This is a flight sortie of a Victor Tanker,including flight refueling of some of the aircraft of that era,Great cockpit intercoms...Enjoy and Subscribe...(Credits goes to those who made this clip possible)Thanks for watching..
There was a squadron of Victor tankers deployed to King Khalid IAP during Desert Storm. I was flying KC-135s and got sent over there at about the halfway point in the war. I had never even heard of the Victor and upon seeing one for the first time on the ramp I asked my crew if anyone knew what the strange-looking airplane was. I think it was my navigator who clued me in that it was a British tanker. I remember thinking that the design looked like something straight out of the old 1930s Buck Rogers serials that I had seen as a kid running on TV in the 60's.
The Handley Page Victor started out as a cold war nuclear deterrent bomber in the mid 1950s, but changed to tanker duties when Polaris submarines took over the nuclear deterrent role in the mid 1960s. The Victors performance was extraordinary. It could cruise at 55,000 ft if required and could achieve supersonic flight in a shallow dive, though this was not encouraged. Aerodynamically it was very advanced for its time.
The Victor, Vulcan, Hunter, Lighting, Buccaneer (seen refuelling) and the Harrier, all looked like they had just flown out of a Thunderbirds episode with Scott, Virgil and Allen at the controls. All awesome, all very British!
I think you might be confusing the Victor aircraft, which was based in Muharraq, Bahrain, with the Vickers VC10 who were based at King Khalid during Dessert Storm.
I've been trying to identify the two Victor K2's in this film. Although they are hard to make out both bare Vivacious Victor nose art and are therefore Operation Granby participants. I can't make out the first one but the second is XL231 Lusty Lindy which is now at Elvington. I have read that 8 Victors were detached by 55 Squadron to Muharraq and that Corporal Andy Price found time to paint 6 of them with nose art, the names derived from those of the relevant aircraft's crew chiefs' wives/girlfriends. The full list is: XH161 XH671 Slinky Sue, later Sweet Sue XH672 Maid Marion (Cosford) XL164 Saucy Sal (Bournemouth) XL190 (Manston) XL231 Lusty Lindy (Elvington) XM715 Teasin' Tina (Bruntingthorpe) XM717 Lucky Lou (Hendon) I'd like to know what the other two would have been called if Cpl Price had been able to paint them too. Also why was XH671's name changed? And what about the ladies, are their any photographs of Sue, Marion, Sal, Lindy, Tina and Lou with their aircraft?
Great comms footage. I remember buchan being used for tactical until probably the late 90s, buchan closed and boulmer was used for a while. These dsys tactical with Hotspur. Listened to comms religiously since 1998 and heard many many great sorties, big exercises. Gamecock c/s remember well even can remember the air to air frequencies from way back. Lossie c/s were adopted by the tornadoes of 12 squadron, Jackal featuring here.
Maybe not on subject, delete if objected. One thing I always wonder is I have seen on film two type of air to air refueling pipes. The first is as shown here, probe on aircraft which plugs into the pipe from the tanker. Americans seem to basically swap male and female with a probe going from tanker and plugging into the aircraft being fueled. My question is do tankers carry both types? I would have thought essential say when in NATO both types would be in use.
I think that they had doth types,the Brits supply their syistem and the Americans supply theirs,so there will be both syestems flying.Thanks for following!
Brit system of probe and drogue, developed by Flight Refuelling Ltd, is used by RAF, US Navy and USMC and most other air forces that employ air-air refuelling. The boom method used by the USAF was developed by Strategic Air Command in the 50s to enable refuelling of nuclear bombers. Why? Because the probe/drogue system has a limited delivery rate of fuel (you can only push a certain volume of fuel down it at a certain pressure - receiver aircraft limitation), whereas the boom system can deliver a much greater volume at a greater rate hence it's primary use for big aeroplanes. Also USAF fighters fuel systems can take on fuel at a greater pressure therefore they can cycle through the boom much quicker than a probe-equipped fighter can on a hose.
