The Last Flight of the Victor 

Thanks for sharing that, and perhaps there are additional stories that you feel it might be worth recording while you can remember them. It's important that this history is not lost

@@herseem this is very kind Mike: before his death my father made a recording documenting his life in aviation for the Imperial War Museum: he speaks about the Victor at length and includes much else...they have just removed the Victor Gate Guardian from RAF Marham sadly. They do, however, have a museum there and the Victor features with words and pictures of Dad which is lovely. We intend to donate all of his Victor log books (he flew every single one built), flying suits etc to them so, as you say, they are not "lost". Thank you, Mike for your words.8

Nice bit of history

@@joebcfcable Thank you Joe, we remain immensely proud

Very very cool. You must be a very proud son

Facts

It’s looks 1960’s futuristic

Absolutely ! Like a Lamborghini ! I always thought it the design icon equivalent to the Vulcan and Concorde.

I think it has a face of a moth , beautiful plane

It certainly does. And intimidating and downright evil too.

neither looked like they came from the time tbh

​@@tatotaytoman5934they are 1960s design, so in 1960s, it might be futuristic as it looks

I was based at Wyton in 1971/72 and I remember that Squadron well before I moved to Laarbruch.

Only just seen this 🤦🏼‍♂️! AWESOME story with such a sad end .... I'd understand the bitter sweet, best wishes

You must be very young. I'm quite old myself.

Sorry for your loss, Lucy. I must have rubbed shoulders with your husband during my time on 543 at Wyton, 1966 to 1971. (Some names have dissappeared over time). My earlier post of 8 years ago is below, somewhere.

always reminds me of those Knights in Armour visors , the pointy ones ! I was lucky enough to go on a flight deck , how they ever saw anything out of those windows I don't know .

Guess I’m a mother then

@@coasternamegenerator5611 Yes! All of a sudden my maternal instincts are revealing themselves. Rather pleasant, really.

fugley

Malevolent to the point of actually being beautiful. As someone else here concisely put it 'True Brit!'

The B 58 was a spectacular aircraft and the B 52 still is. The Victor was visually a very unique plane, almost Star Wars in appearance

Absolutely!

The V-bombers would be right at home in one of the first 3 Fallout games

Love the Victor

if batman had a bomber

Well..at 3:22, the Bomber did indeed have a Batman! ;-)

waynester71 omg dat joke xD

waynester71 got me in tears, dude....:D

Yeah I remember when these were at RAF Marham, just across the fields from here.....

Peter Condon I'd love to fly this or the Vulcan but sadly I can't but they are very good planes

Both for me. Vulcan and Victor

I love the Vulcan for the noise, and the Victor for the style.

Great story. I was born in 1967.

+stu80577 i have to disagree, the best looking modern bomber was the vulcan by far

Totally agree. Has a real menacing look to it, befitting its former role. Sad day.

+BritishMilitaryPower I think the Vulcan, the B1 Lancer and the B2 Spirit all look more elegant, but the Victor is still a good looking plane and it's a shame none were preserved in flying condition.

+BritishMilitaryPower I saw all three 'V' bombers between 1960 and 1964 at Biggin Hill with my father. At the end of the display nobody, but nobody, went home until all three of the 'V' bombers had left. The point of the reply is: the Valiant went first, then the Victor, and finally the mighty Vulcan. The most impressive was the Vulcan. As far as an enemy was concerned it was the scariest machine flying. I'm just sad that my grandchildren won't see them - watching videos is not quite the same.

+possummay i thought it was valliant vulcan then victor because victors were air to air refueling platforms upto early ninties im not saying u are wrong its just its what i thought

December 2022 to be precise, merry christmas

+John Benton It's extremely sad how the British aircraft industry were treated in the end. Britain produced many iconic as well as innovative and all very good flying aircraft in the day. Of course the same can be said of the car and motorcycle industries there too. Seems almost like a government conspired to take these industries away, with all the jobs and market share..

+Oldbmwr100rs Vickers produced the Valiant, Avro the Vulcan and Handley-Page the Victor. Our aircraft industry was fully up to the Cold War threats. The industry had leaders, designers, engineers, maintenance staff - and programmes to train more of each. Now we are sucked into buying the F-35 pig-in-a-poke. And we probably couldn't produce a matching aircraft. All we have is betting shops, nail parlours, tattoo & piercing artists, 24-hour booze and world class obesity.

But faced with politicians, it folded, like virtually all our industry.

+Myrmecia Ha! Everything you say is the same here in the states! To think the same company that at one time designed the SR-71 without using computers and built it under budget and in time is now lost making the F-35 fiasco. Britain had a magnificent domestic aircraft industry, all destroyed by the Labor government, Canada had the same thing happen to them as well. As far as aircraft being too old, look at our B-52, still flying and projected to be doing so for another 20 or more years. Our A-10 is a product of the early 70's and the F-16 is slightly later, both are still flying, the A-10 finally doing what it was designed for.

Which bit do you assemble from imported bits to make another bigger bit? Where I live we had nothing but factories. Now we have everything but factories. Go figure!

Doesn't belong in that museum at all. Besides, this is/was a horrible aircraft. Poor range, poor offload capability, poor performance all around. Basically a flying bucket of bolts.

+Larry Cooper are you hi lool you must know nothing about planes if you mean that

Project Halo wars I suppose you're right. That is if you disregard my degree in Aerospace Engineering, my stints as an aerospace and electrical engineer, my conversations with Tex Johnston on the subject, my years piloting the NKC/EC/KC-135 and instructing and flight test in the EC-18/B-707. I suppose that is not enough to qualify me to make an informed comment on an air refueling platform.

+Don Weimer As far as i know there are three vulcans still on display in the states if it helps. XM573 - Strategic air and space museum, ashland, nebraska XM605 - Castle AFB museum, atwater, california. XM606 - 8th air force museum, barksdale AFB, louisiana.

+Larry Cooper First of all, impressive resume and thank you for your service. But wasn't the Victor designed as a bomber? It was converted to the tanker role. l wonder how well the B 52 would perform if converted to a tanker? Wasn't the kc135 built on the 707 airliner airframe which Boeing redesigned and built from the ground up as tankers? I don't believe Boeing converted airliners to tankers. This airframe also carries the AWACS mission. For what it's worth, the 707 platform has been wonderful in every role it played. That they are still in use speaks volumes about the design. As for the short range of the Victor, the Soviet Union is not that far from England and the RAF pilots probably knew their nuclear mission was going to be one way. I believe it's a damned good thing they didn't have to find out!

I don't think so! There are only five Victors surviving, none are airworthy and they're all in the UK.

The Victor was never exported. Only every operated by the UK (Royal Air Force).

the worlds ugliest aircraft ever !

kbarrett97 the British bombers?

Trevor Brown or Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. Crazy looking designs on there too.

+kbarrett97 The ones you designed were much better looking I presume?

+beaconrider Dont get so defensive. i happen to like the crazy designs.

She has not been broken up. If you listen he said that she would be transfered by road to the RAF museum as the runway there is not long enough.

J H Are you crazy? That thing is hideous haha

You can't have sex with a bomber.maybe a Handley Palm

Ужасно не красивый самолет...

@Big Cake I have the same opinion)))

@Big Cake JH is blind, i think

Tinsby couldn't have said it better myself

Thanks! I was fortunate to see one years ago at an airshow in Harrisburg, Pa. It was on static display as I remember, along with a fighter plane from a RAF squadron that had Roman Numerals on the tail, not English numbers. We were told that it was the only squadron that was using that numbering scheme. Sorry I don't recall which one it was, I'd love to know and I forget why they used them! They flew back to the UK in darkness so I never got to see the Victor fly. I have photos of it, yes. Lord knows where they are needless to say they are pre-digital!

It's better to be placed in the museum to let future generations watch and inspired rather than having to be scrapped, dumped and let it rust

GBLynden's RC P

Quite a few B-52s still in service. It's too bad the RAF didn't buy B-52s back in the 50s instead of building 3 types of V bombers. The B-52 could carry twice the payload as any of the V bombers, twice the range.

Victors were being scrapped back in the 70s at RAF St Athan when I was there. Too many V bombers were built and the role of air to air refueling was not ideal for a bomber.

"paperwork" ?? there is no role for the Victor, built in an age when bombers were thought to be the only detterent, ICBMs made them redundant. The air to air role was not ideal for the Victor. The RAF should have used converted 707s in that role, they had a greater range, could carry more fuel and they could carry ground crew.

+Nigel Fortune This Victor reminds me of the plane they used on Flash Gordon

+soaringtractor Indeed, the B-52 is a magnificent aircraft but only the newest ones are still flying and they are constantly upgraded, inspected and maintained at huge expense. I hear that the 8 engines are due to be replaced with 4 and the Buff is expected to fly to around 2040(?)! I have no doubt that both Victor and Vulcan could have remained in service if only the Brit Gov would have invested in them. They chose not to do that. Will large bombers eventually go the way of the Battleship? Only time and changing strategy will tell. I don't know why they grounded the Jaguar. Money I guess. Sad.

Согласен, и не понимаю восторгов большинства, по типу "какой красивый самолёт"😂. В юности изучал ТТХ V-bombers, и не был впечатлён ни одним из них. Кроме того, и другие самолёты ужасного дизайна - Buccaneer, Harrier, Phantom, Nimrod и некоторые другие. Самый наш некрасивый самолёт - 3М - смотрится лучше. Но были у GB и красивые самолёты - Lightning, Jaguar, Hunter - которые смотрятся гораздо лучше!