made in a rush and thus had a short life but it was only about 10 years from going from Lancasters to the Valiant, a high altitude and high speed jet bomber flying. So she deserves respect and admiration I think.
@@Tuberuser187 The valiant was a nice looking plane though more conventional it was still ultra modern plane at the time, it was used to test the first British H bomb, and it was used in the suzie's crises and proved its worth
Many years ago, when we had a local RAF airfield and they used to put on air shows in September, they used to feature Vulcans in a four aircraft scramble. Four Vulcans into the air in two minutes. The noise was incredible, everything was shaking, probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen.
The Wright Brothers were true geniuses of the kind that comes only one or two times a century, if humanity is lucky. They are always celebrated national hero's of whichever country they happened to be born in just as inventors like Westinghouse Bell, the Wright brothers. For some reason there was an explosion of these geniuses around this time. Don't forget the Wright's not only invented the aircraft but also Acer nautical engineering at the same time, with their invention of the wind tunnel and scientific approach to airplanes and flight. Actually I think that was their true genius and breakthrough, the wing and aircraft and aircraft stability and control then followed as a natural evolution. Seems like it to me anyway, that the wind tunnel was the tool and key that revealed all the secrets of flight hidden from view, and understanding, since that moment. Now that is some kind of productive play.
@@jamesm.taylor6928 - Have I written something that contradicts what you write ?. The first time I became interested in the two brothers was when I got my first loan card for the school library, in August 1970. So I think I have read most of what is known about the good boys.
In 1960 the USAF set up an exercise called SkyShield to 'prove they could defend the US mainland'. Sadly for them the RAF had other ideas. 2 Squadrons of Vulcan bombers were set to attack the USA - one from Bermuda and one from Scotland. Using their advanced Electronic Warfare capabilities the Bermuda aircraft flew in fast and low and the Sottish ones at 56,000 feet. Way above where US aircraft could fly. Suffice to say all bar one Vulcan 'attacked' the US Eastern Seaboard. And then to prove it was no fluke they did it again in 1961 when the Americans said 'It couldn't happen again'. In Kruschev's biography his son recalled it was not the US B-52s that worried him it was the RAF Vulcans sitting crewed, fuelled and tooled on the end of runways as he had no way of 'seeing' them at great height...
Gonna call BS as the success rate for the simulated Soviets in those exercises was at least 75%. The Vulcans with their advanced electronic jammers fared better at 88% although only eight participated. So it is doubtful that anyone involved on the defense side would boast "it couldn't happen again". And the Soviets could absolutely see and likely destroy Vulcans considering they shot down a U-2 in 1960 flying at over 70,000 feet - well above the service ceiling of the Vulcan. If Khrushchev was particularly worried about the Vulcan, it just shows how dumb he was considering the UK had less than 50 nuclear weapons in 1960 while the US had over 18,000 with thousands of bombers along with ICBMs which are far more difficult to intercept.
@@AhpgZfoc4s So let me get this right? You say the success was better than I suggested and therefore its bullshit? Not sure I follow the logic. As for the USAF saying it couldn't happen again well they did and to prove it ran the exercise again a year later when Vulcans delivered a similar result. Point made. And then you challenge Kruschev's own words as recorded by his own son in his biography? Not a lot I can say about that arrogance. The problem for Russia back then was the speed at which the Vulcans could get airborne and approach Russian territory. Or rather Warsaw Pact territory which started in East Germany! They could also fly high at speed or low at speed. Or both. And I suspect shooting down a slow lumbering powered glider with no defences is far easier than a tooled up fast bomber with advanced electronic defence arrays. And finally it doesn't matter if the USA had 2 Mn nukes in the USA it had no way of delivering them against Russia in any meaningful way to deter Kruschev in Cuba. He was on the USA's doorstep. Now I am sorry if this offends your patriotism but he historical fact remains the real meaningful threat, and therefore the deterrent, was squadrons of Vulcan bombers fuelled, tooled and crewed ready to go in under 2 minutes. The average time in practice runs was 1 minute 40 seconds.
@@1chish No, the overall idea that somehow the RAF was special in defeating the defenders at the SkyShield exercise is BS as is the idea that a defense system that failed to intercept most of the bombers, Vulcans and hundreds of regular ones alike, would have defenders suggesting it couldn't happen again. Do you have a source for the "couldn't happen again" claim? If Russia was scared of the speed at which Vulcans could get airborne and approach the USSR, imagine how much more worried (and confident considering they had their own) they were about ICBMs. ICBMs, already in service in the US and USSR in 1960 take about 30 minutes to reach across the globe. Before ICBMs, bombers and particularly the V bombers were very useful for delivering nuclear weapons but even the a fast bomber at 650mph takes far longer and is much easier to intercept than an ICBM travelling over 6,500mph. Don't forget the US had nukes stationed closer to Russia as well. The V-bombers were nevertheless a potent deterrent for the UK just so you don't misunderstand but their role in averting nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis is overstated in this documentary.
I loved the fact that when I joined the RAF one of these beautiful Vulcans did the ceremonial flypast. Previous to that the only time I had seen one was the one from the Avro factory at Woodford in Cheshire and it was less than 1500ft over my home town and it was as thrilling as it sounds and being a very young boy I knew then that I wanted to join the RAF. I did and one of the things I did was to work on a Victor at Duxford air museum in winter getting them ready for the new season. Some technicians from 57sqn RAF Marham used to come and start her up and I would do anything to be in the area to hear that. To see these black and white films just trigger memories of actually seeing them for real and in colour.
When I was a young lad I went with my parents to an airshow at RAF Finingley near Doncaster. As part of it's air demonstration it used to come over the airfield low and slow and as it got halfway done the runway it would get full power on and go into a vertical climb and the noise and power used to make the ground and my chest vibrate and at that time it blew all the windows out of the houses and after that the RAF weren't allowed to it again!!!!!
Saw a vulcan coming in low, hard and fast over St Athens military air strip when I was a kid in the early 80s.. Then up and away rolling left with full power.. Omg.. I will never forget that sound..
This is a very good video and I have the DVD in my collection, my late father flew both Valiant's and Vulcans in the RAF, one can only speculate what would of happened if the RAF had adopted the Valiant BMk2 mor robust pathfinder version. They were all great achievements of British aerospace engineering, and the I hope that engineering excellence comes to the fore again in the GCAP.
Only over the last decade has it been released or revealed by this doci and other print and TV studies that the RAF, V bombers were part of the SIOP an integrated RAF/USAF strategic targeting plan which would have included various USAF aircraft B47 and RAF Thor ICBM installed in the UK ( UK , PM MacMillan offered the removal of the 6O Thor ICBMs as a bargaining offer, JFK could trade with the Soviets). The RAF V bombers were somewhat less ready than planned, the Blue Steel so called standoff HP powered rocket missile was not operational on the Victors and Vulcans until the following year and we're still armed with British free fall Nuclear and Hydrogen bombs in 1962 and the Valiants possibly at the highest state of readiness for a probing RAF first warning strike ( the UK was much closer than the US to most sig Soviet targets) were probably ready to go and dispersed with USAF released standard 10 kiliton nuclear bombs quite possibly to attempt to take a wide range of oil and small city targets around the Baku and Caspian Sea in an attempt to eliminate much of the Soviet oil reserves as a UK warning shot. The British public were largely or entirely unaware of the UK involvement in the US/ NATO build up.Evacuation of the population was considered pointless in the nuclear age and with only 3 Lightning fighter squadrons for point defence the UK would have relied on USAF fighters at USAF based in the UK The only two implemented or planned moves during the Cuban missile crisis month were to move the paintings on the Tate to Wales and the London Zoo Tigers to Wales too.
In the long run it turned out to be a good thing that Britain developed their own nukes. Nice to have an ally that is powerful enough to tell us to stick it!
@@JonsTunes Britain would have been annihilated before they thought of attacking USSR and this was the fact not fiction or imagination that you saw in that so called documentary. Go and do your homework there are hundreds of literatures out there, USSR never backed down but the other way round. It was just a movie you saw probably made by help of liar BBC. And by the way your Volcan and Victor what ever actually stands for Vagina nothing more than that you American vessals
@@rafatlatif544 I'm going to go ahead and guess that you actually think that Iraq won the first Gulf War, that the Holocaust never happened, and that the Earth is flat, huh? The fact is that the UK had nuclear weapons AND the means to deliver them ... the USSR managed to get only ONE of those two things that was reliable, which was why they placed their unreliable, inaccurate crappy missiles so close the U.S soil .... Blue Steel, and later Polaris (both deployed by UK) were highly accurate, many orders of magnitude more reliable than Soviet missiles would be for more than a decade, and actually stood a chance of working, which is more than could be said for the R-12 (SS-4)
@@IanMadBrit I assume and guess that you are very proud of killing thousands of innocent Iraqi people for no reason. Lucky that at that time USSR broke and Russia was a vessal USA. Just remember you were nothing in comparison to USSR and you are no close to the might of todays Russia. Please do your homework
I was an Royal Air Force Cadet in the 1970s,and wanted to be a fighter pilot;but looking back we were all mad,there is no such thing as a deterrant ,as any mistaken launch,will start an allout war,and the whole planet would be destroyed,so no one wins?
A few times I experienced a very low airfield pass & full power climb out by a Vulcan. It is not just the sound thundering the eardrums but a physical assault from the pressure waves.
@@russcattell955i I was lucky enough to get to see one of her last Airshow appearances, the sound is just primal, like the sky is breaking. She set off every car Alarm for a good few hundred meters around the Air Field too!
l remember October 1962, as if it was yesterday. l woke up hearing my mother crying to my dad downstairs, l sneaked to the bottom of the stairs to listen to dad and mum, she said "l don't want to die what will to the children if we die" looking back how naïve my parents were. Not knowing how powerful a nuclear bomb is. l was 7 years old and soon approaching my 65th birthday. l grew up like my generation in the cold war the fear of being obliterated at anytime. During the Cold War we knew who our opponent's were, today l think in my humble opinion it is more frightening due to terrorism and countries wanting their own nuclear deterrent. l think it was Albert Einstein said WW3 will be fought with nuclear weapons WW4 will be fought with sticks and rocks.
Tony DD most of us knew about it but didn’t think about it too much because it was ‘out of our hands’ and our parents and grandparents had fought two world wars.
I also remember 'the Cuba crisis' like it was yesterday. My dad was in the RAF reserve after just retiring from over 40 years career bomber command (navigator, and later Group Captain), so he was called back up over that period, I remember my Mum being in tears, we honestly thought that the bomb was going to drop any minute.... a terrifying few days.
Better to grow up in the 50s with the fear of dying than in the 40s when thousands actually died. No civilian died in the UK as a result of enemy action in the 50s - compare that with the blitz in the 40s
Was watching that and thought, wow that looks a lot like Norwich, after reading your comment I went back and it is, good spot. Somebody also mentioned that you can see the Royal Arcade at the very start of the film.
13:30 ... it had handling, and maneuverability, characteristics, which were quite impressive...for the day. Hey, it still has thise same characteristics today...
to this day it would fly circles around any fighter in the world at 40k feet+, you either nail it bvr (not easy with the very powerful ecm) or you boom and zoom it which again wouldnt be easy. the vulcan wouldve been a real handfull for an interceptor
@@robertfindlay2325 Labour in the 1970s failed to deal with communist unions, shoved up taxes and crashed the economy. Thatcher cut tax rates, sorted out the unions, allowing the economy to recover. She doubled the money taken in tax. The NHS is paid from tax so gets away with its poor efficiency but always does better when the economy is doing well.
My dad was sitting in his Vulcan at RAF Marham, waiting to go t the height of the Cuban crisis. Years later I found out he had told my mother to use his shotgun on me and my Sister if she saw the aircraft take off, I was only 5, Sister was 7. She said she would have done just that had seen the Sqn scramble.
i lived about a 1/2 mile from detriot metro airport back then. one side of the airport had an air national guard base. during the crisis SAC sent about a squadron of b47s on dispersal alert to the base. i remember riding home on the school bus watching them land,one after another with the long drogue chutes behind them. i was a big a/c fan even then and knew all SAC and its mission. but being 8 years old, i really didnt get the serious of it until i heard my mom and dad talking about it. my dad said it was a dispersal alert to prevent the bombers from being caught on the ground,like at pearl harbor and clark field. i asked if the russians would drop a bombs on detroit. he said yes, probably more than one. after that,i was plenty scared.
“the top secret storage facility at foldingworth, north of Lincoln, take the third intersection to the right, then take the back entrance as there are usually less guards there”
One day during crisis I walked to high school wondering if there would be nuclear weapons dropped on Seattle less than 150 miles away and about any fallout. That was an interesting walk back home and to the radio.
When I was a kid I built models of those aircraft. Beautiful and deadly looking, good for high and low fast and slow. Imagine an updated 21st century Vulcan and Victor. Funny thing about the Vulcan is they were stealthy if they were coming right at you. I don't think they were designed to be stealthy but they achieved it to some extent, especially from the front. Plus, they are wicked, bad ass looking aircraft, second to none. They look like they mean business.
I'm from Newark upon Trent. saw loads of the Vulcan . and yes couldn't really see them when they were coming straight at you we called them the invisible visible mirage but when they turned sideways. oh lordy...
Now you're just being an insulting jerk. He linked to the part of the clip where the narrator clearly states " the Vulcan was the largest aircraft in the world to break the sound barrier".
flip inheck on 1/6/1956 production Victor XA917 on a pre-delivery test flight was recorded as doing Mach 1.1. The pilot Johnny Allam let the nose drop with the engine producing high thrust. The sonic boom was noted between Watford and Banbury. A post-war photo-reccon Spitfire manage 0.97 Mach in a diving, making it the fastest ever flight by a piston-engined aircraft.
flip inheck no it didn't it came out of the dive and returned to Kai Tak, Hong Kong. The Spitfire PR.19 was on a met flight when it when in to its dive, it didn't come out of the dive until below 5000' (the altimeter gave a much higher altitude for the recovery due to instrument lag). Flt Lt Edward Powles was flying PS852 on 5/2/52 in order to take air pressure readings over the sea near Hong Kong. At just over 51,000 ft he went into a dive and got to a speed of 0.96 Mach. No piston engined proppeller aircraft has ever been recorded as going faster.
It is interesting in the light of the present nuclear deterrent being primarily missile based that the first person to recognise that nuclear warheads would be delivered by missile did so in 1945. In his report to the UK government on the Nagasaki bomb Leonard Cheshire VC made that observation. The report was dismissed and gathered dust until the USSR launched Sputnik 1 when the west then realised that the USSR had the capacity to hit anywhere in the world using a missile.
Had to add this separately: @ 43:12 it was not a SINGLE raid on Stanley there were 7 'Black Buck' raids in total. Some were bombing raids and some were radar and suppression raids using Shrike missiles mounted under the wings. The raids on Stanley were the longest bombing runs ever and are still the longest by supporting accompanying aircraft. For each Black Buck raid it took 11 Victor tankers to support two Vulcans one of which would continue to Stanley. The Yanks said it couldn't be done. Once again we proved them wrong 21 years after we proved them wrong in Skyshield '60 and '61
It was the longest bombing run at the time. USAF B-2 Spirits now hold that record with their bombing missions over Afghanistan during 2001. They were operating from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri. www.uso.org/stories/253-inside-the-longest-bombing-run-ever
@@Tomteeejay Well yes but the Black Bucks are still the longest raid using accompanied tankers from the same base. The B-2s were refuelled 'en route' by forward based tankers. The air logistics and navigation accuracy required was world leading at the time.
I have seen both and I find both very impressive. I always found it sad that the RAF retied the Vulcan. The Vulcan is a very unique aircraft. The B-52 is unique because it is still flying. I appreciate both designs.
The fact remains the UK, CANADA and the USA is a triad force that really works well together. Sure we have our ups and downs but we always are there together. There are some other nations for sure but the 3 do have a special relationship. Amazing planes
Both the Victor and Vulcan were bad ass looking and quite capable aircraft. Being a "Yank" I may be a bit partial; for me the Convair B-58 is the #1 Bad Ass hottest looking bomber to ever take to the air. I don't know about the British Air Marshal chowderheads but our General chowderheads get their hands on a new aircraft and immediately want to pile on every piece of whizbang equipment. Not realizing you can't get something for nothing. Problem was the B-58 performance was so radical, early 50's design technology!!!!!!!!!, you just couldn't get away with it. Also suffered as the design included greatly improved electronics but using vacuum tubes leading to very low mission capable rates. This was why they were based in Ft. Worth TX where they were manufactured and Little Rock AR the next closest base. FYI country singer John Denver's (Deutschendorf) dad was a B-58 pilot.
The Vulcan was one of the most impressive, graceful & lovely aircraft that we will not be able to see fly anymore! Why is the world still at war? Religion? Money? Power? As an intelligent race (humans), can we not get over all this? Who started the Vientnam war? I will miss lots of others but what happened to building 7 on the 11th September? I'm sure if some research is done you will know where i'm going!
One thing rarely mention is that by the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis the UK had run out of liquid oxygen as used in the Thor IRBM missiles based in the UK.
Russian air force veteran said that they always suspected the Vulcan could do a lot more than the British were letting on. After the iron curtain, he found out it couldn't, but was still impressed by the psychological warfare effect of unusual designed planes. (A bit like the Americans worry over the huge but relatively useless Ekranoplan.)
I saw on another documentmentary a ex Russian officer in their airforce at that time said they didn't exactly know what the victor could do aswell as a ceiling height... as someone said in another comment, the RAF didn't let anyone know what the vulcan or the victor could do.....at a push in raf style ;-)
@@paulswain1799 I even have the Vulcan plastered on my RU-vid banner. I've done a couple of videos on the Vulcan and Thunderball. She was an awesome bomber!
Interesting factoid, in joint military excercises in the US a Vulcan bomber was able to penetrate US air defences and dropped simulated nuclear weapons on two cities. Given the awesome power of the US and size of the USAF and air national guard that's not too shabby all things considered.
A trip wire and all out response deterrent depends on knowledge that we WILL push the button. It is subject to misunderstand, mistrust, misleads, and miscalculations.
Very interesting and balanced documentary. I remember the Cuban missile crisis well. Fortunately we did not know much detail at the time. Khrushchev was a simple man who over played his hand. Ousted soon afterwards. A few years ago I saw a Vulcan on its farewell flight around the U.K. perform an amazing loop the loop starting from near ground level at R.A.F. Boulmer, Northumberland. Staggering sight.
It was a victory for the USSR. He got what he wanted. For the USA to remove there intermediate range Nuke Missiles on the USSR border in Turkey and those in Italy.
If by "simple man" he meant that Chruschev was a trained locksmith, and until very late in his career would always carry his tools with him, for the event that he was recalled from his duty as a party official, and had to work on his job again, yes he was a simple man, and I admire him for that. If you mean that it isn't simple to understand him and his political reasonings, then you are right, of course @@readhistory2023
If only history, military documentaries were this well made today. I’d pay a subscription fee just to have access to every history, tlc, discovery, nat geo doc ever made before the year 2000. Disney+ nat geo content is garbage,
